MANILA: Efforts to save a critically endangered species of crocodile have been given a major boost from a prestigious environmental prize, the winner said yesterday.
The Philippine crocodile has been savaged by hunting and habitat loss and is now considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources to be just one step away from extinction in the wild.
Marites Balbas, the deputy director of the Philippines’ Mabuwaya Foundation, one of the leading organisations dedicated to saving the reptile from extinction, has won a £35,000 award from the Whitley Fund for Nature for conservation work.
“The Whitley Fund for Nature will help us increase the population of crocodiles in the wild, through nest protection, head-starting, releasing of crocodiles and habitat restoration,” Balbas said from London, where she received the prize on Thursday.
“Head-starting” involves the captive rearing of hatchlings from eggs collected in the wild.
Crocodylus mindorensis is considered the world’s most endangered crocodile.
Found only in the Philippines, it is smaller and less aggressive than its relative, the saltwater crocodile, which is not endangered.
Many people in the Philippines do not distinguish between the two and hunt both of them. The Philippine crocodile, which is largely confined to freshwater, has also suffered from loss of its habitat.
AFP
