The framework was based on the best scientific data available on the corridor's biological wealth, socio-economic status, the factors that can limit threatened species' survival over the long term, the threats to ecosystem health and functions, and which stakeholders are key to the conservation of the KBAs. A conservation framework was developed to serve as a 10-year blueprint for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development within eastern Mindanao. These KBAs are at the same time the life blood of 4 cities, 88 municipalities and 8 provinces that all depend on the water, natural resources and the ecological services these KBAs provide. The KBAs altogether cover about 909,191 hectares (ha) of wildlife habitats for 69 globally endangered species. These “corridors of life” aim to provide habitat and dispersal routes for wildlife, maintain crucial ecological processes, while providing opportunities for improving the quality of lives of impoverished communities inhabiting the corridors. The program's idea is to set up protection and management regimes for the core KBAs and establish links between them through linear patches of wildlife habitats called “biological corridors”. The geographic cores of this cross-cutting iniative are nine (9) key biodiversity areas (KBAs) and the mosaic of landscapes amid them.
To help solve this biodiversity crisis, the Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund (CEPF) funded a conservation program for the Eastern Mindanao Biodiversity Corridor (EMBC), one of three “megadiverse” yet “hotspot” focal areas in the country. But at the same time, our country is a global “hotspot” because forests and other natural areas, with their unique plants and animals, are being lost at a fast rate. The Philippines is one of the world's 17 “megadiversity” countries because it contains a high proportion of unique biodiversity.
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