Our culture, our languages, our species

I have learned about our endangered languages in my field, and the grave importance of saving and preserving them should not be any less than that of our endangered species. The problem however, is that even though there have been a lot of major pursuits to save these species, especially our marine species, the overall picture remains bleak and grim. Witnessing the exotic and preserved beauty of the coral reefs at Lian, Batangas, I began to contemplate about their national condition and if this shall be the only place I will be able to see such magnificence again.

The Philippines, as the center of marine biodiversity is part of a larger system called the Coral Triangle, where in the Philippines alone 76% of all known corals are found. If this is so, it should be truly alarming that as of 2012, according to the Department of Energy and Natural Resources (DENR) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), only 5% of the country's coral reefs remain in perfect condition; only 1% remain pristine. That's about 1000km2 left for us to get a glimpse of real, untouched coral reefs, all that was left of the 27 000km2 coral area in the Philippines. 75% of the area is already hopeless because of overfishing, coral bleaching, coastal erosion and illegal, unregulated and unreported extraction of marine wealth, according to DENR.

The issue here is not merely about nice-looking coral reefs that need to be preserved; it's also and largely about 96 million Filipinos near the coasts struggling to make a living; P1.1B at risk of being lost every year as such Filipino trademarks feed our economic stability through tourism and employment; the 500 coral species only found in the Philippines out of the 800 species at risk of being washed out of the oceans forever.

Of course, these are all just numbers, but we would not want to feel and experience the food shortage, the economic downfall, and the guilt until it's too late. May we help, in any way that we can, to preserve what is uniquely ours--our culture, our languages, our species.