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The endemic Philippine or Red-vented Cockatoo Cacatua haematuropygia is fast approaching extinction due to large-scale habitat loss and continuing intense poaching activities. Formerly occurring throughout the Philippine archipelago, it is now reduced to an estimated 750-2000 individuals, with the largest remaining populations today found on Palawan and adjacent smaller islands.
Between 1999 and 20031, the activities of the LPF's project Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Program (PCCP), which is coordinated in the Philippines by Dr Peter Widman, focused on the small offshore island of Rasa and the nearby mainland community of Narra in eastern Palawan. A community-based wardening scheme on Rasa island, which has the densest cockatoo population known to remain, ensured that no nests were poached. Recruitment wascould be raised to such levels that the local population reached at least 8972 individuals, from a low point of only 20, and the first encouraging signs for a re-colonisation of the mainland of Palawan from Rasa island could be observed. The project was also able to set-up an infrastructure for a manageable ecotourism industry run by the local people to provide non-consumptive income from the cockatoos and other local wildlife.
Since mid-2001, the project has initiated a slow withdrawal from the island of Rasa and the community of Narra to transfer responsibility to a newly formed local conservation group, and has surveyed additional locations in order to identify sites where the project's successful concept could be applied in the future. ADumaran, a larger island towards the north of Palawan, that harbours a significant population of Philippine cockatoos, at present appears was selected as the most suitable for a partial relocation, and especially during 2003 and 2004, the program staff have been working closely with the local community there with the aim to repeat the successful model of Rasa Island. Already the program has been able to recruit some local people as wardens, and has persuaded others to retain intact forest on their lands, as well as innovate in the production of alternative agricultural crops to increase household incomes. During 2004 the program personnel also made surveys in the Polillo Islands, east of the main island of Luzon, with the objective to verify conditions for a possible translocation of cockatoos. A remnant population of the Philippine Cockatoo was discovered on one of the islands, but overall the environmental situation was determined to be inappropriate for a translocation.
The Loro Parque Fundación supports the PCCP in funding partnership with Chester Zoo, Conservation des Espèces et des Populations Animales (CEPA incl. Zooparc de Beauval) and Zoologische Gesellschaft für Arten- und Populationsschutz (incl. Fonds für bedrohte Papageien and Strunden-Papageien-Stiftung).
Financial support: US$87,646 + €159,000