THE country’s top biodiversity official on Monday urged local governments and owners of private beach resorts to help save the endangered marine turtles, or pawikan, from extinction.
Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said local governments, as well as private resort owners, should help protect marine turtles, as well as their nesting sites and hatchlings, against destructive human activities.
She said local governments and private resort owners can help protect the endangered species by enforcing environmental laws, particularly Republic Act 9147, or the Wildlife Resources Conservation Act.
Lim said pawikan are awesome creatures that can be an added attraction to beach resorts. However, she warned that capturing the marine turtles and placing them in cage is strictly prohibited and punishable by law.
The Philippines, particularly Tawi-Tawi, is known for hosting thousands of pawikan nesting sites.
“If resort owners are keeping turtles to the point of harming them or holding them in captivity, they are violating the wildlife act and may face fines,” Lim said.
According to Lim, LGUs can help save the endangered marine turtles from extinction by intensifying the campaign against hunting them in the wild, including beachfronts, when females start nesting. Likewise, she said LGUs can help prevent harvesting of eggs or destroying nesting sites by launching institutionalizing their own Pawikan Conservation Project.
“Many LGUs have their own Pawikan Conservation Projects,” Lim said. She added that LGUs can also pass local legislation strengthening local conservation efforts, not only for pawikan but other wild animals, as well.
The Philippines is committed to protecting marine turtles being a signatory to international treaties, including the Convention on Migratory Species, also known as the Bonn Convention, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora calls for the protection of wild animals against all forms of threats.
Marine or sea turtles are migratory wild animals. They are known to swim the ocean’s deep, traveling from island to another all over the world.
Marine turtles are hunted for meat, on the belief that the meat of a sea turtles is good for the human health. Some also believe marine turtles, including their eggs, are aphrodisiacs. The top shell, or caparace, is used for decoration.
Hunting of marine turtles, including harvesting of eggs, has been prohibited in the Philippines for the protection and conservation of the endangered wildlife. Conservation efforts were institutionalized in 1979, when President Marcos signed Executive Order 54 creating Task Force Pawikan.