Australian envoy leads launching of program to protect Philippine Eagle

Tacloban City (CNN Philippines, October 19) — Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu led the launching of a program funded by the Australian government to protect the Philippine Eagle.

The launch in Burauen, Leyte was highlighted by a tree-planting activity at the future site of the arboretum — a botanical garden devoted to trees — of the Eastern Visayas State University – Burauen campus.

It will soon have an extension and research program in Kagbana village where a Philippine eagle is set to be released next year.

The release of an eagle in Kagbana, an upland village located around 29 kilometers from the town proper, has been planned since 2018 with preparatory activities funded by the Australian government.

In 2018, the Conservation and Development Division (CDD) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) revealed that they monitored the known nests of an eagle in the forested area of the village and in its neighboring village of San Vicente in the town of McArthur.

Several residents of the village were already trained with the help of the Philippine Eagle Foundation to become forest guards to look out and safeguard the eagle once it is released next year.

“We hope that we can work together to ensure that Leyte has the beautiful Philippine eagles flying through the skies, and we hope that the trees we planted today — which I understand are also endangered species but the trees that the Philippine Eagle really enjoys — that we hope one day these trees will be big enough and there will be enough Philippine Eagles flying in the sky and making use of this good trees that we planted today,” Yu shared.

Burauen's mountains is an area in Eastern Visayas documented by the DENR to have sightings of the bird.

Other areas in Eastern Visayas that are historically identified to have sightings of the eagle are Taft Philippine Eagle Sanctuary in Eastern Samar; San Jose de Buan and Maslog in Samar; and Silago in Southern Leyte.

Yu's visit to Buruaen is part of her confirmation to the invitation sent to her by Leyte to grace the 79th Leyte Gulf Landings Commemoration on Oct. 20.