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Site description (2001 baseline):
Site location and context
Mt Sinaka is in the north-east of North Cotabato Province. There is forest remaining on the mountain between 1,100 and 1,448 m, including mossy forest above c.1,200 m, but the lower altitude forests are secondary or very badly degraded. This area was logged in the past, and the remaining forest is now surrounded with wide tracts of open grassland and agricultural land.
Several of the threatened and restricted-range species of the Mindanao and Eastern Visayas Endemic Bird Area have been recorded in or near to this IBA, including the threatened Philippine Eagle, Philippine Hawk-eagle, Mindanao Brown-dove and Philippine Leafbird. The Philippine Eagle has nested successfully on Mt Sinaka during the 1990s.
Mt Sinaka is in the north-east of North Cotabato Province. There is forest remaining on the mountain between 1,100 and 1,448 m, including mossy forest above c.1,200 m, but the lower altitude forests are secondary or very badly degraded. This area was logged in the past, and the remaining forest is now surrounded with wide tracts of open grassland and agricultural land.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
The forests on Mt Sinaka have been affected by logging in the past, and encroachment for kaingin and the extraction of timber are currently causing habitat loss and degradation in the area.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
Mt Sinaka has been proposed as a NIPAS site by PENRO Kidapawan, Cotabato Province. The municipality of Arakan has declared the Philippine eagle breeding area as a Wildlife Sanctuary through Municipal Ordinance Resolution No. 12 series 1992. In the same year Mt Sinaka was declared as a watershed area.
The community where the nest site is located is currently benefiting from a Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEFI) habitat protection program that was initiated in 1995.
Not officially protected.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mount Sinaka (Philippines). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mount-sinaka-iba-philippines on 22/11/2024.