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CNN Today

Our Planet: Conservationists Struggling to Preserve Last Major Philippine Wilderness Forest

Aired May 29, 2000 - 1:47 p.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the Philippines, conservationists and political leaders are making a strong, new effort to save that country's last major wilderness forest.

CNN's Gary Strieker shows us what that effort may succeed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the Philippines, there's no other forest like this: from the mountains stretching to the ocean, isolated, mostly undisturbed, and the last stand for wilderness here.

PERRY ONG, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: If we lose the Sierra Madre, then there's no way, there's no way Philippine biodiversity could survive the next 10 years, the next decade of this century.

STRIEKER: The forests of the Sierra Madre shelter much of the biological treasure of the Philippines, most species of plants and animals unique to these islands.

LEONARDO CO, CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL: This is a species of fig, which in the Philippines we have about 100 species.

STRIEKER: Scientists say the Sierra Madre must be protected. Forests here were once the richest and most diverse in all of Southeast Asia, before obliteration by commercial logging and clearing for agriculture. In the last century, nearly 90 percent of Philippine forests disappeared. The largest remaining block is now in northern Luzon, the Sierra Madre.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the only remaining sawmill.

STRIEKER: There are still serious threats to this forest. Authorities are closing down sawmills like this one, and forest rangers keep constant watch for illegal loggers smuggling timber down river.

MARIO RALAGAN, FOREST RANGER: Yes, it is really dangerous, especially when we're confiscating, because, you know, those loggers have some hidden weapons.

STRIEKER: More than 30,000 people live in a few coastal towns in the Sierra Madre, and some of them want more development here. But new roads and mining projects could endanger the forests and rivers, and conservationists are working with local leaders to find ways to avoid environmental damage.

Meanwhile, the national government has proclaimed the core of this forest as a natural park, though it still awaits congressional approval.

(on camera): Across more than 7,000 Philippine islands, most remaining fragments of ancient forests are expected to disappear during the next 20 years. But this one, the largest of them all, now has a reasonable chance to survive.

(voice-over): The alternative is mass extinction for the Philippines, losing most living things that made these islands like no others on the planet.

CO: Once this is gone, we have already reached a point of no return.

STRIEKER: That point is very close, but some are working hard to make sure it is never reached.

Gary Strieker, CNN, in the Sierra Madre mountains, the Philippines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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