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Site description (2001 baseline)
There are several forest fragments inland of Puerto Galera, to the north west of Mt Halcon (PH039), inside the Iraya Mangyan Ancestral Domain Watershed Reserve. The habitats there include logged-over secondary growth forest, remnants of lowland dipterocarp forest, lower montane to almost mossy forest around the peak of Mt Malasimbo, coconut plantations, mixed parang vegetation (secondary growth), beach forest, cogon grassland and mangroves. The best quality forests are on the southern slopes of Mt Malasimbo, and there are secondary and disturbed forests at Mt Alinbayan, Tamaraw Falls and Baclayan, a remnant of logged-over dipterocarp forest in barangay Balatero. Puerto Galera is a popular tourist resort and a fishing port, and the surrounding land is used for agriculture and plantations. The Iraya Manggang tribe has been awarded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) for this area.

Key biodiversity
There are recent records of several of the threatened and restricted-range lowland forest species of the Mindoro Endemic Bird Area from the patches of lowland forest inland from Puerto Galera, mainly on the slopes of Mt Malasimbo. These are amongst the largest areas of lowland forest remaining on Mindoro, and the local prohibition of hunting on Mt Malasimbo may make this a particularly important site for the conservation of Mindoro Bleeding-heart and other threatened lowland species.

Non-bird biodiversity: This area is likely to support endemic threatened small mammals, but no surveys have been conducted. Marine animals sighted near this IBA include short-finned pilot whale Globiocephala macrorhynchus and the endangered olive ridley turtle Lepidochelys olivacea.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Puerto Galera (Philippines). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/puerto-galera-iba-philippines on 22/12/2024.