Samar Island natural park bids for UNESCO inclusion

The Samar Island Natural Park is bidding for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage sites list.

TACLOBAN CITY―Almost a year since the provincial governments of the three Samar island provinces started the bid to declare a large portion of the island for inclusion in the list of UNESCO World Heritage list, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) finally gave its support.

The Protected Areas Management Board (PAMB), which is governing the Samar Island Natural Park, recently approved a resolution endorsing the SINP protected area for inclusion in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

SINP, the country’s largest terrestrial protected area with an area of 333,300 hectares, also has the largest contiguous tract of old-growth forest in the Philippines. Its buffer spreads north to south over the island’s three provinces—Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Samar province—and totals 458,700 hectares or about a third of the entire island of Samar.

The park includes some of the island’s well-known protected natural landmarks and landscapes like the Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park, Calbiga Caves Protected Landscape, Taft Forest Wildlife Sanctuary, Jicontol Watershed Forest Reserve and Bulosao Watershed Forest Reserve.

Tourists enjoy water activities within the Samar Island Natural Park.

It was established by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 442 on 13 August 2003.

DENR data show SINP has a large biodiversity hosting 38 species of mammals, 51 species of reptiles, over 1,000 species of plants and 215 species of birds, including the critically endangered Philippine Eagle.

Maita Sucgang, regional public affairs chief of DENR in Eastern Visayas, said the PAMB resolution was sought “to give weight to the nomination, considering the authority of the body to decide on matters relative to the proposal, action plans and guidelines for management of protected area.

PAMB Eastern Visayas is chaired by DENR regional executive director Crizaldy Barcelo.

Sucgang said the PAMB resolution “underscored SINP’s rich and diverse ecosystems as well as its unfragmented traits of lowland rainforest and contiguous karst formation as unique characteristics which make it eligible for the nomination.”

Initiatives to nominate SINP to the UNESCO list started from a proposal of former Samar Governor Sharee Ann Tan in 2018 and supported by Northern and Eastern Samar governors.

It tapped the services of the University of Santo Tomas Graduate School’s Center for the Conservation of Cultural Property and Environment in the Tropics (UST-GS-CCCPET) to provide technical assistance through a workshop series and in accomplishing the Tentative List Application Form.

The PAMB resolution likewise stated that the inclusion of SINP to the UNESCO World Heritage List will give prestige and honor to the Samar Island provinces as well as strengthen the commitment of the country in improving the conservation and maintenance efforts within the site.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.