Negros Oriental twin lakes park joins elite ASEAN heritage listing

The Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Pure Park joins Apo Reef Pure Park and Mount Inayawan Vary Pure Park because the nation’s latest ASEAN Heritage Parks, bringing the whole variety of websites within the Philippines to 14

NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – The Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Pure Park (BTLNP) in Negros Oriental has been formally included within the listing of Affiliation of South East Nations (ASEAN) Heritage Parks, with environmentalists calling it a uncommon enhance amid current typhoons, floods and a molasses spill that hit Negros Island.

Officers introduced the designation throughout the ninth Wildlife Competition in Dumaguete Metropolis on November 28-29. Though the ASEAN Heart for Biodiversity’s resolution to confer the title was made as early as September 2024, the formal turnover of the certificates and marker happened on November 21, coinciding with the park’s twenty fifth anniversary as a protected space.

BTLNP spans 8,016 hectares throughout the cities of Sibulan, Valencia and San Jose. It joins Apo Reef Pure Park in Sablayan, Oriental Mindoro, and the Mount Inayawan Vary Pure Park in Northern Mindanao because the nation’s latest ASEAN Heritage Parks.

The nation now has 14 websites below the ASEAN conservation program.

The opposite ASEAN Heritage Parks within the nation are as follows:

• Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary in Agusan del Sur
• Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary in Sulu
• Mounts Timpoong and Hibok-Hibok Pure Monument in Camiguin
• Mount Hamiguitan Vary Wildlife Sanctuary in Davao Oriental
• Mount Malindang Vary Pure Park in Misamis Occidental and Zamboanga del Norte and Sur
• Mounts Iglit-Baco Pure Park between Occidental and Oriental Mindoro
• Mount Kitanglad Vary Pure Park in Bukidnon
• Mount Apo Pure Park in Soccsksargen and the Davao Area
• Tubbataha Reef Pure Park in Palawan
• Pasonanca Pure Park within the Zamboanga Peninsula
• Mount Makiling Forest Reserve in Laguna

Beautiful pure magnificence

An environmentalist identified the ecological significance of the Balinsasayao park, saying its wealthy species variety and robust neighborhood involvement helped safe its current ASEAN Heritage Park standing.

Philip Godfrey Jakosalem, operations supervisor of the Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Basis described the realm as “a shocking pure great thing about the forest with distinctive options inside – the dual lakes – that are solely separated by a mountain ridge.” (READ: 8 PH lakes so as to add to your journey bucket listing)

BTLNP was declared a protected space below Presidential Proclamation No. 414 on November 21, 2000, and is one in all three pure parks on Negros Island, along with the North Negros Pure Park and Mount Kanlaon Pure Park. It’s the solely web site amongst them that has achieved ASEAN Heritage Park recognition. (READ: Do you know that the Philippines has over 100 nationwide parks?)

Greater than 100 volunteers assist preserve the 8,016-hectare park, which hosts quite a few endemic species, together with a number of listed by the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as endangered. These embody the Visayan tarictic hornbill, Philippine tube-nosed fruit bat, flame-templed babbler and white-throated jungle flycatcher.

Species below the IUCN’s “least concern” class discovered within the space embody the yellow-breasted fruit dove, Philippine frogmouth and white-bellied woodpecker, though the frogmouth is taken into account globally threatened. Different wildlife recorded within the park embody the flaming sunbird, the clear “tusok” moth, the osprey, and Amyema lisae, a yellow-flowered mistletoe species named after PhilBio director Lisa Paguntalan.

Jakosalem mentioned the dual lakes of Balinsasayao and Danao, identified for his or her calm waters and “enchanted aura,” stay key points of interest for guests, who frequent the realm for boating and paddling.

With the ASEAN Heritage Park designation, he mentioned the problem for managers is balancing tourism and conservation. “With an AHP now in our midst, we have to take excellent care of this BTLNP so the brand new generations can inherit this,” he mentioned.

Crown jewel

Charlie Fabre, director of the Division of Surroundings and Pure Sources-Negros Island Area (DENR NIR), mentioned the protected space has turn into the “crown jewel” of Negros Island following its designation as an ASEAN Heritage Park.

Fabre mentioned the popularity displays the long-running conservation work of communities surrounding the park. 

“The sustainable efforts of the individuals throughout the neighborhood in preserving wildlife and defending BTLNP as a complete actually paid off,” Fabre instructed Rappler on Monday, December 1. “That is the primary pure park on Negros Island to be declared AHP. That is our crown in our quest for environmental safety and biodiversity conservation.” – Rappler.com