You may know them as the green, pizza-loving martial artists on television but in real life, sea turtles, better known as pawikans are atop the country’s endangered list.
And there may be little time to save them.
Sea turtles, commonly called pawikan, have been stood the test of time and now, five out of the seven species (green, olive ridley, hawksbill, leatherback and loggerhead) call the Philippines home, flourishing in the country’s warm, tropical waters.
But man’s activities are pushing sea turtles a step towards it.
Every year, hundreds of pawikans are hunted for their meat and oil worldwide. Their shells are made into prized items such as tortoise shell eyeglass frames, lighters, and combs.
Locally, egg poaching on islands with sea turtle populations is the biggest threat that pawikans face. The eggs, considered as a delicacy and an aphrodisiac, are sold in local markets and eaten as soup or other dishes.
Even if the eggs hatch, the hatchlings face many dangerous situations in their journey to the sea. The majority get eaten by both land and sea predators. Others don’t survive in the harsh conditions of the sea. Estimates show that only a small percentage grows into maturity and return to lay eggs.
Meanwhile, increasing development and pollution are also destroying the pawikan’s nesting and feeding grounds. Many adult turtles swallow fishhooks or get caught in fishing nets and drown. Every year, some 100,000 pawikans are believed to be killed in the Indo-Australian archipelago region alone.
Fighting back
The plight of these pawikans is now inspiring various conservation and research projects in the Philippines.
Recently, the Turtle Islands Heritage Park (TIHPA) was formed out of nine islands in the PhilippinesMalaysia border. These areas have been declared sea turtles sanctuaries by law and to be jointly managed by the Philippine and Malaysian governments. Many environmental organizations and programs, such as the Pawikan Conservation Project of the DENR and World Wildlife Fund, use these islands to study the pawikan to learn more about them.
The United Nations, in 2006, created an intergovernmental agreement to protect, conserve, replenish, and recover sea turtles and their environment in the Indian Ocean Southeast Asian (IOSEA) region.
The IOSEA Marine Turtle Memorandum of Understanding brought together officials and experts from 25 countries in the region in a three-day conference, and on the final day an official agreement dedicating the coming year to the protection of the sea turtle was signed.
The Philippines was one of the countries to sign the agreement, and currently the IOSEA is working with various government and non-government organizations in the Philippines.
Private individuals have also joined in the conservation efforts. Paragua Wildlife Conservancy, Inc., a non-government organization, has put together Pugad Pawikan, a nationwide movement for turtle protection. Composed of a network of organizations with representatives from the government, non-government, academe, the youth and the private sector together with a community of volunteers and concerned citizens, Pugad Pawikan is the first Philippine-led and Philippineowned movement to transform the entire nation into a haven for sea turtles.
Pugad Pawikan chair Louie Morales notes: "It’s high time that everyone pitches in the conservation of these gentle creatures. If we don’t, then later generations might just see the turtles in museums, or even worse, only in pictures. That’s why we are encouraging people to participate." Educating people is the number one concern of the group, in order to generate awareness and participation in the pawikan conservation.
Morales likewise noted that with the Philippines being a nesting site for the pawikans, the country and its people has the responsibility to help protect the endangered pawikans.
During a pawikan’s lifetime, scientists only have two opportunities to study it: when it is born, and when it comes ashore to lay its eggs. This makes the Philippines incredibly important to worldwide efforts to protect this creature. Aside from being a nesting site for thousands of turtles, the Philippines also lie along the migratory routes of various species of sea turtles from the Asia Pacific region.
"With everyone participating, the pawikan would have a fighting chance," Morales said.
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