MOUNTAIN RANGE IN PHILIPPINES DAVAO NOMINATED TO UN’S HERITAGE LIST

MANILA, Philippines -  The United Nations is set to deliberate the addition of a mountain range in the southern Philippines to its world natural heritage sites list.

The nomination of Mt Hamiguitan Range Wildlife Sanctuary was referred for discussion at next year’s World Heritage Committee meeting, Manila’s foreign affairs department said in a statement.

The range is home to thousands of endangered species of flora, as well as the Philippine eagle and centuries old bonsai plants.

The foreign affairs department said the World Heritage Committee of the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) also asked the Philippine government to formally submit information on the mountain. 

The International Council on Monuments and Sites and the World Conservation Union will evaluate the nomination of Mount Hamiguitan, the statement said, adding this occurred during a session in Phnom Penh, which started on June 16 and will end on June 27.

In 2004, a Philippine law declared Mount Hamuguitan range a Wildlife Sanctuary. It straddles the municipalities of Mati, San Isidro and Governor Generoso in Davao Oriental.

It hosts endangered plant species, including the Shorea polysperma and Shorea astylosa trees, and the Paphiopedilum adductum, an orchid variety.

It is home to 341 species of wildlife that are found only in the Philippines, including the Philippine eagle and cockatoo.

The animals are on the red list of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an authority on the conservation status of plant and animal species worldwide.

Because the mountain was already nominated to the heritage list in 2009, it is on Unesco’s tentative list of UN World Heritage Sites.

Other UN World Heritage listed sites in the Philippines include the Tubbataha Reef, the Cordillera Rice Terraces, the Puerto Princesa Underground River, the town of Vigan, and local baroque churches.

The UN World Heritage Sites has a total of 967 cultural and natural (or mixed) areas all over the world.

Source: Agencies