Swarms of bats fly through the Boracay sky at dusk – a picture that was once as timeless as the fine white sands of Boracay – propelled the island in the central Philippines onto the country's most popular tourist attraction.
A 1988 survey recorded 15,000 bats inhabiting Boracay. But when tourism boomed in Boracay, the population of bats shrank dramatically. In 2017, when tourism was in full swing, conservationists investigated again and only recorded 2,425 bats flying away from Boracay at sunset. In March 2020, another similar survey was conducted, but this time the number of records plummeted to 30.
Boracay Island, with its fine white sand beaches and blue sea, is a popular tourist attraction, but the island's bat ecology is deteriorating. Image credit: Jason N. Lunas via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
It's useless to seal the island, and there are "almost no bats" on Boracay Island.
Friends of the Flying Foxes (FFF), a nonprofit of conservationists and environmental advocates who has been investigating bat populations in Boracay since 2004, said Julia Lervik, its president, saying, "The numbers show extreme conditions, with almost no bats on Boracay. ”
In particular, the 2020 data was collected after Boracay Island temporarily stopped sightseeing and carried out environmental rehabilitation programs, which made the situation even more worrying.
Experts point to two key factors contributing to the decline of Boracay's bat population: locals capturing bats and selling them to foreign or local tourists for food, and bat habitats being damaged by rapidly growing resort and tourism infrastructure. Both are related to the increase in the number of tourists.
Runaway development has also polluted Boracay's beaches and water bodies. In 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte described Boracay as a "septic tank" and announced a moratorium on tourism from April to October of that year. During the closure, Duterte approved the establishment of the Boracay Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF), led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), to manage the island's recovery plan. Nearly two years later, however, the situation of The bat population on Boracay has only gotten worse.
In April 2018, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte announced the restoration of Boracay Island, showing the preferential breeding status before the closure. Image credit: Rom Dulo for the Philippine News Agency (via Wikipedia)
In addition to being known for its 11 kilometres of fine white sand beaches, Boracay is also a haven for fruit bats (or foxbats), such as the Maned Mauriform Fox (also known as the Philippine Fruit Bat, Also known as the Philippine Fruit Bat, Golden-crowned Flying fox, Acerodon jubatus), endemic to the IUCN Red Book List as "Critically Endangered" (CR), and native species such as the world's largest Malay fox (Giant Fruit Bat, Pteropus vampyrus) with Small Flying Fox (Pteropus hypomelanus).
Giant Fruit Bat, Pteropus vampyrus. Image credit: Wilhelma Kalong-Flughund via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Bat population declines: vector mosquito populations rise, as do the number of dengue diagnoses
With the recent outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan (COVID-19), bats have been stigmatized for being potential hosts of the virus. But Burrowing bats in Boracay are known for feeding on dengue vector mosquitoes and for helping to reduce outbreaks of infectious diseases.
They also help boracay plants spread seeds to neighboring islands, helping to maintain the ecological balance of the province.
"Bats play an important role in Boracay's thriving tourism industry because they contribute to the island's forest renewal mechanism," Levik said. "The presence of bats makes Boracay even more beautiful, especially when planes fly by and see bats flying in the air. Boracay's drinking water also comes from the continent's forests, which are updated with foxes assisting in tree regeneration. ”
As bat populations decrease, mosquito populations begin to rise, and so do the number of confirmed cases of dengue, in line with the overall trend in Boracay's Province of Aklan.
In 2019 alone, the number of dengue confirmed cases in Aklan was as high as 4680, more than three times that of 2018. "Many confirmed cases are located in Boracay, particularly in the municipality of Manoc-Manoc," said Cornelio Cuachon Jr. of the Aklan Provincial Health Department.
"We also found many mosquito breeding grounds in Boracay," ancient Asian legend. In 2019, villages in Yapak, Balabag and The city of Manok-Manok in Boracay were all considered high-risk areas for dengue infection.
Sightseeing, flights, logging and wind turbines: direct pressures affecting the survival of bats
Lewik of the Friends of the Fox Bat Society cites an important series of studies pointing out that Yapac Beach, located in northern Boracay, was once an important habitat for bats of all kinds, but it was also the place hardest hit by the tourism industry.
Some of the habitats are located in an upscale resort with 219 rooms, and because they are private property, researchers must obtain permission from developers in order to regularly monitor the status of bats.
Other commercial activities on Boracay also rarely implement sustainable behavior towards bats. For example, in Lewijk, some boatmen and guides arrange tours of the vicinity of bat habitats in the package, and some private companies even offer helicopter tours within the scope of bat activities. In addition, it is also common to hear that there are guides who catch bats and release them in order to please tourists.
Levik noted that daily direct flights also put pressure on bats. "There are now sunset and sunrise flights at Caticlan Airport near Boracay, and the plane arrives in Caticlan at exactly the same time as the bats fly back to Ban Nai Island to forage. Aircraft routes have a direct impact on them at sunset and when bats fly back to Boracay in the early morning. ”
The 2018 policy of compulsory island closures still has some concrete results. Since April 2018, the number of E. coli populations on Boracay's major beaches has been more than 100 times lower. At least 12 resorts and residential areas that violated environmental norms were also demolished during the closure. Other companies that violated the law have also been shut down, but DENR has not yet published a list of these companies.
Nonetheless, these measures are not enough to increase the population of foxbats. Friends of the Fox Bat also found that Mabuhay Maritime Express (MME), the philippines' largest airline, destroyed bats' nursery habitats in 2017. Without permission, MME bulldozed nearly 70 trees within a 500-meter radius.
The group seeks to develop roads between Boracay's beaches and resorts to facilitate their ferry service between Caticlan Airport and Boracay. The Friends of the Fox Bat Society says this has a significant impact on bat populations. "In general, bats will roost and raise children in these trees."
The company was fined by the environmental department for this. But a year later, Boracay ended its closure and MME's ferry service officially opened, offering visitors a more convenient way to get from Aklan to Boracay Beach.
Wind power on Panay also poses a threat to Fox bats on Boracay. The Friends of the Fox Bat Association said that the wind farm began to be traded in 2018, and the location is located right on the flight path of bats, causing many bat deaths. "Bat carcasses are often found on the ground in wind farms."
Scholars call for "designating an important habitat for bats" And the government is still undecided
Back on Boracay, even during the lockdown, the bats face constant pressure. Boracay has a local population of about 40,000, some of whom depend heavily on tourism income for their livelihoods, so the Friends of the Fox Bat Association said that during the closure of the island, some locals reportedly caught fox bats to eat in order to maintain a balance of payments.
The current situation of the bat population in Boracay has prompted the Environment Department to develop a management plan for various bats throughout the Philippines, and according to the Ministry of environment, this plan is in the preparatory stage.
Anson Tagtag of the DENR Biodiversity Authority noted that there are a total of 79 species of bats and 38 endemic species across the Philippines. Of these endemic species, 12 are listed as threatened species, of which 11 are fruit bats.
"The management plan we are planning can guide us in determining what to do," Tartag said in a statement. "We will be able to assess progress over the years and understand how bat conservation has helped human health."
The Friends of the Fox Bat investigation also prompted Environment Minister Roy Cimatu to order a Boracay Working Group to work on a policy to designate specific areas of the island as important habitats for foxbats.
A bat habitat located in the north of Boracay Island. Image credit: Friends of the Flying Foxes (FFF)
This strategy and bat research pioneers Harvey John Garcia and Ma. Renee P. Lorica) made the same suggestion. They conduct bat surveys on Boracay to understand the habitat distribution of these bats.
Considering the decline in forest cover on Boracay and the changes in bat populations threatened by tourism development, the two researchers recommend reviewing the distribution of existing bat habitats on the island and designating these areas as important habitats as soon as possible. They also point out that one of the best ways to protect the island's flying foxes is to designate the maned Maurice fox as the island's flagship species.
"This will not only raise awareness about the conservation of Critically Endangered Bats on Boracay, but also make locals proud of it, as this species will attract tourists to visit."
However, the more anticipated designation of important habitats has stopped at conception. Species-specific studies have been conducted as early as 2014, but the Friends of the Fox Bat Society says the government is still hesitant to implement the plan.
Once the designation of important habitats is announced, ecological management of Boracay will fall to the local government. However, during the closure, local officials, including Ceciro Cawaling of Aklan Province, and John Yap, the former mayor of Marais, were criminally sentenced and administratively punished for the deterioration of Boracay's environment due to major political failures. Kovaling was later removed from office.
"In 2018, DENR announced that it would announce the results of the designation of important habitats," friends of the fox bat said in a statement. "But when the government is very cautious about implementing other measures, such as road widening and beach easement expansion, why is it delaying the designation of important habitats for endangered species worldwide?"
At a time when boracay's important habitat range announcements were making little progress, Wuhan pneumonia put more pressure on the government, forcing meetings to be cancelled.
Livino Duran, deputy chief executive of the technical division at the district level DENR, said the proposal was still being evaluated. "As far as I know, the committee has agreed to the guidelines in the proposal as a step forward in the designation of important habitats," Duran told Mongabay.
However, Bernardino of Boracay Inter-Agency Management Rehabilitation Group (BIARMG) said the working group had not yet worked out a timetable for discussion of the proposal. The Group indicated that the most important thing now was to determine whether it would be possible to extend the working group's operation time for another year and a half.
The mandate of the Working Group was originally scheduled to end in May this year.
As time ticks, the Friends of the Fox Bat will ask the Philippine government and working group to confront Boracay's endangered wildlife. "Protecting habitats is critical to the maintenance of bat populations, but why are we so slow to conserve?"