MANILA, Philippines – Five new orchid species have been discovered in remote Philippine mountains, protected from poaching because of an insurgency in the region, conservationists said Friday, June 24.
The species are found only in a mountain range on the rebellion-torn Mindanao area in the southern Philippines and have eluded those cataloguing plant life for 200 years, expert Miguel David de Leon told Agence France-Presse.
Poaching of wild orchids mostly by locals is rampant in the Philippines, with some communities illegally harvesting them without permits for export or to sell them along roads.
But Mindanao region is among the country's areas wracked by one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies, whereby Maoist guerrillas retain support among the poor in the farming and mountainous communities.
"The insurgency problem helps prevent poachers or would-be orchid-hunters from entering the forests," said De Leon, a plant and wildlife conservationist who found the species while trekking the mountains of Bukidnon province in Mindanao.
"These areas are very isolated. The terrain is treacherous, accessible only by foot and -read more
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