Red alert on the red list

MANILA, Philippines - The Ronquilo’s anchovy or dilis may soon be extinct.

Twenty-nine bony fish species unique to Philippine waters have been documented, along with threats to their survival, in “Red List Status of Marine Endemic Teleosts (Bony Fishes) of the Philippines,” a publication of the First Philippine Conservation Inc. (FPCI) and the Global Marine Species Assessment for the Coral Triangle.

The Philippines is the world’s center of biodiversity, home to an astonishingly high variety of marine life. The country is the second largest archipelago with 7,107 islands and islets and territorial waters covering about 1,968,700 square kilometers.

The endemic species are of national significance, being found only within Philippine territory and as such within the management of the government. It is imperative to identify and document particular species at risk of extinction and in most need of conservation attention.

The new and vital reference book used the Red List Assessment Criteria and Categories of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the standard and most-used measuring tool for determining whether specific species of animals and plants are endangered or not.

The Red List authors are prominent biologists Dr. Kent Carpenter, Moonyeen Nida Alava, Mike Joshua Palomar, Dr. Beth Polidoro and environmental lawyer Rodolfo Ferdinand Quicho, Jr. Carpenter coordinates the Global Marine Species Assessment (GMSA) on the international level, which seeks to conduct Red List Assessment of 20,000 marine species globally by 2010. In the Philippines, GMSA provides technical supervision in research and analysis, as well as training.

Quicho said, “The world has changed and is changing so much due to climate change. Our biodiversity is among our most important assets to ensure our resilience amidst these changes. We must start with our endemic species because they are the most significant indicators of our environmental health, thus, our capacity to adapt to climate change.”

He added that the Red List evaluates the level of threat to survival – or of extinction – of the 29 species examined. The findings indicate, among others, that most of those species found in shallow waters are already vulnerable to extinction. It is also important to note that many of the species assessed in the book were last recorded between 50 and 100 years ago, and that very little data on them are available. For practical purposes, we should consider these species as threatened because we do not know their chances of survival, much less whether they still exist.

The Red List was launched recently by First Philippine Conservation Inc. and Global Marine Species Assessment for the Coral Triangle, together with GTZ, Adaptation to Climate Change & Conservation of the Biodiversity in the Philippines, International Union for Conservation of Nature, Conservation International, First Gen, and other supporters.

To get a free copy, call Monica Tan of FPCI at tel. 638-7670.