Beacon. A first report from Kalinga Province in. By Lawrence R. Heaney, Arvin Diesmos, Blas Tabaranza, Aldrin Mallari, Rafe Brown, and Genevieve Gee

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1 Beacon A first report from Kalinga Province in kalinga wildlife By Lawrence R. Heaney, Arvin Diesmos, Blas Tabaranza, Aldrin Mallari, Rafe Brown, and Genevieve Gee Photos by Lawrence R. Heaney, Rafe Brown, and Arvin Diesmos he road from Tueguegarao to the west is not for the faint-hearted. Roughly ten hours on a heavily-rutted, deeply pot-holed, slippery mountain road in a jeepney with almost no springs leaves most people feeling aching and bruised, and if you do not know what to expect on the other end, the day can seem almost endless, and almost without hope. In March 2000, a team led by biologists from THaribon Foundation, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, De La Salle University-Dasmariñas in Cavite, and the University of Texas at Austin, in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, made their way to this remote region of the Philippines to conduct the first-ever survey of its biological diversity. Like most field biologists in the country, we had expected to find denuded mountains populated by impoverished immigrants from more densely populated lowland areas, with the familiar history of commercial logging operations building roads, removing most trees, and opening up access to a flood of kainingeros. As we drove across the Cagayan River valley and into the first foothills, we saw the all-too-familiar muddy rivers, eroded hillsides covered by mud or dust, vast areas of abandoned land covered by cogon grass, and tiny scattered houses; our worst fears seemed to be confirmed. The decade-old satellite photos that we had eagerly examined in Manila, which showed large tracts of old-growth forest and which attracted us here for a few precious weeks of field time, seemed to be a cruel joke. But as we turned a side road and plunged into the heart of the northern Central Cordillera Mountains, through mist-shrouded valleys that grew narrower as the mountains grew steeper, we began to see patches of forest on the high, distant ridges, patches that expanded and slowly came closer to us as we bumped along the miserable road. Cogon lands quickly Left: This insect-eating bat (Otomops sp.) collected in Kalinga Province was previously known only from Java. Opposite page (top): A Philippine burrowing snake was captured under rocks at the edge of the forest near Balbalasang. Bottom (l to r): Our jeepney, on one of the finer sections of the road to Balbalasang; Angle-headed lizard (Bronchocela sp.). 14

2 of Hope the Northern Central Cordillera 15

3 Top: Chrotomys whiteheadi, a poorly-known rodent that feeds on earthworms and grubs, known only from the high mountains of the Central Cordillera. Bottom (l to r): Planting rice in a terraced field near Balbalasang. Note that the lowest slopes are shrubby, with the pines starting slightly higher. All of the lower slopes are burned to control rats. The troublesome pests are all accidental imports from mainland Asia, and do not include any of the native species we studied; An apparently previously unknown species of Archboldomys, a small shrew-like rodent that eats only insects and other invertebrates. disappeared, the water in the small river became clear, and houses were congregated into orderly, clean settlements. As the day wore on, our bodies became more bruised, but at the end of the day, our spirits soared. The barangay of Balbalasang, our stopping point and base of operations, lies at about 750 meters elevation in a steep valley beside the Saltan River. Stone terraces that appear to be centuries old define bright green paddies of rice, arcing along the river and extended up along the many side-streams. On the lower hills above the town, huge pine trees tower into the sky, providing a clean image of strength and beauty. The Kalinga people who live here are the descendants of one of the many communities that successfully resisted Spanish domination for 300 years. As part of the Cordillera Autonomous Region, they have retained much of that independence, and so did not hesitate to question us carefully about our motives and methods for conducting biological inventories. After lengthy discussion, they welcomed us into the community, gave us permission to work in their traditional community hunting grounds in the mountains, and helped us to find guides, porters, and the best sites for our work higher in the mountains. Getting to our camp at 1600 meters elevation (about 5000 feet) took a day and a half of rigorous hiking through stately pine forest and beautiful montane rain forest. From the high ridges, we could see mature rain forest extending to the most distant hills the satellite photos had not deceived us after all. It quickly became apparent that we were working in the best-managed forest, with the best-managed wildlife, of any place we had worked in the country; giant hornbills frequently squawked overhead by day, and deer often barked at us by night. Our mammal inventories, which we focused in a single habitat at just one elevation, quickly documented 17 species of mammals, one of 16

4 Top: One of the new species of frogs we discovered is a ground-living frog (genus Platymantis) that we heard calling all day long at our camp in the forest. Bottom (l to r): A common but striking bird, the blueheaded fantail (Rhipidura cyaniceps). The trail to our camp was flat in some places, but steep and muddy in others. which we suspect is a new species of insect-eating mouse (genus Archboldomys) never before seen by biologists. Information about the ecology of the others added vastly to our knowledge of many poorly-known mammals; most of these occur only in the Central Cordillera, but one was a bat (genus Otomops) previously known from Java, 3000 kilometers away! The ornithologists on the crew tallied 98 species, a remarkable number for such a short time and small sampling area, and the herpetologists on the crew took at least 15 species, including some very poorly known lizards and snakes, and possibly as many as four species of frogs previously unknown to biologists. This astounding level of discovery of new species testi- 17

5 This page (clockwise from top): The Kalinga narrow-mouthed frog Kaloula kalingensis is a poorly-known species, first discovered in Kalinga. We found it living only in tree-holes in the forest; Just above where the road turns into the mountains, the valley of the Saltan River becomes narrow and steep, and rock-faced terraces become apparent; The Luzon jungle-flycatcher Rhinomyias insignis has recently been described as rare, but was one of the most abundant birds near our camp; Part of the field crew enjoying lunch in our rain-forest camp at 1600 m elevation; Platymantis rivularis had not been seen by biologists since it was described in 1922; we found it guarding its eggs in tree-holes near our camp at 1600 meters elevation. fies to the previous lack of knowledge of the area, its high biological diversity, and its potentially high level of biological uniqueness. We have no doubt that this tract of forest is one of the most important biological regions of the country. Perhaps the most surprising finding of all is that the future of the old-growth forests of the northern Central Cordillera in Kalinga and Apayao Provinces seems bright. The especially rugged terrain discourages the logging and mining that have disfigured so much of the mountainous Philippines, and the high rainfall (probably reaching 10 meters per year near the high peaks that reach to about 2400 meters elevation) quickly discourages road-building (as our aching bones attested). More importantly, the residents of the region deserve great credit for their active management of the forests. In addition to resisting outside immigration by kaingineros, they have recognized from long experience that protecting the forest watersheds is essential to their way of life, which centers around the irrigated rice terraces that produce most of their food. The community has not only resisted commercial logging but has enacted laws that severely penalize clearing of community forest land on steep slopes or destructive cutting of trees, and these laws are rigorously enforced at the local level. Moreover, the residents of the Municipality of Balbalan have supported efforts for 18,600 hectares of forested traditional hunting lands to be managed as a national park, so that it can receive the protection of national law as well. We plan to return to Balbalasang again for more field studies during the next few years, in the hope of documenting as much as possible of the exceptionally diverse yet poorly-known fauna. We also will work with the residents, DENR, and other government agencies to develop a management plan for the national park, and to create materials about the fauna that can be distributed to the public, including the eco-tourists now beginning to find their way to the area. And although we plan also to help educate the residents about the fauna of their region, we fully recognize that they, for centuries, have conducted the most successful management of natural resources that we have yet encountered, and have much to teach the rest of us. Lawrence R. Heaney (Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago), Arvin Diesmos (De La Salle University-Dasmariñas), Rafe Brown (University of Texas at Austin) and Haribon Foundation s Blas Tabaranza, Aldrin Mallari, and Genevieve Gee led the team who made the first ever survey of Balbalasang-Balbalan Natural Park. 18