LATEST IMAGES - FEBRUARY 2010
I have just returned from the Philippines, where I was leading a bird watching tour for Birdquest. One of the prime sites that we visit was the former PICOP logging concession in south-eastern Mindanao. The company (Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines) has lost control of the concession and droves of squatters and illegal loggers have moved in. We saw evidence of illegal logging everywhere, mostly in the form of rows of neatly cut logs waiting for collection. The squatters are poor and hard-working, and one rainy morning this family allowed us to shelter on their verandah. It is impossible to condemn these people, who are only trying to make a living for their families, but it is tragic that one of the world's biodiversity hotspots is being taken ripped apart, primarily because of a lack of political will to do anything about it.