20/08/2026
Repost Raizza Acuzar from BIOCAMP last year. Join us this October 8-11 for a lifechanging experience 💚
— “This trip has been a wake-up call.
Hiking through Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park (MIBNP), seeing the rangers and wardens again, meeting new people who inspire, and spending time with the katutubo communities — it made me reflect deeply.
What are four days of seeing them compared to what they’ve been living through their whole lives? Who am I to claim that I understand?
As Ma’am Ōbí, one of the anthro-zoology experts we were lucky to be with during the camp, said: “Ang tao ay hayop. Ang hayop ay tao.” Everything is interconnected, that’s the anthropological and zoological truth.
The system of life doesn’t separate us from the rest of nature. We breathe the same air, share the same land, and rely on the same fragile balance. Those who emit and those who suffer, we’re all bound together, one way or another.
The tamaraw (Bubalus mindorensis), a dwarf buffalo found only in Mindoro, is critically endangered. Today, they survive in just four places: Mounts Iglit-Baco Natural Park, Upper Amnay, Aruyan-Malati, and Mount Calavite Wildlife Sanctuary.
Without conservation action, extinction is almost certain, especially in the smaller sites where the odds are already near zero. Only the herd in Mounts Iglit-Baco still stands a chance.”