Conservation International and Toyota partner to protect Philippines' ra...( Manila Philippines - Conservation In...)

Manila, Philippines - Conservation International (CI) today announced a partnership with Toyota to support efforts to restore and protect more than 4,000 acres of the Philippines Peablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape (PPLS), located in the Northeastern part of one of the nations main islands. In addition to protecting the forests, local communities will receive additional benefits from agroforestry projects under the three-year agreement.

The site was chosen to launch the partnership between CI and Toyota because it will support efforts to link the PPLS with the adjacent Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. Additionally, the on-the-ground work will demonstrate how forest protection efforts benefit both biodiversity and community development.

Toyota??s support for CIs conservation efforts is crucial because these forests are under constant pressure from illegal logging and wildlife hunting, said David W. Hess, Vice President of CIs Indonesia & Philippines Program. With this funding, CI and other key stakeholders will be able to link two critical protected areas, thereby enhancing the survival of animals and plants that need connectivity to thrive.

Combined, the PPLS and Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park represent a seamless block of protected forest larger than Switzerland. Within the PPLS, there are a number of threatened vertebrate species, including three considered Critically Endangered by the World Conservation Union: the Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis) the Northern Luzon Shrew Rat (Crunomys fallax), and the countrys national bird, the Philippine eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi).

The partnership was formerly announced at the Presidential Palace in Manila, in the presence of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Key stakeholders in the PPLS project were also present, including representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and regional partners Protected Area Ma
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