Philippines Urges Documentation of Indigenous Bird Knowledge Amid Deforestation

On Mindoro Island, the Iraya Mangyan community is racing to record its fading ecological knowledge before it disappears with aging elders and ongoing deforestation. The community’s 40,000‑hectare ancestral domain overlaps the UNESCO‑designated Puerto Galera Biosphere Reserve, a key protected area. The Center for Conservation Innovations Philippines (CCIPH) is working with the Iraya to document wildlife, medicinal plants and culturally important places under the Mindoro Forest and Biodiversity Programme. Information gathered feeds into the Iraya’s Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan. Among the data collected are the roles of three endemic birds— the turis (Mindoro racket‑tail), the siruk (Mindoro boobook) and the sulit (Mindoro scops owl)—which are culturally significant and listed as vulnerable or near threatened by the IUCN.