Cebu City, province on collision course over zoo property - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
Its hard for me to portray my thoughts in detail, hmmmmm, I usually know Cebu city as a place for eskrima, but what they bring forward actually has a point behind it.
A strange mix of short-term gain politics and corruption in Cebu. A distinction for a need for a womens' crisis center and the needs of its city zoo. No mention of a good conservation zoo funded properly by the Municipality or their duty to protect the environment and care for sustainable development. Cebu has seen large scale habitat encroachment and the authorities should know better. Only NGO's can change this tactic and if we would like to have situations like these changed we should put our money where our mouths are. Exactly as municipalities and legal authorities hardly care for their environment and their rare and elusive flora and fauna is the Phillipines in danger of loosing all and sundry. In order to educate the general public we need good zoos in these locations. Western world zoos and individuals should assist where possible instead of criticising the easy targets .....!
When I was there it wasn't too good. And I'm not thinking about breeding but just basic animal care. But some years ago so perhaps it changed to the better? edit: These photos are not new but they illustrate my experiance there: Welcome sign: 102_4452 Lories: 102_4408 Macaques: 102_4441 Crocodile: Philippine Freshwater Crocodile (Buaya) Sailfin Lizard: 102_4411 Brahminy Kites: 102_4423 New macaque (no better than 2005 photo): Philippine Macaque (Ungoy)
I keep saying - while not closing my eyes to the need to upgrade zoo and aninal management capabilities - that unless we start supporting upgrading sub-standard zoos in range countries where biodiversity loss is greatest and people are poverty-stricken we will never succeed in saving endangered species or peoples' awareness thereof. Zoos are prime motivators for conservation education and instiling into locals an awareness on how special their flora and flora and thus their environment really is. We are never going to save Philippine wildlife and rainforest by just breeding in far-off range countries. We need to support these zoos and not slag them for a lack of finance, indifference by municipalities, uneducated visitors and sub-standard housing of wild animals. So, give it up and do something useful instead!
Some zoos need to be closed. If this zoo hasn't improved since my visit, it belongs in that category. The Philippines already have successful facilities that have bred several rare species (Philippine Eagle Owl, Philippine Eagle, various parrots, Visayan Hornbill, bleeding-hearts, Philippine Crocodile, Visayan Warty Pig, Philippine Spotted Deer and more) so there are people there that know what they're doing. Some of these facilities are not accessible to ordinary visitors (like Birds International, on some points controversial, but probably the biggest facility for captive breeding of birds in the world), but others are (like the Crocolandia Foundation and the Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation Inc). Improve those facilities further and get rid of the bad zoos that 1) Don't give any valid environmental education to their visitors. 2) Actually participate in the extinction of species by getting them from the wild without giving them any real chance of captive breeding. 3) Don't show any clear signs of wishing to improve (something as basic as removing garbage from animal enclosures and adding a few branches to the bird cages doesn't cost much and can be done even by zoos with the least funding).
