This time I won’t skewer the Philippine Daily Inquirer. :-) Two years ago, the PDI featured our urban ecology research team when we were just starting. This week the results of the research in the highly rated science journal Landscape and Urban Planning. Please look at the articles in press and you will be able to view our ” The distribution, abundance and diversity of birds in Manila’s last greenspaces”. Unfortunately since science is commercial now, if you want to read the whole article, you have to pay 31 dollars using your Visa or Mastercard! :-( I apologize that I can’t freely distribute the pdf file outside an academic setting.
I post this article in support of Jon Limjap’s call for a greener tourism initiative.
Nonetheless, our research throws a metaphorical pie on conventional wisdom’s face (CW). CW says that Metro Manila is an ecological disaster and that there isn’t any reason why we should save its green environment. Let’s put up more malls and let the money flow in. Right?
Wrong! To the chagrin of our Singaporean colleagues, Metro Manila has more bird species than the garden city state of Singapore! Readers who have been to that city would have marvelled at the greenery, the cleaner air and the litter free streets. But however antiseptic Singapore may be, it doesn’t have the 130++ bird species observed in Metro Manila.
Our research has established that the remaining pockets of greenery (mostly in Quezon City, the UP, Ateneo and Miriam campus greenbelt, and Fort Bonifacio) hosts up to 80-90 species of birds. This has long been known by birdwatchers who flock to the area every weekend. The area even hosts endangered and uncommon species like the pink headed fruit dove, the changeable hawk eagle, the Philippine scops owl (observed near UP’s CAL building) and the red bellied pitta (we observed one near the creek at UP NIGS).
Why would Metro Manila host many birds? We suspect that the birds can really tolerate human changes in the landscape as long as parks are made part of it. In other parts of the city like Makati and downtown Manila (where there are few parks, like Luneta) we may expect only < 20 species of birds. Thus we conclude that urban development can be done by not excluding greenery. In fact green areas can be integral to the landscape design of malls, schools, residential areas (even condos) and the central business district.
Of course the right kinds of greenery must be planted. We have found that if we plant Philippine indigenous fruiting trees like bignay, dao, mabolo, paho etc, we can ensure that the birds will flock there. This can have huge ecotourism value. We have applied the science to the landscape design of the National Science Complex in UP Diliman. The next stage of the research is to use UP Diliman as an urban ecological laboratory to assess landscape changes and development. Readers must be aware that UP Diliman has embarked on a massive redevelopment of the campus. The Ayala technohub is an example.
In my UP lab, I have been visited many times by European and Japanese travel agents that cater to birdwatchers. I was told that many of their clients are willing to pay a minimum of 100 dollars a day to visit Manila’s birdwatching areas. The travel agents can organize busloads of 60 tourists each time. Let’s do the arithmetic 60 x 100 $ = 6,000 dollars. Usually they have two busloads and that means 12,000 dollars!
That doesn’t even include the hotel and food expenses of the tourists nor the usual souvenir and bargain hunting that are associated with organized tours. The tourism revenue for Quezon City could be very significant.
In a study we did with the UP tourism people, we noted that this part of Quezon City still lacks the hotel beds if these organized tours do take off. Also the Metro Manila tours are just the take off point for tours in Candaba, Angat, Subic and other areas where there are birds.
Thus we find it really atrocious that real estate developers would like to cut down trees. Architect Palafox is right to be aghast at what is happening in Subic. Subic has even more ecotourism potential than Manila. And Korean investors are what Palafox is against.
Green areas also drive up property and mall sales. I was told by a mall VP that they redesigned their malls to include greenery. When they did so, more people flocked to the mall. They obviously saw what rhe Ayalas did. As for Greenbelt, we told Ayala that we saw endangered parrots pooping near Starbucks. The birds seem to like the palm trees! Now whether these parrots are truly wild or just escaped pets is something we have to investigate. I don’t know if one of the trendy crowd got the proverbial white “bomb”.
Our research effort needs marketing. And I hope readers can help us pro bono. :-) We are aware that foreign developers and our big property developers usually hire an expat expert to do the green planning. We were aghast to learn that one big golf course developer in Laguna brought in so called US experts to design green areas for birds. (The expats were paid 500 USD a day) However these American experts knew only Audubon’s birds and not Pinoy birds. Thus their landscape design ultimately attracted pesky birds that pooped on the golfer’s heads! If they had only asked us, we could have recommended planting the right kind of trees.
So where ever the readers are, please spread the word that trees mean green. Green means cash!
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great blog blackshama
this is what happen when a city has no system of urban development, city ordinances and zoning. It wasn’t determined on how much green spaces a city should preserve. Real estate developer were not required of planning and development for review by city boards to determine impact fee for the city’s environment. But that damage has been done. Yes there’s hope that a city can transform itself back to green from being black :) This requires big time initiative and political will. A job that needs aggressive effort with support from private sectors and various universities in our country.
Knowing the damage that has been done in our cities, what should some of the other representatives in the provinces do to maintain green spaces and allocate reserve for green spaces? This is a big issue for me because real estate developer, private sectors and other abuser :) have no access to information on how much percentage of a particular zone should be reserved for greens. I haven’t seen a thorough study in the provinces it might be because representatives do not have the initiatives or they don’t know what the hell they are doing? The whole Philippines must have a clear definition of reserve, zoning for commercial, agricultural and residential to make sure all economic plans for growth conforms to what is GREEN.
A job of the Department of Land, implemented thru the city council to be follow up by the mayor and its residents. Or the people can go to rally and blame Gloria… :)
I hope i can talk to my dad who is an adviser to the senator who chairs the senate committee on urban planning (aside from defense) to ask the senator on what gives regarding urban planning.
I have tried talking to the guy handling legislative affairs regarding urban planning,but right now the only legislation related remotely to urban planning is the land use policy which has been refiled and refiled for about a decade.
The land use policy is a catch all policy (at least the latest version)regarding anything that has to do with the use of land ;agriculture,forestry,zoning ,food vs biofuels,etc.
Leytenian,
the closest we have to the department of land is the HLURB or Housing and land use regulatory board.
Since urban planning is an environmental thing. The
DENR SEC has his misgivings but he made manila beautiful again when he was the mayor.
Thanks Karl,
you should run for a mayor, governor, senator. sounds like you have the understanding :) urban and rural planning has some differences but the common goal is GREEN.
too bad, this country needs lots of money to be a politician. running should come from actual donation not bribes. you know what I mean. if we can also correct that, the true pinoy will emerge.
nabuking tuloy ako sa jenny at leytenian… hahahah
@Blackshama
nerdy science quesiton:
when u want a sustainable population of birds, you also need that there be natural prey (so they can eat) and, to a lesser extent predators (so they don’t run rampant).
so, birds in MM, are they omnivores or herbivores? u mentioned that the kind of trees is important. is it because of shelter AND food (they eat the fruit), or shelter only, but they eat the rodents/insects that live in the trees too?
here is a story or two about migrant birds and those who frequent a sort of sanctuary between SM MOA and the coastal Mall.(Tambo Grasslands)
http://blogs.gmanews.tv/mads-bajarias/archives/2008/09/12.html
http://www.birdwatch.ph/html/news/news200409.html
Sounds like something my wife’s travel agency can take up in the future. We should talk more about these stuff. :D
GabbyD
Geeky science answer
We believe that cats are the biggest predators of MM birds (But with endemic hunger, Homo sapiens may overtake the cats) Many of the urban birds are insectivorous. For example, the maria kapra (Javan fantail) likes places where there are lots of flies. They like to eat flies. In fact they could be a natural control for these pests. Best of all, maria kapra sings a melodious song.
What the MM residents should encourage are fruit eaters like kulasisi, pipits (white eyes) bulbuls, orioles etc birds that have melodious songs. This can be the tourist draw. Urban commensals like maya will always be with us here. Seed eaters like munias could be encouraged to live in urban parks.
In more greener areas with remnant wetlands, the rails, migrant egrets, herons, pittas etc may be found. Urban parks can include ponds and other grassy areas. We have to ensure that even if these habitats were managed, they should look as natural as possible.
The indigenous trees provide shelter, nesting areas and in the case of fruit eaters, food. Insectivorous birds eat the caterpillars that plague trees.
The whole bird community can be called complete if we see raptors flying around. These birds need a rodent prey population in the open. It isn’t suprising that raptors have been only observed in UP and the American War Memorial. At the American memorial I think they prey on the introduced squirrels scampering about. I was told that a past AWM director introduced the rodents to make the place feel like America.
In Paranaque where I live, I see the usual generic ibon (Passer montanus), plus several species seabirds flying overhead; shrikes, wild pigeons, fantails, and this tiny little black and yellow bird with a long beak that seems to be feeding on nectar. Im sure it’s not a hummingbird, but it inserts its beak in flowers. I dont know what that is. Once I even saw an owl, and a green parrot-like bird (too far away to be sure). From time to time, I see maya (Lonchura malacca) and layang-layang.
blackshama,
what about marikina? Never seen or heard a bird in greenbelt.
you talking about kalapatis?
Greener areas with remnant wetlands? These can be found in Taguig. Unfortunately the real-estate development ongoing in that area will change the landscape.
Jeg
That must be an olive back sunbird. If you have a garden with nectar rich flowers, you will atrract them.
BrianB
We are going to start assessing Marikina birds in 2009. Before the new extensions to Greenbelt were built, there were birds. Construction may have scared them away. The sulphur belly Gerygone used to frequent the garden surrounding the Greenbelt chapel.
No we don’t suggest pigeons for Greenbelt. They tend to be pests when fed by people and soon they will be pooping all over the place and on the heads of the trendy crowd.
@blackshama
thanks! next, what number of birds is a sustainable number? over how large an area?
by your post, you seem to imply that a place like a mall could have enough land to hold the trees necessary to have a sustainable population of birds (of several species/diversity). I note tho that you guys sampled relatively large areas (UP, Boni, etc). so, is this true? how large should a patch of land be to sustain active populations…
OR is the better plan having a large(er) area available for larger populations; THEN encourage pockets of green in malls/parks, WHICH IN TURN encourages migration between the larger and smaller green spaces…
nice journal article btw. learned alot! i wish the article explained what the indices are, and what TWINSPAN is. i found it interesting that the authors cited the statistical software numerous times. Also, as a technical aside, i looked at the regression, and i found that you’d need an increase of 5 hectares to increase the number of bird species by 1. isn’t that a rather big space for a typical mall?
GabbyD
Your question requires metapopulation ecology and that could be the PhD problem of my student (Alex Aloy, the second author)assuming he is insane enough to take on a difficult problem. BTW I am kicking him out of the project and into Louisiana State University for his PhD. I got him the studentship and all he needs is the metaphorical kick in the butt! And when he comes back, I hope he proceeds to his alma mater, UP Mindanao and not crowded UP Diliman.
Actually 5 ha isn’t that big to increase the number of bird species by one. We can imagine that when we had enough forests, the ha.itat could really support so many birds. In contrast in Europe you need 100s of hectares to get the same effect.
There is this question in conservation planning whether you should have a network of small green areas or one big area. The jury is still out but our research seems to lean on the network answer since Metro Manila only fragmented green areas are existing.
The paper is directed at developers who still have undeveloped areas. These include the Sys of SM, Ayalas (developments outside Makati), LandCo etc. They can design their communities so that there will be pocket parks. True a mall can’t have that wild area but the whole development where the mall is located can include these green areas.
As for heavily built up areas, the remediation we can only have are pocket and rooftop gardens and urban tolerant trees that line streets. This strategy is now being done by American cities. I saw how they did it in downtown Chicago.
One physician in Quezon Institute got to read the paper and the Philippine Tuberculosis Society now wants us to design their gardens. I knew that gardens have been traditionally used in treating TB. I asked the docs, will you provide us those masks?
The indices we used are standard in ecology. Any undergrad textbook in print or online has a chapter or two about it.
@blackshama
thanks again! goodluck on ur research.
for marketing purposes to owners of large enough areas of undeveloped land, perhaps you could monetize the benefits of green spaces, net of built-up area. to do this you’d need to know what humans want from green spaces (benches? gazeebos?), and then estimate how many people would be attracted because of these amenities. (this might be stuff that the SURP people know)
also, the regression estimates assume nothing is done to encourage bird populations. so, one can make it more efficient by planting the needed/necessary trees, transferring birds manually, and make the are especially attractive to them using the smallest space possible.
this is useful stuff, i’m sure developers would find this useful. looked up the shannon index, and its a weighted dispersion index. cool!