FACTS about Samar Island, The Philippines:
- Samar is the third largest island in the Philippine Archipelago, with a total land area of 1.348 million hectares (one hectare equals 2.5 acres).
- The island is a rich repository of biodiversity, with 2,400 species of flowering plants, including 406 endemic species, 40 species of which are found only on the island.
- One hundred and ninety seven bird species have been recorded on Samar, including 50 Philippine endemics, including the Philippine Eagle, left. Samar Island has one of the highest known populations of the Philippine Eagle (also known as the Monkey-Eating Eagle) in the whole archipelago.
- Samar Island has the largest extant, unfragmented tracts of lowland tropical rainforests in the country, consisting of 360,000 hectares. However, the island has suffered significant ecological degradation over the years. Over 60 percent of the islandıs original forest has been lost to agriculture or converted to grasslands since the 1950s.
- The Samar Island Biodiversity Project is working to establish the Samar Island Natural Park, which will protect a core area of 347,000 hectares of natural forest and about 123,000 hectares of buffer zone.
