IN THIS ISSUE:
Habitats of Endemic and Threatened Species in Puerto Princesa City
Preliminary Study on Antiproliferative, Cytotoxic and Antituberculosis Activities of Plants Endemic to Palawan Human Affect and its Link to Natural Resource Conservation Population Density and Suitable Areas of Calamian Deer in Calamian Islands, Palawan

Palawan is one of the Philippine’s remaining islands with the largest forest tracts left. However, despite retaining approximately 50% of its original forests, it is under threat of degradation due to anthropogenic activities; affecting many species of fauna and flora. In this study, we present the identification of important habitats for endemic and threatened species in the northern part of Victoria- Anepahan Mountain Range, in Puerto Princesa, Palawan. We identified important habitats based on vegetation in eight Barangays through supervised classification of 2017 land satellite image (Landsat 8). Classification was performed using the Semi- Automatic Land Classification plugin of Quantum GIS. To determine species highest concentration across the study region, we produced distribution models for 41 species using the maximum entropy algorithm implemented in Maxent. Finally, we assessed the Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN) to determine if current zones are positioned appropriately to protect the endemic and threatened species. Our results show that the largest extent of pristine forest is found in Bacungan, Inagawan, Iwahig and Napsan, however, these areas are also facing habitat degradation as indicated by relatively large extent of secondary growth and cultivation. Species distribution modeling shows that the predicted highest species concentration has been found in pristine forests of lowland areas between 100-900 meters elevation, with the maximum species overlap of 36 species. Whereas the predicted lowest species overlap (<20) is found in mountain tops (>1000 m) and in open areas. The assessment of ECAN revealed several mismatches between the current zones and important habitats. The results of this study recommend the reevaluation and rezoning of the ECAN zones.