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
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