With the devastation brought by Taal Volcano’s eruptions to the people and to the environment so far, authorities in the Philippines are on heightened alert.
The provinces of Batangas and Cavite, and Tagaytay City, a component city of Cavite, have declared a state of calamity.
According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, a total of 81,067 families, or 316,989 persons, were affected in the provinces of Batangas, Quezon, Laguna and Cavite.
Of these, 39,811 families, or 147,873 persons, are sheltered in around 500 evacuation centers, while 30,325 families, or 119,106 persons, are receiving relief support outside rehabilitation centers.
The volcanic eruption’s estimated damage to agriculture in Batangas, Laguna and Cavite so far totaled P3.215 billion.
Damaged ecosystems, threatened wildlife
Beyond these, however, experts are looking at the more intrinsic values that may be lost or are not properly accounted for during disasters: the damage to ecosystems and the wildlife in the area.
According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the damage to ecosystems and wildlife, collectively called biodiversity, could not be overemphasized.
Taal Volcano, the Taal Lake and the surrounding environment is a protected area known as Taal Volcano Protected Landscape (TVPL).
The DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said wild faunal species found in the area consist of white and brown heron, crow and other common bird species. Also, the TVPL is known to host a good number of monitor lizards, different species of snakes and frogs.
More important, the lake is home to different kind of fish species, including the famous tawilis and maliputo, the only freshwater species of their kind that can only be found on Taal Lake, on top of the common bangus, tilapia, hito, dalag, biya and ayungin.
Taal Lake is also home to a venomous sea snake (Hydrophis semperi). This species is one of the only few snakes of its type that breeds in freshwater and is the only known freshwater sea snake in the Philippines.
The faunal species that can be found within the TVPL are the bato-bato, pugong parang, maya, uwak, Brahminy kite, kiliaoan, kasay-kasay, tree sparrow, kingfisher and fruit bats.
DENR Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon, also the concurrent BMB director, said around 8,000 hectares of forest, including the forest on the volcano island that is estimated to have a total land area of 2,400 hectares, were covered in ash and are potentially damaged.
Volcanic ash contains toxic mineral deposits that are harmful to plants and animals as they are to humans. He said the DENR-BMB would conduct an assessment on the damage as soon as the situation in the area normalizes.
Beyond volcanic eruption
Experts agree that volcanic eruption may trigger forest fires. Department of Science and Technology (DOST) Undersecretary and Phivolcs Director Renato Solidum said it is possible for volcanic activities like lava fountaining and lava flows to start forest fires.
“In fact, one netizen who was documenting activities near the crater showed a burning tree,” he said.
Calderon agreed, and added that the withering of trees and other vegetation is a cause for alarm.
“Even when the forest or vegetation is green, like in Benguet, forest fires happen,” he said.
Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said in an interview that forests near an erupting volcano, because of the intense heat, could easily catch fire.
“If there is an adjacent forest, especially when the vegetation has dried up, fire can quickly spread out,” she added.
Fire prone
The Philippines is prone to forest fires, especially during the summer or dry season, when trees and other forest vegetation begin to wither and dry up.
With a total land area of 30 million hectares, around half of which are classified as forestlands. The Philippines is struggling to conserve and expand, through massive reforestation, its existing forest, that is estimated to be not more than 7 million hectares.
Despite its dwindling forest cover, the Philippines boasts of dense forests, which are hit by forest fires from time to time.
According to the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), a total of 226 forest fires happened in 2019. More than half of these, or 137, happened in the Cordillera Autonomous Region.
Forest fire incidents are also high in Region 6 with a total of 43 fire incidents recorded from January 1 to December 31, 2019.
According to newly designated DENR Forest Management Bureau (FMB) director, Ludy Wagan, forest fires is deadly and destructive.
She said forest fires occur because people are not conscious of its deadly and destructive potential. Most forest fires, she said, are caused by lit cigarette butt irresponsibly thrown by smokers while they are trekking or nature-tripping. Others are caused by campfires that were not put out before the campers leave.
But the more common cause of forest fires, she said, is the slash-and-burn farming practice in upland areas.
“When portions of the forest are burned for kaingin, sometimes, they become uncontrollable, causing fire to spread,” she said in Filipino.
She said the DENR-BMB is currently crafting information, education and communication materials with focus on forest fires.
“Forest fires can be very destructive. It can destroy an entire forest and kill wildlife,” she said, citing the Australian wildfires crisis.
So far, it was estimated that over 1.25 billion animals have died in the several months of ongoing Australian wildfires, and that almost half of the population in Australia were directly affected with health problems.
It can happen here
The ACB said catastrophic forest fires like that in Australia could happen in the Philippines or any country in Southeast Asia because of numerous factors, including the effects of climate change
Lim said this can happen if forests are degraded, or worse, dried up, making it prone to fire, underscoring that a healthy forest can somehow protect itself from deadly fires.
“Most forest types here have enough moisture to stave off uncontrolled wildfires. Even peatland forests, though rich in natural gas, will not burst into flames. it will not be disturbed and allowed to dry up,” she said.
According to Lim, there may be certain forest types that need to burn periodically, like pine forests, such as those in Baguio City and other highly elevated areas in order to help in their natural regeneration.
“So ideally and under normal circumstances, the Philippines, and the rest of Asean should not experience what has happened to Australia. However, as we all are observing nowadays, we are no longer under the ‘old normal’ circumstances. Our summers are getting warmer and we are experiencing earlier and prolonged warmer weather,” she said.
According to Lim, a biodiversity expert, the country’s natural forests, if undisturbed, should be more resilient to such extreme conditions.
Unfortunately, she said most of our forests are being fragmented and converted into plantations.
“Our peatlands are being cultivated and converted unsustainably, and we have seen that this can actually lead to wildfires in the region, that are difficult to manage and control,” she said.
However, Lim said there is still a chance for recovery.
“The Asean still has around 40 percent of forest cover as of 2015, and if we are to protect and sustainably manage what remains of the natural forest out of this 40 percent, and restore and expand it, through measures based on indigenous knowledge and the best available science that integrates biodiversity in the methodology, then we could prevent the more uncontrollable wildfires in the future,” she said.
More important, she said indigenous people’s (IPs) knowledge is a boost in early detection of forest fires, and prevention, such as “controlled burning” matters.
“Their [IPs] knowledge on native vegetation in the area is also important for ecosystem restoration programs,” she said.
Learning lessons
With its limited resource and manpower, the BFP, whose mandate on fire prevention and protection include the vast forest, have learned its lessons from the Australian wildfire, and is now becoming more aware of the destructive potential of forest fires.
The data on total land area affected by forest fires in the Philippines was not immediately known and neither was its estimated damage to agriculture, or to forest ecosystems.
Senior Supt. Gerrandie S. Agonos, BFP spokesman, explained to the BusinessMirror that the BFP’s focus used to be only in preventing and fighting structural fire in highly urbanized areas.
Before, he said, BFP statisticians were not required to include in their annual reports the area damaged by forest fires.
“Now, we are required to include it in our annual report,” he said in Filipino.
He said the BFP is seeking a budget for the BFP’s modernization to build its firefighting capability, adding that unlike other countries, the Philippines has very limited resources like helicopter or airplane equipped with the fire-fighting capability to fight forest fires.
“So whenever our firefighters go out to put off a forest fire, they are armed with a pick, a shovel, mano a mano [hand-to-hand]. They cut down trees, clean areas to isolate the fire, and that’s it,” he said.
But he said the BFP is not in any way reluctant in what he says is very important—educating the communities about fire prevention.
“The best way to fight fire is not to start one,” he said.
According to Agonos, in coordination with the local government units and the DENR, information campaigns are being conducted, targeting upland communities on how to prevent and help fight forest fires.