How a bird festival changed Balanga City
THERE’S a city in the Philippines where one can see thousands of migratory birds flocking to in December. A few hours drive from Manila is Balanga City in Bataan province, an area considered to have the highest number of migratory birds in the country. In 2012, more than 25,000 birds were counted in one day in Balanga.
The Wild Bird Club of the Philippines is holding its yearly bird watching festival — The Philippine Bird Festival — which started on Dec. 9 and continues until Dec. 11. Now on its 10th year, the festival had several activities such as parades of each municipality’s bird mascot (a migratory bird that is often seen in their area), lectures on environmental issues, discussions on successful models of ecological tourism, bird-watching hikes, and more.
The focus of the festivals has always been children. By partnering with schools, the festival brings teachers and their students to the event. This young audience see no birds in cages at the festival because the club wants them to know that birds can exist freely in nature, said Gina Mapua, president of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, said during a press conference on Dec. 2.
The Philippine Bird Festival is held in different areas every year, although this is the second time the festival is coming to Balanga. It was first held in this city in 2009 and Ms. Mapua noted that it was one of their most successful. The 2015 festival has expanded, involving other municipalities in Bataan aside from Balanga City.
Each festival location was not just chosen because it has many migratory birds, but also because of the willingness of the local government to promote conservation and bird watching, said Ms. Mapua.
Jose Enrique Garcia III, Balanga City mayor, said that before the club visited his city, residents just ignored the mudflats, almost seven hectares of worm-rich terrain that is a haven for migratory birds.
The locals responded well to the festival, said Mr. Garcia, who noted that it opened their eyes to the importance of the migratory birds that visit the area. The city started its own yearly bird festival — the Ibong Dayo Festival — celebrated simultaneously with The Philippine Bird Festival. The city was also able to declare the mudflat area a bird sanctuary, created a task force for the area to be protected and promoted, put up an information center and viewing decks at the mudflats, and train tour guides.
Mr. Garcia added that the festival also increased people’s awareness of environmental issues and has helped garner support for the passing of environmentally friendly ordinances like banning certain tricycles models that they discovered to be pollution-generating and implementing no smoking policies.
The festival’s economic impact is still building, said the mayor. From 2010 to 2014, Balanga has seen a 425% increase in tourists, but that came from a small base of less than 30,000. Also, most of these tourists are small children on organized field trips so these young ones don’t really buy much from the city. They are currently thinking of better ways to package the bird festival, maybe even bundling it with cultural and historical destinations in the province like Mount Samat (the World War II shrine on top of a mountain that has a 90-foot cross), Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar (a resort featuring restored heritage houses), and the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (now an educational site and bird watching area). — Jasmine Agnes T. Cruz
