The reintroduction of a Philippine crocodile into Dicatian Lake by the Chief of Police of Divilacan. © Willem van de Ven.
The reintroduction site of 50 Philippine crocodiles in July 2009. © Merlijn van Weerd.
In 2009/10, The Rufford Foundation provided a grant of £20,000 to the Mabuwaya Foundation.
The endemic Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis is Critically Endangered. Previously widely distributed throughout the Philippines, this freshwater crocodile now only survives with certainty in south-western Mindanao and northern Luzon with an estimated population of less than 100 adults. A captive breeding programme was established by the Philippine Government in 1987. However, no Philippine crocodiles were reintroduced into the wild as it was believed that local communities would not accept reintroduced crocodiles in their backyard.
The Mabuwaya Foundation received a Rufford Foundation grant in 2008 for the project 101 Heartbeats: towards the recovery of the Philippine crocodile in the wild. With this funding, a community communication and participation programme was implemented in the village of Dicatian in north-east Luzon. The village agreed to the reintroduction of Philippine crocodiles in Dicatian Lake where crocodiles had gone extinct a few years ago. Biological baseline data was collected as well. Dicatian Lake was declared a crocodile sanctuary by the village and by the municipality of Divilacan. Permission for the reintroduction was secured from all government levels. On 31 July 2009, 50 sub-adult captive-bred Philippine crocodiles were released in Dicatian Lake. Ten of these were radio-tagged. A follow up grant for the project 151 Heartbeats was awarded by The Rufford Foundation in 2010.
This grant is being used to monitor the adaptation of the released crocodiles and evaluate the reintroduction with all stakeholders. The evaluation will lead to the development of Philippine crocodile reintroduction guidelines as a basis for further reintroductions of Crocodylus mindorensis in other areas of its historical range.
