Nature

Abra is drained by the Abra River and its tributaries, such as the Tineg, which flow through the valley toward the Ilocos coast. Mountain forests cover much of the upland towns, but Abra's wildlife has been little surveyed, and most records come from its rivers.

The Mount Hilong-hilong range on the province's eastern side is one of the key biodiversity areas of eastern Mindanao, with some of the country's remaining old-growth forest. The Cabadbaran River and Taguibo River watersheds on the range are protected forest reserves. Surveys for a proposed protected landscape validated Philippine eagle nesting sites there.

The Agusan Marsh lies in the middle of the Agusan River basin and covers an area about the size of Metro Manila. In the rainy season it swells into lakes with floating villages. In the dry months, migratory birds from as far as Japan, China and Russia arrive, and more than 200 bird species use the marsh during the year.

Aklan's largest forest is the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park, about 120 square kilometers in Nabas, Malay and Buruanga and the Antique towns of Libertad and Pandan. It was proclaimed in 2002. Its rivers and springs supply water to more than 100,000 people, including Boracay and its visitors, and its highest peak, Mount Tinayunga, rises to about 915 meters. Panay keeps only about 6 percent of its forest cover, so these hills are a refuge for birds found nowhere else.

Mayon Volcano Natural Park covers about 5,776 hectares around the volcano. It was first protected as a national park in 1938 and became a natural park in 2000. Beyond it, the Albay Biosphere Reserve, recognized by UNESCO in 2016, covers about 250,000 hectares of land and sea. It holds 182 land plant species, 46 of them found only in the Philippines, and its coasts have mangroves, seagrass and seaweed beds. Its waters are used by five of the world's seven sea turtle species.

Antique's forests run along the Central Panay mountains. Sibalom Natural Park, about 5,511 hectares, is one of the last lowland rainforests on Panay; it links the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park with the Central Panay Mountain Range and supports 76 bird species, 28 of them found only in the Philippines. The Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park, proclaimed in 2002, covers about 120 square kilometers in Pandan, Libertad and three Aklan towns, and supplies water to more than 100,000 people, including Boracay.

Apayao is biologically rich. The province records 139 bird species, 61 of them endemic, along with dipterocarp trees, Rafflesia flowers and many food and medicinal plants used by the Isneg. In 2015 Calanasan began protecting 3,000 hectares of its forest. Apayao is also one of very few provinces in the country with an approved forest land use plan.

Aurora Memorial National Park, about 5,676 hectares of Sierra Madre forest along the Bongabon–Baler road, was set aside in 1937 by President Quezon and dedicated to Aurora Quezon in May 1949. It is mostly lowland dipterocarp forest below about 1,000 meters and is an Important Bird Area for Philippine eagles, Philippine hawk-eagles, Philippine ducks, whiskered pittas and Luzon water-redstarts. To the north, the province borders the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park of Isabela.

Basilan's remaining forest lies in the island's interior. Basilan National Park covers the eastern part of the public forest between Isabela City and the towns of Lamitan, Tipo-Tipo and Sumisip, and a Basilan natural biotic area of about 4,497 hectares was declared in 2000. Much of the lowland forest was cleared for logging and plantations in the 20th century, so the island's forest birds depend on what is left.

Bataan's forested interior is protected in Bataan National Park, set up in 1945 and now covering 23,688 hectares around Mount Natib. It has rivers, springs and waterfalls such as Pasukulan and Dunsulan, flowers and ground orchids, and wild monkeys and birds, and BirdLife International lists it as an Important Bird Area. On the western coast, which faces the South China Sea, Bagac and Morong have beaches with coral reef in good condition, and hawksbill, olive ridley and green turtles nest there. The Ibong Dayo festival in Balanga each February celebrates migratory birds.

The whole province has been a protected area since 2001, when Republic Act No. 8991 established the Batanes Protected Landscapes and Seascapes and made the surrounding waters a buffer zone. On land, the north of Batan is dominated by Mount Iraya, a 1,009-meter active volcano that last erupted in 1454, and the south by the older Mount Matarem. Grassy hills, stone walls and the payaman (communal pastures) make up much of the landscape. Offshore, the reefs are rich in marine life, and DENR rangers have found several green sea turtle nesting beaches, including a new one on the Sabtang coast in June 2026.

Batangas has two natural treasures of world importance. Offshore, the Verde Island Passage between Batangas and Mindoro is one of the sites of highest marine biodiversity in the Coral Triangle, called the "center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity". Its 1.14 million hectares hold reefs famous among divers at Anilao, and dolphins, whale sharks and sea turtles are seen in its waters. It is also one of the busiest sea lanes in the country. Inland, Taal Lake fills an ancient caldera around Taal Volcano. After the 1754 eruption blocked the Pansipit River and the lake turned fresh, some sea creatures adapted to it, and two now live nowhere else: the tawilis, the only sardine that lives entirely in fresh water, and the Lake Taal snake, a sea snake that spends its whole life in the lake. On land, the malabayabas or Philippine teak is endemic to the province, and the tiny fruit bat kabag lives in its forests.

Benguet sits at the southern end of the Cordillera Central, and almost all of it is mountain. Mount Pulag in Kabayan, at 2,928 meters the highest peak in Luzon and the third highest in the Philippines, stands where Benguet meets Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya; it was proclaimed a national park on 20 February 1987, covering 11,550 hectares, and is known for its mossy montane forest, its grassland summit and the sea of clouds at dawn. The province's mountains are the headwaters of the Agno, Amburayan, Bued, Bakun, Balili and Asin rivers, and its largest conservation areas are the Upper Agno River Basin Resource Reserve, Mount Pulag National Park, Mount Data National Park and the Lower Agno Watershed Forest Reserve. Lower slopes are covered by open forests of Benguet pine, the dominant tree of the Luzon tropical pine forests. Fire is a constant risk in the dry months: in January 2018 trekking on Mount Pulag was suspended after a fire, reportedly started by a hiker's butane stove, burned part of the mountain.

Biliran is a volcanic island of steep forested hills that rise to Mount Suiro, 1,301 meters, with many waterfalls and hot springs. Only Naval and Caibiran have wide plains. Its mammals were surveyed together with those of Leyte and Maripipi in the early 1990s. Flying foxes roosting on Maripipi have been tracked crossing more than 12 kilometers of sea to feed on Biliran, a sign of how closely the small islands are tied together.

Bohol's forests survive mainly in the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape, a range of forested limestone hills across Bilar, Batuan, Carmen, Sierra Bullones, Garcia Hernandez, Valencia, Dimiao and Loboc. First gazetted as a national park in 1987, it is the largest remaining tract of natural forest on the island and one of the country's top birdwatching sites, with more than 120 bird species, among them the Philippine hawk-eagle, Samar hornbill, Visayan broadbill, Philippine frogmouth and Philippine trogon. Its mammals include the Philippine tarsier, the Philippine flying lemur, the long-tailed macaque, two civets and the Philippine warty pig. North of it rise the Chocolate Hills, grass-covered limestone mounds that are a national geological monument.

Bukidnon holds some of the highest mountains in the Philippines. Mount Dulang-dulang in the Kitanglad range, at 2,938 meters, is the second highest in the country, and Mount Kitanglad (2,899 m), an inactive volcano, and Mount Kalatungan (2,860 m) are the fourth and fifth. The Kitanglad range was proclaimed a natural park in 1996 and became a full protected area under Republic Act 8978 in 2000; it shelters more than 600 rare and endemic species, including Rafflesia schadenbergiana, the world's second-largest flower, and is a nesting place of the Philippine eagle. The province has the largest concentration of watersheds in Mindanao, with six major rivers, the Pulangi, Tagoloan, Cagayan, Manupali, Muleta and Bobonawan, whose canyons cut the plateau; the Pulangi, the longest, flows on to the Rio Grande de Mindanao. In the east, the Pantaron range is home to the Philippine eagle, the Philippine deer, the Philippine flying lemur and the Mindanao gymnure. Heavy logging during the Marcos years stripped much of the old forest.

Bulacan's lowlands are rice fields, fishponds and fast-growing towns, but its eastern third climbs into the Sierra Madre, and there the forests survive. The Angat Watershed Forest Reserve covers 62,309 hectares of eastern Bulacan and neighboring Rizal, around the Angat and Ipo dams, a key source of Metro Manila's water. It is one of the few well-forested watersheds left in the country, with lowland dipterocarp and submontane forest, 290 endemic species of plants, and an Important Bird Area where Luzon and rufous hornbills, the Philippine eagle-owl and the Philippine hawk-eagle have been recorded. Philippine deer, warty pigs and long-tailed macaques roam its forests, and Dumagat communities live inside it. North of it, Biak-na-Bato National Park protects 2,117 hectares of river gorge and more than a hundred caves. To the west, the edge of the Candaba Swamp shared with Pampanga floods each rainy season and draws migratory birds.

Cagayan runs from the Cordillera foothills across the valley of the Cagayan River, the longest river in the Philippines and the largest by discharge, which drains a basin of 27,753 square kilometers on its 505-kilometer course from the Caraballo Mountains to the Babuyan Channel at Aparri. To the east, the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape covers 118,781 hectares of the northern Sierra Madre and its Pacific coast, the largest block of forest under conservation in the province, contiguous with the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in Isabela. It holds more than 300 limestone caves, among them Callao Cave, and about 34,000 hectares of old-growth forest with mossy forest on the ridges and mangroves and coral reefs along the coast; the Philippine eagle, the Philippine eagle-owl, the Isabela oriole, the Philippine duck and the celestial monarch live there. Offshore, every island of the volcanic Babuyan group is a key biodiversity area, and Palaui Island is a national marine reserve.

Camarines Norte is mountainous, with lowland rainforest in the interior. Mount Labo, a forested volcano 1,544 meters high, rises on the border with Camarines Sur and Quezon; it is potentially active, with warm and hot springs, but has not erupted since the Pleistocene. Bicol Natural Park, first declared a national park in 1934 and a natural park in 2000, covers 5,201 hectares across Basud and Mercedes in Camarines Norte and Sipocot and Lupi in Camarines Sur. Its forest is dominated by apitong, yakal and lauan trees.

Camarines Sur has volcanoes, lakes and a long coastline on two seas. Mount Isarog, an active stratovolcano with fumaroles and hot springs east of Naga, rises to about 2,000 meters; a Holocene collapse of its northwestern flank sent the Tinambac debris avalanche to San Miguel Bay. It was made a national park under President Manuel Quezon and a protected natural park by Proclamation No. 214 of 20 June 2002, and its forests hold animals found only on the mountain, such as the Isarog striped shrew-rat. In the south, Lake Buhi lies between the old volcanoes Iriga and Malinao and was formed in 1641 when an earthquake broke off part of Mount Iriga; with Lake Bato and the Bicol River it is home to the sinarapan, a tiny goby found only in the Bicol region. In the east, the Caramoan Peninsula faces Catanduanes. Overfishing and abaca farming on the lower slopes are among the pressures on this wildlife.

Camiguin is a young volcanic island, and its only remaining forest covers the mountain core of Hibok-Hibok and Timpoong. In 2004 Proclamation No. 570 made that core the Timpoong and Hibok-Hibok Natural Monument, protecting the island's main watershed, and the forests of the Mount Hibok-Hibok Protected Landscape have been declared an ASEAN Heritage Park. For a small island the forest is remarkable: at least six vertebrates are believed to be found nowhere else, among them the Camiguin hawk-owl, the Camiguin hanging parrot, the Camiguin forest mouse, the Camiguin forest rat and the Camiguin narrow-mouthed frog. All depend on the forest that survives on the volcanoes' upper slopes, threatened by logging, clearing for farms and the growth of tourism. Offshore, the giant clam sanctuary run by the Kabila Giant Clam Conservation and Ocean Nursery holds seven of the nine giant clam species, and the reefs around White Island and the Sunken Cemetery are popular for snorkeling.

Capiz runs from the coast of the Sibuyan Sea up to the mountains of central Panay, where Mount Nangtud rises to about 2,074 meters. On the coast, wide swampy lowlands have been turned into fishponds, and the bays hold the windowpane oyster that gave the capiz shell its name. Shell beds have declined because of trawling, dredging and blast fishing.

Catanduanes's rainforests are home to Philippine brown deer, flying foxes and other bats, warty pigs, civets, monitor lizards and sailfin lizards, and the forest reserves of Gigmoto and Pandan are rich in insects. The dipterocarp forest also holds pitcher plants, rafflesia and hardwoods such as yakal and molave. The local race of the Luzon bleeding-heart has not been collected since 1971 and may already be gone, and dolphins and whales are seen off the east coast from March to June.

Cavite's last large forests are in the Palay-Palay Mountain Range on its southwestern border with Batangas, protected as the Mounts Palay-Palay–Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape. It was first set aside on 26 October 1976 as a national park, game refuge and bird sanctuary, and in 2007 became a protected landscape of 3,973 hectares near Maragondon and Ternate. Its best-known peak is the rock monolith of Mount Pico de Loro. It is an important bird area, home to the Philippine eagle-owl, Philippine falconet, Philippine hawk-cuckoo, Philippine fairy-bluebird, Philippine trogon and Luzon hornbill, among others.

Cebu is a long, narrow island with a mountainous spine, and almost all of its original forest was cleared long ago. What remains is precious. The Central Cebu Protected Landscape covers 29,062 hectares of forest and watersheds in the island's center, joining the old Central Cebu and Sudlon national parks with the Buhisan, Mananga and Kotkot-Lusuran watersheds that supply Metro Cebu's water. Its limestone forest patches, among them Tabunan, shelter the Cebu flowerpecker, the black shama, the streak-breasted bulbul, the rufous-lored kingfisher and the rare Cebu cinnamon tree. In the south, the Babayungan forest of Dalaguete and the Nug-as forest of Alcoy are the other strongholds of the flowerpecker. Offshore, Cebu's waters are among the best-known dive sites in the country: off Malapascua, at the northern tip, thresher sharks rise at dawn to the cleaning stations of Monad Shoal, and the reefs of Moalboal and the whale sharks of Oslob draw visitors from around the world.

The forests of Mount Candalaga in Maragusan are among the last old-growth forests of Davao de Oro. A Philippine eagle was first confirmed there in October 2022, and in 2025 the Philippine Eagle Foundation documented the first active Philippine eagle nest in the province. The area is being considered for declaration as a critical habitat.

Davao del Norte runs from the Davao Gulf coast up into the Pantaron Range, the Central Cordillera of Mindanao, whose old-growth forest is home to the Philippine eagle, the Philippine brown deer, the Philippine flying lemur and a Mindanao-endemic gymnure, and which is threatened by mining and logging. Out in the gulf, at least ten species of toothed whales and dolphins have been recorded, and whale sharks and sea cows are seen often. On Samal Island, the Monfort cave shelters a colony of fruit bats estimated at 1.8 million.

Davao del Sur lies at the foot of Mount Apo, the highest mountain in the Philippines, at 2,954 meters. Its forests have more than 272 bird species, 111 of them endemic to the area, and include the Philippine eagle. Mount Apo was first protected as a national park on 9 May 1936, and in 2004 Republic Act 9237 made it a natural park of almost 55,000 hectares across Davao del Sur, Davao City and Cotabato. Its slopes feed several major rivers, including the Digos and Sibulan. Forest and grass fires burned large patches of the mountain in March–April 2016 during a severe El Niño.

Davao Occidental's coast faces the Celebes Sea and the mouth of the Davao Gulf, with beaches that sea turtles still use for nesting. In July 2026 the DENR documented a leatherback, the world's largest sea turtle, laying eggs on the shore of Barangay Kiobog in Don Marcelino, and barangay officials stepped up monitoring of the nest.

Davao Oriental's Pacific Cordillera holds two of Mindanao's great protected forests. Mount Hamiguitan, 1,620 meters high, has a pygmy forest of century-old trees on ultramafic soil, Philippine eagles, and pitcher plants found nowhere else; the IUCN Red List counts at least 11 threatened vertebrate species there. Farther north, the Aliwagwag Protected Landscape in Cateel protects the headwaters of the Cateel River, the Philippine eagle and other threatened birds, and toog trees, the tallest in the Philippines. Mati itself has three protected areas, including Pujada Bay.

Dinagat Island is a Key Biodiversity Area, with lowland forest on rocky, mineral-rich soils. Several mammals live nowhere else: the Dinagat bushy-tailed cloud rat, the Dinagat hairy-tailed rat and the Dinagat gymnure, and the island's Philippine tarsiers are unusually large and dark. The pitcher plant Nepenthes bellii grows from sea level to about 800 meters, and the tree Tristaniopsis flexuosa has been found only on Mount Redondo. Much of the forest lies in a mineral reserve and has been logged or mined.

Eastern Samar shares the Samar Island Natural Park, the largest terrestrial protected area in the Philippines at 333,300 hectares and the country's largest unbroken tract of old-growth forest. The park runs down the low, rugged mountain spine of Samar and reaches into many Eastern Samar towns, including Borongan, Dolores, Can-avid, Llorente, Oras and Balangiga. Its forests grow on limestone karst and include lowland dipterocarp and mossy forest, and the headwaters of 25 watersheds begin on its slopes, among them the Can-avid and Dolores rivers. It was declared a forest reserve in 1996 and a natural park in 2003. The park is a known home of the Philippine eagle and has significant populations of the Philippine eagle-owl, the Philippine tarsier and the Philippine flying lemur. On the coast, the reefs and beaches of Guiuan face the Philippine Sea.

Guimaras is low and hilly, its highest point only about 272 meters, and its rivers are short; the Sibunag River, the longest, runs 28.8 kilometers. Its richest habitats are on the coast. Off the southern tip, Taklong Island in Nueva Valencia is the main island of the Taklong and Tandog Group of Islands Natural Park, formerly the Taklong Island National Marine Reserve, where the University of the Philippines Visayas has run a marine station since 1977. About 1,100 hectares of mangroves were affected by the 2006 oil spill; on Taklong, 90 percent of the mangrove forest was coated with oil, and after rehabilitation began in 2007 it has recovered.

Ifugao's terraces depend on forest. Above each terrace cluster lies a muyong, a privately owned family woodland managed by indigenous rules, which holds the water that feeds the paddies below. This system is one reason the terraces are also a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. When forest is lost, the springs weaken and the terraces fail, and the cutting of trees for the woodcarving trade was among the pressures that put them on the danger list. Higher up, the southwestern corner of the province reaches Mount Pulag National Park, 11,550 hectares shared with Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya. Its mossy and pine forests and grassland summit hold 528 documented plant species, 33 bird species, and threatened mammals such as the Philippine deer and the giant bushy-tailed cloud rat; it is the only place known to host four species of cloud rat. Ifugao people are among the communities living in the park.

The forested Patapat Mountains at Luzon's northern tip are protected as the Kalbario–Patapat Natural Park, proclaimed on 20 April 2007 in Pagudpud and Adams. The park itself covers 3,800 hectares, with a 1,937-hectare buffer zone, and holds springs, waterfalls such as Kabigan Falls, closed-canopy mountain forest and streams that run down to Pasaleng Bay, where the Patapat Viaduct winds along the mountainside. It is a key biodiversity area and important bird area: the rufous hornbill is a common sight, and threatened birds such as the Philippine eagle-owl, the whiskered pitta and the flame-breasted fruit-dove live there, along with the small rufous horseshoe bat and endemic frogs. Slash-and-burn farming, illegal logging and hunting are the main threats. Along the coast, the wind- and wave-sculpted Kapurpurawan rock formation in Burgos and the La Paz Sand Dunes in Laoag show the force of the northern winds.

Ilocos Sur runs from the beaches of the South China Sea up into the Cordillera. Olive ridley turtles nest on its shores, and towns such as Candon, Magsingal and San Vicente guard nests and release hatchlings each season. In the mountains, Tirad Pass, where General Gregorio del Pilar fell in 1899, was declared a protected landscape in 2022, covering parts of Gregorio del Pilar, Quirino, Sigay, Cervantes and Suyo. Botanists have since described two begonias found only in Ilocos Sur and named for the province's historic passes: Begonia tiradpassensis and Begonia bessangpassensis.

Iloilo runs from the Central Panay Mountain Range in the west, the longest range in the Visayas, across the rice plains of the Iloilo and Jalaur rivers to the islands of the Visayan Sea. The mountains hold some of the largest remaining forests on Panay, with lowland dipterocarp forest grading into mossy forest, and they are the watershed for the farms below. In the center of the province, the Bulabog Putian National Park, established in 1961, protects 854 hectares of limestone hills in Dingle and San Enrique: Putian Peak, 322 meters high, the highest point of central Iloilo; 13 caves, including Maestranza Cave, home to an estimated 20,000 fruit bats, and Guiso Cave, with 18 species of bats; and secondary forest of dao, molave and narra. Off Carles in the north, the Islas de Gigantes are known for white-sand beaches, lagoons and rock formations.

Isabela holds the heart of the northern Sierra Madre, the longest mountain range in the Philippines. The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, declared in 1997, covers 359,486 hectares of eastern Isabela, from the forested ridges down to the Pacific coast at Palanan, Divilacan and Maconacon, and it is the largest protected area in the country and considered its richest in genetic, species and habitat diversity. Its forests are a stronghold of the Philippine eagle and of the northern rufous hornbill, and the wetlands of San Mariano, on the park's western edge, hold one of the last wild populations of the Philippine crocodile, protected by the Mabuwaya Foundation together with local communities.

Kalinga's western mountains hold some of the best forest left in the Cordillera. Balbalasang–Balbalan National Park, 1,338 hectares around Mount Balbalasang in Balbalan near the Abra border, was declared in 1972 and is called the "green heart of the Cordillera" for its intact pine, hardwood and mossy forests. Its streams drain to the Saltan River, Mount Sapocoy rises to 2,456 meters on its western edge, and a species of Rafflesia has been found there. Surveys have recorded 89 bird species, 39 of them Philippine endemics, including the Isabela oriole and flame-breasted fruit dove, and BirdLife International lists it as an Important Bird Area for the chestnut-faced babbler. The park is also home to 23 mammals, including the Philippine warty pig, northern Luzon giant cloud rat and the endangered Luzon pygmy fruit bat, plus 13 amphibians, 13 reptiles and 25 species of earthworms. Lower down, the Chico River runs through Tabuk's rice lands.

Laguna is defined by its lake and its two mountains. Laguna de Bay, with a surface area of 911 to 949 square kilometers but an average depth of only about 2.8 meters, is one of the country's main sources of freshwater fish and feeds Laguna's duck industry; at least 18 fish species are known from it, three of them endemic to the Philippines, but water pollution, fish kills and invasive species such as janitor fish, clown knifefish and blackchin tilapia threaten the native fish. Mount Makiling, 1,090 meters high, is a forest reserve set aside in 1910 and administered since 1990 by UP Los Baños as a living laboratory; it was declared an ASEAN Heritage Park in 2013. To the southeast, around San Pablo, lie the seven crater lakes of the San Pablo Volcanic Field, between Makiling and Mount Banahaw.

Lanao del Norte runs from the bays of the north up to forested mountains in the south. Its largest remaining rainforest is protected in the Mount Inayawan Range Natural Park in Nunungan, established on 30 July 2007 and covering about 3,633 hectares. The park is a critical watershed: Lake Nunungan, one of the highest lakes in the Philippines, and three smaller lakes supply water to the towns of the Kapatagan Valley. Its forests shelter the Philippine eagle, Philippine deer, Mindanao flying squirrel, Mindanao scops owl, Philippine warty pig and Mindanao hornbill.

Lake Lanao, in the heart of the province, is one of the 15 ancient lakes of the world, about 340 square kilometers in area and up to 112 meters deep. Its outflow, the Agus River, feeds the hydroelectric plants that generate about 70 percent of Mindanao's electricity, and a lake regulation dam at Marawi was built in 1978. The lake was home to 17 endemic Barbodes fish, thought to have evolved there over 10,000 to 20,000 years, but by 2020, 15 were regarded as extinct, lost to overfishing, pollution and introduced species. The lake also supports large numbers of waterfowl, and a freshwater crab, Sundathelphusa wolterecki, is endemic to the region.

La Union lies between the South China Sea and the foothills of the Cordillera. Its beaches are a favored nesting ground for three species of sea turtle, known locally as pawikan. Local governments protect stretches of coast and sea through the Bauang-Bakawan Eco-Tourism Park, the Urbiztondo Fish Sanctuary in San Juan, the Aringay Marine Protected Area and the Dalumpinas Oeste Pawikan Conservation Center in San Fernando, where the barangay began a program in 2011 to protect the growing number of turtle nests.

Leyte's mountainous spine still holds pockets of forest. The best known is the Lake Danao Natural Park in the uplands northeast of Ormoc: its guitar-shaped lake of volcanic origin covers 148 hectares within a 2,193-hectare park that includes the Amandiwin Mountains. It was declared a national park in 1972, as Lake Imelda, and renamed Lake Danao National Park in 1998 under Proclamation No. 1155; it is now protected under the National Integrated Protected Areas System. Studies of its birds found that hunting, mostly of hornbills, doves and pigeons and often by outsiders, is the main threat, along with slash-and-burn farming and illegal logging. The island's forests are also home to the Philippine tarsier, and the Philippine eagle, whose last Leyte records came before Typhoon Yolanda, is the focus of a reintroduction project.

Maguindanao del Norte runs from the shores of Illana Bay, an arm of the Moro Gulf, to the forested uplands of Buldon, Barira and Matanog, whose dense watershed forests are threatened by illegal logging of dipterocarp trees such as lawaan. In the lowlands, the remaining freshwater swamp forest of Ebpanan Marsh still shelters threatened birds: a 2022 rapid survey recorded 36 species there, eight of them found only in the Philippines.

Liguasan Marsh, about 2,200 square kilometers in the Mindanao River basin, is the province's great wild place. At least 92 bird species, dozens of fish species, six reptiles and five amphibians have been recorded there. About 300 square kilometers is a game refuge and bird sanctuary, and about 5,000 hectares of old-growth forest remain inside the marsh, where the Philippine eagle has been seen. The marsh also absorbs floodwater from the Cotabato basin and supports the fishing of more than 112,000 people.

Marinduque rises from the coast to Mount Malindig, a 1,157-meter stratovolcano whose upper slopes are protected by law because of their height. The mountain is home to wild orchids and other endemic plants, and its Malbog sulfur springs are a sign of the volcano's activity. Offshore, part of the Verde Island Passage, a center of marine biodiversity with more than 300 coral species, lies within the province's waters. Sea turtles, giant clams, humphead wrasses and giant groupers live in the passage, but overfishing is common.

Masbate's waters are rich. Masbate City alone has about 1,240 hectares of mangroves, 560 hectares of coral reef and 400 hectares of seagrass in its municipal waters, and the 300-hectare Pawa Mangrove Nature Park protects the city's largest stand of mangrove. Ticao Island is a frontier for manta ray conservation, and in 2019 very young whale sharks were seen in the Ticao Pass, suggesting it may be a pupping ground. On land, forest loss has been severe: the Ticao hornbill, a subspecies found only on Ticao, is probably extinct, and the Visayan warty pig may survive only in small numbers on Masbate.

Mount Malindang, about 2,404 meters high, rises over the west of the province. Mount Malindang Range Natural Park, first declared a national park in 1971 and made a natural park in 2002, covers 53,262 hectares in Misamis Occidental, Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga del Norte. About 62% of it is still forested, and around 20,000 hectares are farmed and inhabited, mostly by Subanen communities. The range has waterfalls, a crater lake and forest that shelters tarsiers, flying lemurs, Philippine deer, Philippine warty pigs, rufous hornbills and the Philippine eagle. Panguil Bay, on the other side of the province, is a rich fishing ground.

Misamis Oriental faces two bays, Macajalar and Gingoog, and rises inland to forested peaks such as Mount Balatukan and Mount Sumagaya. Mount Sumagaya has at least 52 plant species from 19 families, many of them important to the Higaonon, and 22 endemic bird species, including the Philippine eagle. Researchers credit Higaonon land management for protecting the mountain. Macajalar Bay supports fishing communities but has been hit by illegal logging, destructive fishing and mining, and industrial pollution. Higaonon communities help protect the forests of Misamis Oriental and neighboring Bukidnon.

Mountain Province is the water tower of the northern Cordillera. Mount Data, on its border with Benguet along the Halsema Highway, rises to 2,310 meters, and its national park, declared in 1936 and expanded to 5,513 hectares in 1940, holds the headwaters of the Chico, Abra, Amburayan and Agno rivers, which water towns in Mountain Province, Benguet, Ifugao and far beyond. Its slopes carry pine and mossy oak forest. Mount Data has long drawn naturalists: the Englishman John Whitehead collected mammals and birds there in 1895, and the greater dwarf cloud rat and Whitehead's swiftlet were first found there. Farther east, Mount Amuyao on the Ifugao border is the province's highest peak. Lower down, the Chico runs past the Bontoc and Maligcong terraces, and Sagada's limestone hides caves used for burial.

Negros Occidental has lost most of its lowland forest to sugar, which makes its remaining mountain forests especially precious. The Northern Negros Natural Park, first set aside as a forest reserve on 28 April 1935 and made a natural park in 2005, covers the highlands of Murcia, Salvador Benedicto, Talisay, Silay and neighboring towns, centered on Mount Mandalagan and Mount Silay; of its 80,454 hectares, only about 16,687 are still forest, three-quarters of it old growth. To the south rises Kanlaon, an active stratovolcano and the highest mountain in the Visayas, whose forested slopes are a refuge for wildlife found only in the western Visayas.

The best-protected forest in Negros Oriental surrounds the twin crater lakes of Balinsasayao and Danao, on the slopes of the Cuernos de Negros (Mount Talinis) west of Dumaguete. The natural park is an important bird area with at least 114 bird species and 27 mammal species recorded, several of them found only on Negros and Panay.

Cotabato rises from the wide Pulangi River plain to Mount Apo, the highest mountain and volcano in the Philippines at 2,954 meters. Mount Apo Natural Park, set up under Republic Act No. 9237, protects about 54,975 hectares of forest on its slopes. The mountain is home to more than 270 bird species, 111 of them found only in the area, including the critically endangered Philippine eagle. Lake Agco and Lake Venado lie on its slopes, and the forests of central Mindanao also shelter shy ground birds such as the Mindanao bleeding-heart.

Samar Island Natural Park covers about 333,300 hectares, the largest contiguous tract of old-growth forest in the Philippines and the country's largest land protected area. It was made a natural park under the Expanded NIPAS Act of 2018, and in Northern Samar it reaches Catubig, Las Navas, Lope de Vega, Mondragon and Silvino Lobos. Its forests belong to the Mindanao and Eastern Visayas Endemic Bird Area, with species such as the Samar hornbill and the Visayan broadbill.

Nueva Ecija's richest wildlife lives along its northern and eastern borders, where the Caraballo Mountains and the Sierra Madre meet the plain, and in the southeast around Minalungao National Park. The Pantabangan–Carranglan Watershed Forest Reserve is the only home of Rafflesia consueloae, the smallest rafflesia in the world, and of Ceratocentron fesselii, one of the most critically endangered orchids in Southeast Asia because of illegal collecting. The province also has Philippine deer, Philippine warty pigs and native mice, and a pair of Philippine eagles found on the Sierra Madre side is protected by the local governments there.

Nueva Vizcaya's highest ground is Mount Pulag, at 2,928 meters the highest peak of Luzon, whose summit marks the meeting point of Benguet, Ifugao and Nueva Vizcaya; the Kayapa side lies in the province. The mountain's pine and mossy forests hold 33 recorded bird species, several threatened mammals and many species found nowhere else. Lower down, the Magat River rises in the province and flows north to the Magat Dam on the Isabela–Ifugao border, built between 1975 and 1982 for irrigation and power.

Occidental Mindoro is the last stronghold of the tamaraw, a dwarf buffalo found only on Mindoro and the second-largest native land mammal in the Philippines after the carabao. Its range shrank to Mounts Iglit-Baco and Aruyan by 2000, and the park's counts found about 470–520 animals (523 in 2018, 466–494 in April 2019). Mindoro's lowland forest, now mostly cleared, is also the only home of the Mindoro bleeding-heart and the Mindoro imperial pigeon. Offshore, Apo Reef Natural Park protects 34 km² of reef, where sharks, humphead wrasses and manta rays are seen.

Oriental Mindoro's interior rises to Mount Halcon, Mindoro's highest mountain. Naujan Lake, about 8,125 hectares of open water, is the fifth-largest lake in the country and a national park since 1956; it became a Ramsar wetland of international importance in 1999. Offshore, the Verde Island Passage has more than 300 coral species and is home to threatened sea turtles, humphead wrasse and giant clams.

Palawan is often called the country's last ecological frontier. Its main island, 450 kilometers long and only 50 wide, and some 1,780 smaller islands stretch from Mindoro toward Borneo, and some of its animals have close relatives there: the Philippine pangolin was long lumped with the Sunda pangolin of Borneo and mainland Southeast Asia and has been treated as its own species only since 1998. Bones of a tiger, an animal long gone from the Philippines, have even been found in Ille Cave near the village of New Ibajay. The Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park protects an 8.2-kilometer underground stretch of the Cabayugan River, flowing through limestone karst and a cave system at least 32 kilometers long straight into the sea. About 30 mammal species have been recorded in the park, among them the long-tailed macaque, the only primate there, the Palawan bearded pig, the binturong, the Palawan stink badger and the Palawan porcupine, and 165 bird species, including all 15 of Palawan's endemic birds. Far out in the Sulu Sea, 150 kilometers southeast of Puerto Princesa, the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park covers 97,030 hectares around two atolls and the smaller Jessie Beazley Reef, with a sheer 100-meter wall and islets where seabirds and sea turtles nest.

Pampanga is a low plain of rice fields and fishponds between two mountains: Mount Pinatubo on the western edge, whose 1991 eruption reshaped the rivers and lowlands, and Mount Arayat, a single-cone stratovolcano rising 1,026 meters from the plain. A plant new to science, Pyrostria arayatensis, was described from Mount Arayat National Park in 2020, but the mountain's forest is under heavy deforestation pressure. In the east, the Candaba Swamp floods each rainy season and draws thousands of migratory ducks and other waterbirds.

Pangasinan's best-known natural landmark is the Hundred Islands National Park off Alaminos, 124 limestone islands at low tide scattered over 16.76 square kilometers of Lingayen Gulf. The islands are thought to be about two million years old: ancient coral reefs, raised as the sea level dropped, were carved by waves into mushroom shapes, and beach forest of agoho and Terminalia and limestone forest of molave cover many of them. Overharvesting and illegal fishing stripped the park's reefs of giant clams; since then the city of Alaminos and the UP Marine Science Institute have reseeded and protected about 5,000. Across the gulf in Bolinao, the institute's Bolinao Marine Laboratory runs a giant clam ocean nursery around Silaki Island that has supplied clams to more than 60 reefs across the country. In the brackish ponds and pens of Dagupan and the coast, milkfish are raised by the ton.

Quezon's forests climb from the coconut lowlands to two very different mountains. In the west, Mount Banahaw and Mount San Cristobal are protected in the 10,901-hectare Mounts Banahaw–San Cristobal Protected Landscape. Banahaw is a sacred mountain to many, with springs and caves revered as puestos, and its forests are home to four rodents found nowhere else: the Banahaw tree mouse, Banahaw tweezer-beaked rat, Banahaw forest mouse and Banahaw lowland forest mouse. In the east, the Quezon Protected Landscape covers 938 hectares of lowland rainforest on limestone in the southern Sierra Madre, where birdwatchers can find the rufous and Luzon hornbills, pink-bellied imperial pigeons, colasisi parrots and flaming sunbirds, along with monitor lizards and wild pigs. The lowland forests of southern Luzon and Polillo are also the home of Gray's monitor, a fruit-eating lizard.

The Quirino Protected Landscape protects the Sierra Madre rainforest at the headwaters of the Cagayan River. At least 41 threatened species have been recorded there, including the Philippine eagle, the Isabela oriole and Cantor's giant softshell turtle, and a gecko first described in 2007 is so far known only from this area. The Addalam River at Aglipay is a home of the prized ludong.

Rizal rises from the shore of Laguna de Bay, the largest lake in the Philippines, to the southern Sierra Madre. In Baras, the Masungi Georeserve protects a limestone karst landscape that was once threatened by logging and quarrying. Its foundation was set up in 2015, and a geopark project since 2017 aims to restore about 2,700 hectares of degraded watershed around it. Around 400 species of plants and animals have been recorded there, among them cloud rats, monitor lizards, civets, monkeys and seasonal salinggogon blossoms. A new microsnail subspecies found on its rocks in 2017 is known from nowhere else.

Sibuyan Island has been called the "Galápagos of Asia" by some scientists, because it has stayed isolated since it formed. Primary forest still covers about 140 square kilometers, a third of the island, mostly protected in Mount Guiting-Guiting Natural Park. Five threatened mammals, a fruit bat and four rodents, are found only on Sibuyan, among them the Sibuyan striped shrew-rat, and the endangered fruit bat Nyctimene rabori also lives there.

Samar Island Natural Park, declared in 2003, is the largest land protected area in the Philippines at about 333,300 hectares, and it holds the country's largest unbroken stretch of old-growth forest. Its buffer zone reaches across all three Samar provinces and covers about a third of the island. The park's large watersheds include the Gandara watershed in Samar province. It is a known nesting site of the critically endangered Philippine eagle and shelters the Philippine eagle-owl, Philippine tarsier, Philippine flying lemur and the Samar hornbill. In Basey, the Sohoton park protects caves, underground rivers and limestone forest.

Most of Sarangani's protected nature is marine. Sarangani Bay, which the province shares with General Santos City, is a protected seascape with coral reefs, seagrass and mangroves. Surveys there have counted at least 411 fish species, 19 whale and dolphin species, five marine turtle species and 25 mangrove species. Tarsiers have been reported in the inland forests.

Siquijor is a coral island, and fossil giant clams still turn up in farmers' fields inland. Most of the island's remaining forest is on and around Mount Bandilaan, which was declared a forest reserve in 1940 and now has a natural park and butterfly sanctuary at Cantabon. A 2007 survey of the island's four main forest patches recorded 44 bird species, with the most in Bandilaan.

Sorsogon is world famous for its gentle giants. Whale sharks gather off Donsol between November and June, with the most sightings from February to May, and the province has built a regulated, community-run tourism around them. Inland, the Bulusan Volcano Natural Park protects about 3,673 hectares of rainforest, lakes and slopes around the active volcano.

Mount Matutum, an active stratovolcano 2,286 meters high, is the highest point in South Cotabato. Its forested slopes, home mainly to B'laan communities, shelter endangered species including the Philippine eagle and the Philippine tarsier. Lake Sebu, in the Allah Valley highlands, is one of the country's important watersheds.

Sogod Bay cuts deep into the middle of Southern Leyte, and its reefs and seasonal whale sharks draw divers from Maasin around to Padre Burgos. A three-year Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project surveyed the bay's reefs and taught residents about protecting them. The forested interior is part of the range of the Philippine tarsier. The Philippine Fault runs through the province, and its steep slopes make landslides a real hazard after heavy rain, as at Guinsaugon in 2006.

Sultan Kudarat's best-known wildlife site is a former farm. At Baras Bird Sanctuary in Tacurong, great, intermediate, little and cattle egrets roost with black-crowned and rufous night herons. Day birds leave at dawn and return in the late afternoon, just as the night herons fly out. Lake Buluan, about two-thirds of which lies in the province, is the other main wetland. Seven major rivers, among them the Allah and the Kabulnan, and 11 major springs drain the province's ranges.

Sulu's natural wealth is mostly in the sea. The Sulu Sea is one of the richest fishing grounds in the country, and Marungas Island has a pearl farm. On land, little forest remains on Jolo, and the province's best-known endemic bird no longer lives there.

Mangroves line much of Surigao del Norte's coast. On Siargao, the Del Carmen Mangrove Reserve covers about 4,871 hectares, more than half of the island's mangrove forest, and became a Ramsar wetland of international importance on 8 January 2024. Seagrass beds and coral reefs around the islands are still in relatively good condition. Sohoton Cove on Bucas Grande, entered through caves that are half-submerged most of the time and passable only at low tide, is one of the province's best-known natural sites.

About two-thirds of Surigao del Sur's land is classified as forest land, and much of the remaining lowland forest is around Bislig. In 2024, the American birder Peter Kaestner saw his 10,000th bird species at Tinuy-an Falls, a world record. Hinatuan Bay, at the mouth of the Enchanted River, is a habitat for sea turtles. Tinuy-an Falls itself is co-managed by the Bislig tourism office and the Manobo Tribal Council.

Tarlac's wildest land lies in the west, in the Zambales Mountains. Republic Act No. 12237, signed on 29 August 2025, made about 12,676 hectares in Mayantoc and San Jose the Mt. Sawtooth Protected Landscape. Mt. Sawtooth is the Tarlac part of Mount Tapulao, and surveys there confirmed several species found nowhere else, along with globally threatened animals.

Tawi-Tawi lies where the Sulu Sea meets the Celebes Sea. Tawi-Tawi Island has birds found nowhere else, among them the Tawitawi brown dove and the Sulu hornbill, but forest clearing has left many of them threatened. Bud Bongao's 250-hectare forest is one of the last moist forests in the Sulu Archipelago. Far to the northwest, the Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary protects six islands and about 243,000 hectares of sea on the Malaysian border, where green and hawksbill turtles nest; Baguan Island alone has about 63 percent of the nests.

Mount Tapulao, also called High Peak, is the highest mountain of the Zambales range at 2,044 meters, in the municipality of Palauig. Its trail climbs from grassland through dipterocarp and mossy forest to pine forest above about 1,800 meters; its name comes from tapolaw, the Sambal word for the pines. Old chromite mine pits still scar the summit. The massif continues east into Tarlac, where its forests became the Mt. Sawtooth Protected Landscape in 2025.

Rizal spent much of his exile in Dapitan collecting shells, insects, frogs and lizards with his students, and sent specimens to the museum in Dresden. European scientists named several of them after him. Today the old Rizal farm at Talisay is a protected landscape, and the forests of the peninsula's interior are home of the Subanen.

Mount Timolan Protected Landscape, about 1,995 hectares near Pagadian, was declared on 14 August 2000. It is an important bird area, home to the Philippine eagle, Philippine cockatoo and Philippine hawk-eagle, and its forests also shelter the Philippine tarsier, the Philippine warty pig and the Asian palm civet. The province's rivers include the Kumalarang, the Salug in Molave and the Dinas, which rises in the Timolan forests.

Sibuguey Bay is the province's great natural asset. Sixteen river systems drain into a complex of mangroves, tidal mudflats and reefs that has been a Ramsar wetland since 2024. From September to March the mudflats feed thousands of migratory shorebirds, including the endangered great knot and Far Eastern curlew. Mangroves in Siay hold what is believed to be the largest flying fox colony in the country.