Every October, the country marks the Special Month for the Conservation and Protection of the Tamaraw in Mindoro, highlighting efforts to protect one of the Philippines’ most iconic – and most threatened – animals.
The observance was established in 2002 through Proclamation No. 273, signed by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, to increase public awareness of the tamaraw’s importance as part of the country’s natural heritage and biological resources.
The declaration came after the country saw decades of decline in the tamaraw population. The world’s rarest buffalo, the species is found only on the island of Mindoro, southwest of Luzon.
Once estimated at 10,000 individuals, the tamaraw population had dropped to only 154 in 2000, based on data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Mimaropa.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the tamaraw as critically endangered, indicating that it remains at an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.
Latest government data showed a modest rise in the tamaraw population, with the DENR counting 425 in Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park this year, up from 380 last year.
But as the Mindoro Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Inc. (MBCFI) said, the rampant clearing of forests and grasslands for farms, houses, businesses and infrastructure is still pushing the critically endangered species to the brink.
‘If areas have always been a grassland or a forest land, let us no longer convert them into agricultural areas, residential areas, business districts, or build additional infrastructure there,’ said MBCFI Executive Director Kathy Lene Cielo.
Habitat loss
One of the biggest threats confronting the tamaraw, which is endemic to Mindoro and now confined to protected and critical areas on the island, is the widespread loss and degradation of its natural habitat.
The initiative Species on the Brink identified habitat degradation as the main threat to tamaraws in the 20th century, explaining that land conversion for agriculture, coupled with population growth, reduced the areas where the cattle species could live and feed.
Agricultural fires have likewise threatened tamaraw habitats.
Based on data from Global Forest Watch, Oriental Mindoro had about 148,000 hectares of natural forest, covering roughly 69% of its land area, but the province lost about 511 hectares of primary forest between 2002 and 2021.
Poaching
The killing of tamaraws also played a critical role in the species’ decline.
June Pineda, coordinator of the DENR’s Tamaraw Conservation Program (TCP), previously attributed the species’ population decline to continued habitat destruction, hunting and poaching.
Tamaraws were hunted for both subsistence and sport, Species on the Brink said, leading to a drastic decline in their population: ‘Although protected by law, the illegal capture and killing of this species remains.’
On Oct. 23, 1936, Commonwealth Act No. 73 was signed to prohibit the killing, hunting, wounding or taking of Bubalus mindorensis, the scientific name of the tamaraw.
Livestock and disease
The expansion of cattle ranching is also considered a threat. Species on the Brink explained that domestic cattle can compete with tamaraws for resources and may expose the wild buffalo to diseases.
The possibility of disease transmission becomes concerning when domestic livestock and wild tamaraws occupy overlapping areas. Interbreeding with domestic cattle is also a threat confronting not only the tamaraw but all wild cattle species in Asia.
Recent conservation work has provided evidence that tamaraws are no longer restricted to Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park, with new populations confirmed in the Upper Amanay Ranges, located between Occidental and Oriental Mindoro.
As the website Re said, the tamaraw ‘may feign toughness, but they need our help to make a full comeback,’ especially since threats have sent their population spiraling downward over the years.