Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape
Also known as: Rajah Sikatuna National Park (former designation) · RSPL
Definition
Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape is a protected area of more than ten thousand hectares of forested hills at the center of the island province of Bohol, Philippines. Spread across several municipalities including Bilar, Carmen, Batuan, and Sierra Bullones, it preserves one of the last significant stands of lowland molave and dipterocarp forest in the Philippines and shelters Bohol’s emblematic Philippine tarsier along with deer, wild pigs, and a rich bird community. Established as a protected landscape in 2000 under the National Integrated Protected Areas System, it is named after Rajah Sikatuna, the sixteenth-century Bohol chieftain of the historic blood compact with Miguel López de Legazpi. (Wikipedia — Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape)
Identities
| Source Type | Identity |
|---|---|
| Wikipedia | Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape |
| Wikidata | Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape (Q1330147) |
| DBpedia | N/A |
| ProductOntology | N/A |
| Wiktionary | N/A |
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) | N/A |
| MeSH | N/A |
| NCBI Taxonomy | N/A |
| AGROVOC | N/A |
| Google Scholar | Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape Bohol forest biodiversity tarsier Philippines |
| ConceptNet | N/A |
| OpenCyc | N/A |
Also Known As
- Rajah Sikatuna National Park (former designation)
- RSPL
Examples and Analogies
- Bohol’s green heart: If the Chocolate Hills are Bohol’s geological signature, Rajah Sikatuna is its biological one — the island’s main remaining wilderness, playing the role that Mount Makiling plays for Laguna.
- Forest island in farmland: Like the last forest patches of Sibuyan, it survives as a wooded enclave amid coconut and rice land, which makes every hectare inside its boundary disproportionately valuable to wildlife.
Usage Scenarios
1. Biodiversity Conservation
The landscape is managed for habitat protection of tarsiers, endemic birds, and lowland forest ecosystems under NIPAS-category rules administered with the DENR and local governments.
2. Ecotourism and Recreation
Visitors camp, hike, and bird-watch along its trails and firewatch towers; the Logarita spring-fed pools near Bilar are a popular watering point on Bohol countryside tours.
3. Research and Education
The forest serves as a living laboratory for studies of Philippine lowland forest ecology and as an outdoor classroom for biodiversity education.
Strategies
- Couple strict protection zones with clearly zoned ecotourism areas so visitor income funds conservation without penetrating core wildlife habitat
- Integrate surrounding farmlands through tree corridors and agroforestry to reduce isolation of the forest block
- Sustain community-based guiding and handicraft livelihoods so barangays around the park gain from its protection rather than its exploitation
Security and Safety Measures
- Visitors register and are oriented at the protected-area office; guides are required on interior trails to prevent people getting lost in the vast forest block
- Fire discipline is strict — camping is confined to designated sites, as dry-season forest fires are the park’s most acute hazard
- Wildlife interaction rules (notably a strict no-touching, no-flash policy toward tarsiers) protect both animals and visitors
Historical Context
The forests of interior Bohol escaped much of the coastal conversion that accompanied centuries of settlement, and in the American period the core of today’s landscape was set aside as a forest reserve, later managed as the Rajah Sikatuna National Park named for the datu who forged the 1565 Sandugo with Spain. Under the National Integrated Protected Areas System framework the area was reclassified and strengthened as the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape in 2000, and it was subsequently covered by the expanded protected-area legislation of 2018. As Bohol’s tourism boomed around the Chocolate Hills, panglao beaches, and tarsier sanctuaries, Rajah Sikatuna quietly remained the island’s most important conservation asset — the deep forest that keeps Bohol’s wildlife from becoming a memory.
Challenges and Controversies
Encroachment and Illegal Extraction
Timber poaching, wildlife trapping, and kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) at the margins persist despite protection, a classic enforcement gap for large Philippine protected areas.
Tarsier Tourism Ethics
Tarsier display facilities around Bohol, some marketed alongside the protected landscape, have been criticized for stressing the animals, sharpening debate over authentic sanctuary practices versus commercial exhibits.
Related Topic
Chocolate Hills