In May this year, the quest to continue ensuring the survival of Philippine eagles reached new heights when a pair of Philippine eagles bred in captivity at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao City—the 15-year-old male Geothermica and 17-year-old female Sambisig—was sent to Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park.
Loaning the birds is part of an agreement between the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Wildlife Reserves Singapore, a leading wildlife conservation group.
It is also symbolic of the deep ties that the Philippines and Singapore have in common especially advocacies such as environmental conservation and biodiversity protection.
Geothermica is the adopted eagle of geothermal leader Energy Development Corporation, while Sambisig is the adopted eagle of a chemical company. Both are considered at the prime age of breeding.
During their two-year stay at Jurong Bird Park, it is hoped that the eagles will mate and produce eaglets which can be released in suitable, vacant habitats back in the Philippines.
The Philippine eagle’s role on top of the food chain is considered crucial in keeping the balance of nature’s ecosystem. An abundant Philippine eagle population also indicates a healthy state of forests.
According to a statement from EDC, an estimated 400 pairs of Philippine eagles remain in the wild. In November last year, forest guards found the seventh nesting site for Philippine eagles in Mt. Apo, the country’s highest peak.
According to the Philippine Eagle Foundation, eagles bred in captivity can live up to 40 years and are considered more resilient to human handling and living in breeding facilities than their wildlife counterparts. Hence, in 2012, EDC adopted Geothermica under PEF’s Adopt-an-Eagle Program.
“Sending Geothermica to the WRS is an important step in our collective efforts to protect the Philippine eagle, the survival of which is inseparable from the protection of our biodiversity. Since Philippine eagles are threatened by the loss of forest cover and shooting activities, we hope to exhaust all efforts to protect one of the most precious treasures of our biological heritage,” said EDC CSR head Allan Barcena.
Aside from being the natural habitat of the Philippine eagle, Mt. Apo also offers an abundance of geothermal energy—a form of clean and renewable energy that relies on heat coming from the earth. Like the Philippine eagle, geothermal energy is dependent on a healthy vast forest cover for sustained production.
For this reason, central to EDC’s corporate social responsibility initiatives is environmental conservation. At its 106-megawatt Mount Apo Geothermal Project, watersheds are well-maintained and forests are lush. The 701-hectare protected geothermal reservation surrounding MAGP alone is home to 39 species of mammals and 165 species of birds, including the Philippine eagle. `