NO IFS but bats.
Bats are the central discussion at the Fourth Southeast Asian Bat Conference held at L’ Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City from August 6 to 9 as attended by researchers from Southeast Asia and other countries.
There are beliefs in the Philippines where people associate bats to horror stories and movies apparently.
But this notion was disputed by researchers who attended the conference.
“Yes, others believe that bats are always associated with witchcraft, superstition and darkness because they fly mainly at night and a lot of people are afraid of the dark that varies from culture to culture. But there is no truth in a lot of the superstitions," said Dr. Paul Racey, whose early work was in mammalian reproductive biology especially bats.
Dr. Tigga Kingston, associate professor at Texas Tech University and co-chairs the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Bat Specialist Group for Old World, said, “we want to present bats accurately and factually.”
“Bats are important in maintaining ecological balance. They are also very important in the academy as pollinators of our commercial fruits. We welcome the results of this conference which hopefully can have inputs in the ongoing work that we do especially in shaping up the conservation priorities for bats in the Philippines,” said Anson Tagtag, Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR)–Biodiversity Management bureau chief and has done researches on the molecular evidence of Ebola virus infection in Philippine Bats and behavior of the endangered golden-crowned flying fox.
Lisa Paguntalan, executive director of Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc., said they are delighted that the conference is held in Negros because this province is among the islands that need conservation importance when it comes to bats.
“We have species that are only known to our island. By bringing the attention of the Southeast Asian nations and the global community on the importance of bats not only for the Philippines but specifically for this region will be important and also having the support of other countries in this conference,” Paguntalan said.
Dr. Tammy Mildenstein, assistant professor of Biology at Cornell College and consultant in IUCN and Bat Conservation International (BCI), said: “there is a lot of bats, especially in Mambukal Resort in Murcia where it is being protected by the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental. It is a great opportunity to showcase what we are doing here in the Philippines in terms of conservation of bats.”
Racey said bats are needed to be conserved because they are a major component in any country’s biodiversity and all countries want to preserve that heritage and biodiversity is the important part of it. That is the very fundamental reason for protecting and conserving bats. It also forms a very important role in pest control that has a major economic impact.
(Bat population)
There are 379 species of bats in Southeast Asia but it is impossible to know all the species and their actual population.
But the Philippines have about 79 species. For Malaysia, they have 133 species; Vietnam, 133 species and increasing; Thailand, 146 and increasing; Myanmar, 100 species; Singapore, 28 species; and in Polynesia, 236 species and 50 species are endemic.
The conference was attended by representatives from 14 countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.