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Category Archives: Islands

So many islands, so many smiles

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Eight great islands, plus a hundred more! Cruising #GoingPlaces, Manila Bulletins monthly travel magazine, releases one of its most ambitious undertakings with itsGr8 Islands of the Philippinesissue this May. From Luzon to Mindanao, the Cruising Team traveled to eight of the countrys must-watch-out-for-isles: Cowrie Island in Palawan; Cagbalate in Quezon; Agutayan in Misamis Oriental; Sumilon in Cebu; Marinduque, Camotes in Cebu; Gigantes in Iloilo; and Bantayan in Cebu.As an added bonus, in time for the magazines 15th anniversary in June, we added a hundred more, and by that we mean the 123 islets or so, off the coast of Alaminos City in Pangasinanthe legendary Hundred Islands!

We have presented quite a varietyfrom the tiny Agutayan Island (a speck on the map) which disappears during high tide to an entire island-province, Marinduque, which comes alive during Moriones, says Cruising editor Johannes L. Chua.

Cruising also features Bluewater Panglao Island Resort that offers well-exceptional accommodations for those who want a memorable vacation. Our biggest discovery, however, is the astonishing falls in Oslob that goes with many names such as Tumalog, Toslob or Mag-ambak, with its unique stone formations and refreshing waters.

NEW LOOK IN TIME FOR 15TH ANNIVERSARY

Aside from its features, a new layout and design now graces the pages of Cruising. It is a visual treat especially for those who have been reading one of the countrys longest running monthly travel magazines.

To find out more about #Gr8Islands, grab a copy of this months issue ofCruising #GoingPlaces. For more information, email cruisinggoingplaces@yahoo.comand follow us on Facebook: Cruising Going Places and on Twitter: @CruisingGPlaces.

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So many islands, so many smiles

Japan proposes military presence on remote islands

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TOKYO , May 19 (UPI) --The Japanese government is considering military encampments on the country's southernmost island to reinforce its defense amid a dispute over territory with China.

The camps will be established on Amami Oshima, Miyakogima and Ishigakijima islands, each near Nansei Islands and the Senkakus, where China recently increased the number of government ships in Japanese territorial waters, the Tokyo newspaper Yomiyuri Shinbun reported Monday.

The Defense Ministry referred to the islands as "a core of defense of the Nansei Islands." Other than Okinawa island, no Japanese Ground Self-defense Forces are stationed in the area.

The encampments are mentioned in a five-year defense plan that includes doubling the number of F-15 fighter planes, and a coastal monitoring team of 150, in the area.

The Nansei Islands are part of what China calls a "first island chain." Its military strategy includes stopping enemy planes at a "second island chain" of Chinese islands closer to the Chinese mainland. The proposed buildup near the first island chain, an unidentified senior U.S. Defense Department official said, is "also aimed at strengthening the Japan-U.S. security system."

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Japan proposes military presence on remote islands

HERITAGE: Mysterious isles of East Indonesia

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WE were the only ones there at peak season, Shivaji Das observes of his trip to the Kelimutu coloured lakes in Flores, listed on Wikipedia as the islands most famous tourist attraction. Thats what makes these islands a bit special, he says.

Das was at Universiti Malaya last month to give a talk on his newly launched travel ebook, Journeys With The Caterpillar, that charts his adventures in the Eastern Indonesian islands of Sumba and Flores with his then partner, now wife, Lobo (real name Yolanda Yu).

These relatively unknown islands seem to be a curious choice for two lovebirds, but Das lists their other options as Nepal and Syria, proving that these two choose the road less travelled by (and also less air-conditioned) whatever the circumstances. As it were, he says, Indonesia was the cheapest option with the best weather.

Its very different from Bali, he tells an audience of students and academics who will probably venture no further than that glossy destination when it comes to Indonesian islands. Its still very raw.

Sumba, Das informs us, is known as the Texas of Indonesia. Its very dry and you have a lot of flatlands and small hills. And of course horses. About a hundred years ago, the Sumba used to export horses. They still do, though not to the extent it once was and horses still play a major role in their culture, especially in annual festivals like Pasola, where horseback riders throw spears at each other.

Flores on the other hand, is wet and mountainous and has many volcanoes. These volcanoes, Kelimutu specifically, are the cradles for the lakes that change colour according to the oxidation state of the lakes. But more captivating than their landscapes is their culture.

PINK BUFFALOES AND MONOLITHS In his three-week travel, Das managed to cover a lot of ground and also discover much about the daily lives and festivities of the people of Sumba and Flores.

In Flores they say they dont have a face, Das says as the projector reveals a slide populated with faces that seemed to look like they are from South America and Africa. If you look at their faces, theyre all very different. From a Creole face to sharper features to more Javanese features.

These variations can be attributed to the rich colonial history of Flores, waves of colonisation as Das calls it, from neighbouring islands of Sumbawa and Sulawesi, and the Portuguese, then the Dutch.

On Sumba and Flores, a lot of importance is placed on ancestor worship, although most of Flores is nominally Roman Catholic. It is especially strong in Sumba, where the practice is called Marupu. In recent years, there has been a new surge of pride in their culture.

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HERITAGE: Mysterious isles of East Indonesia

Cuizon: Islands, islands

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IT WAS 20 years ago when the Philippines and Indonesia first decided to talk about their claims of islands in the Mindanao Sea and Celebes Sea.

Within this month, the two countries have set new maritime boundary lines in the areas with unclear sovereignty. This includes rich fishing grounds, trading routes and sources of oil or natural gas. And the agreement, set for signing, is called Agreement between the Republic of the Philippines and the Republic of Indonesia Concerning the Delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone Boundary.

That's what the Philippines has asked for in its claim of the Spratly Islands over which China claims authority. China is also claiming the South China Sea islands that Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, also Brunei, believe are theirs.

The agreement between the Philippines and Indonesia over some islands show the intent of both countries to stay as friends and keep the regional community firm according to Aseans international laws. It could serve as example of steps towards real world peace.

In the early years of the world, there werent people quarreling over islands since there were few people in a big world, each prehistoric clan could own one and more of an archipelago, except that the travel from one island to another would lead to the people's preference of vast land in its natural flourish.

But through the years and today, man has found the importance of small islands, as rich fishing grounds, also as sources of oil and natural gas reserves in reefs, atolls, and coral islands. Most of the world's plants and animals are endemic and indigenous species, mostly found only in some islands.

The islands in total the world over---of land and the water---is sixth of the world's total area and home to a big portion of the world's animals and plants.

Over these islands are the disputes of territorial ownership, like the South China Sea. In the Philippines, the islands in dispute are found in the west, in Vietnam found in the east. The area is called the South China Sea which the Philippines calls the West Philippine Sea and Vietnam calls the East Sea. Japan and China are in dispute over seven islands in East China Sea which Japan calls the Senkaku and China, Diaoyu.

And the quarrel over these islands are referred to as a sea row among Asian countries, or territorial issues, or disputes, with tensions running high.

There is the 2002 Declaration among Asean countries on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea. But is China looking? Its looking towards a claim of about a 90-percent of the sea and islands in the area.

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Cuizon: Islands, islands

Connecting terrestrial islands to promote biodiversity

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Details Published on Saturday, 24 May 2014 10:41 Janita Gurung and Pratikshya Kandel Hits: 117 Privacy Policy

This year, the UN has declared Island Biodiversity as the theme for celebrating International Day for Biological Diversity. The worlds islands are home to about 600 million people 10 per cent of the worlds population. These islands are also home to some unique species of plants and animals that are found nowhere else in the world. For example, the kangaroo is found only in Australia, the flightless kiwi bird is found only in New Zealand, and the now extinct dodo another flightless bird was found only in Mauritius. Australia, New Zealand and Mauritius are all island countries.

Islands the word generally conjures images of areas of land surrounded by water. For conservationists, islands take on another meaning when pockets of pristine land areas rich in biodiversity exist amidst intensive areas of human settlements, agriculture or industrialization. These islands are generally home to numerous species of plants, birds, insects and animals. At a larger scale, many of these ecologically significant islands have been set aside as areas to protect plants and wildlife.

Animals, particularly large animals, must move, and thus require large areas of habitat for their survival. Often, when animals travel outside their islands of protected areas, they enter human settlements and destroy crops, livestock, and even human life, resulting in what conservationists term human-wildlife conflicts. Humans generally respond to such wildlife intrusions by exterminating them through various means a process termed as retaliatory killing.

One of the methods by which the habitat of large animals can be increased is by connecting protected areas through wildlife corridors. These corridors can be instrumental in connecting fragmented habitat islands and thereby facilitating wildlife movement. Corridors also promote interbreeding, which results in genetic diversity within the wildlife population.

The Kanchenjunga Landscape is one of seven landscape initiatives in the Hindu Kush Himalayas where the ecosystem approach is being used with a focus on connecting islands of protected areas through conservation corridors. This initiative is a trans-boundary program involving the governments of Bhutan, India, and Nepal. The program aims to develop connectivity between the 20 isolated protected areas in the landscape through a network of conservation corridors extending from eastern Nepal, through the states of Sikkim and northern West Bengal in India, to western Bhutan. These corridors will facilitate the movement of species, such as the endangered snow leopard at the higher elevations, and Bengal tiger and Asian elephant at the lower elevations.

The Kanchenjunga Landscape is part of the Eastern Himalaya Biodiversity Hotspot where there is high level of biodiversity, much of which is facing severe threats from humans. The landscape hosts a significantly high number of plants and is home to at least six species of endangered animals including the snow leopard, Himalayan musk deer, Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, and one-horned rhino, among others. The trademark plant species of the landscape is the rhododendron at least 45 species of which are found in the landscape. The landscape is also home to approximately seven million women and men, some of whom belong to distinct ethnic groups, such as the Lepchas and the Walungs.

Despite the ecological significance of the Kanchenjunga Landscape, there is much we need to know about the biodiversity and socio-economy of the region. During a recent review process for understanding the state of knowledge on biodiversity in the landscape, about 850 published and unpublished documents were recorded. The first recorded study in the landscape was conducted more than 170 years ago on the Lepchas of Sikkim by Archibald Campbell, the British political agent to Sikkim and Darjeeling in the East India Company. This was followed by the work of the notable British naturalist Joseph Dalton Hooker, who published an account of his botanical expedition in the Kanchenjunga region in two volumes of The Himalayan Journals in 1854. Subsequently, research interest in the Kanchenjunga landscape increased significantly only three decades later in the 1980s. Much of the information gathered in the area was focused on animals and plants, with the red panda being the most researched animal species in the landscape. Over 80 per cent of the research has been conducted in the Indian portion of the Kanchenjunga Landscape, only 9 per cent has been conducted in Nepal and just 4 per cent took place in the Bhutan portion of the landscape.

Why is it important to know about the biodiversity in the Kanchenjunga Landscape? There are an estimated 8.7 million species of organisms in the world. Among these, only 1.2 million species have been identified till date representing only 14 per cent of the total biodiversity in the world. Accordingly, we have probably identified only a third of the total number of species in the Kanchenjunga Landscape. Much of the gaps in our knowledge exist in relation to species other than plants and animals, i.e. on fish, amphibians, insects, fungi, and bacteria. Not much has been done to know the status of these relatively neglected life forms. Knowledge about biodiversity is crucial to understanding their roles in the ecosystem and therefore for their effective management. Biodiversity is a natural capital that provides a number of ecosystem services in the Kanchenjunga Landscape, including providing food, timber, fiber and medicines all things we depend on. It is also an important source of income for many local people living in the landscape. Therefore, gaining in-depth knowledge on biodiversity and associated ecosystem functions is extremely important for the well-being of the communities within the Kanchenjunga Landscape, as well as for the global community.

Janita Gurung ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) is Biodiversity Conservation and Management Specialist and Pratikshya Kandel ( This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) is Research Associate for Biodiversity at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

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Connecting terrestrial islands to promote biodiversity


  1. Islands