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Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Mt Malindang is the highest mountain on the Zamboanga Peninsula in western Mindanao. The Malindang range is included in a national park, the boundaries of which define the IBA. Other mountains in the park include Dapitan Peak and Mt Bliss, and there are several waterfalls and a mountain lake, called Duminagat, at 1,500 m.
The park has c.24,500 ha of forest and c.14,300 ha of open cultivated lands. A small portion of the forest area (7%) has been converted to permanent farmland, or is now abandoned farmland. Over 50% of the forest can be classified as lower montane and over 30% as upper montane or mossy forest. There is very little lowland forest left (about 2.5%), often in patches interspersed among secondary scrub, which totals to about 5% of the area.
Mt Malindang National Park is the major source of water for the adjoining provinces of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.
Several collecting expeditions visited Mt Malindang in the past, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s, and many of the threatened and restricted-range species of the Mindanao and Eastern Visayas Endemic Bird Area have been recorded there. They include montane forest specialists, which are likely to still have healthy populations in the extensive montane forests that remain there, including Mindanao Racquet-tail, Olive-capped Flowerpecker, Black-masked White-eye, White-cheeked Bullfinch and the threatened Blue-capped Kingfisher. However, almost all of the lowland forest has been cleared from the lower slopes of Mt Malindang, and this IBA is unlikely to support significant populations of the lowland and mid-altitude forest specialists which were recorded there in the past, such as Mindanao Bleeding-heart, Mindanao Brown-dove and Spotted Imperial-pigeon. Philippine Eagle has been recorded several times on Mt Malindang, and this IBA is an important past of the network of sites required for the conservation of this critically endangered species. Seven subspecies of birds are only recorded from Mt Malindang, but some of them may also prove to occur elsewhere in the mountains of the Zamboanga Peninsula.
Non-bird biodiversity: A threatened species of small mammal, Crocidura grandis, is known only from Mt Malindang, and many other mammal species endemic to Mindanao occur there.
Mt Malindang is the highest mountain on the Zamboanga Peninsula in western Mindanao. The Malindang range is included in a national park, the boundaries of which define the IBA. Other mountains in the park include Dapitan Peak and Mt Bliss, and there are several waterfalls and a mountain lake, called Duminagat, at 1,500 m.
The park has c.24,500 ha of forest and c.14,300 ha of open cultivated lands. A small portion of the forest area (7%) has been converted to permanent farmland, or is now abandoned farmland. Over 50% of the forest can be classified as lower montane and over 30% as upper montane or mossy forest. There is very little lowland forest left (about 2.5%), often in patches interspersed among secondary scrub, which totals to about 5% of the area.
Mt Malindang National Park is the major source of water for the adjoining provinces of Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The pressures on Mt Malindang National Park include human encroachment, illegal logging, hunting and kaingin. Settlers and migrants have been involved in logging and clearing the lower slopes of the park for farming, and are moving upwards. Several government-built all-weather access roads leading up the slopes of Mt Malindang have allowed settlers to migrate from the lowlands, who now practice unsustainable farming techniques that are slowly eroding the soil and wearing away the forest edge. Only one Conservation Officer is stationed in the park.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
There are various on-going conservation activities on Mt Malindang. These include the Biodiversity Protection project for Mt Malindang by the PIPULI Foundation, Inc., funded by the Foundation for the Philippine Environment in 1996, and various biodiversity conservation projects of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) and Local Government Units (LGUs) of Lopez Jaena, Misamis Occidental. The area is also used by students of natural sciences from nearby universities and colleges for field practicum activities.
The Mt Malindang mountain complex is being recommended by the DENR Region 10 to the DENR Central Office for Proclamation into a Protected Area under the NIPAS. This action was started on January 1996 and is still under consideration in the central office. The PAWD/DENR Region 10 in Cagayan de Oro City is also drawing up a management plan.
Surveys are required in this IBA, to investigate both the extent and quality of the remaining habitats and the current status of the threatened and restricted-range birds and other biodiversity.
In 2000 CARE Philippines and DENR installed the DENR Biodiversity Monitoring System in this IBA.
Mt Malindang was designated as a National Park and Watershed Reserve through Republic Act No. 6266 on 19 June 1971. Currently, the park is under the management of the DENR-National Integrated Protected Areas Project with funding support from the European Union (EU-DENR NIPAP). The Mt Malindang mountain complex is being recommended by the DENR Region 10 to the DENR Central Office for Proclamation into a Protected Area under the NIPAS.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mount Malindang (Philippines). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mount-malindang-iba-philippines on 23/12/2024.
