Pulo Island, commonly known as Isla Pulo, is a long, narrow island surrounded by
mudflats
Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal fl ...
in the
Manila Bay
Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between the Phili ...
coast of
Navotas
Navotas, officially the City of Navotas ( fil, Lungsod ng Navotas), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 247,543 people.
It is known as the ...
, about north of
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
in the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
. It is a
sitio
A ''sitio'' (Spanish for "site") in the Philippines is a territorial enclave that forms part of a barangay. Typically rural, a ''sitios location is usually far from the center of the barangay itself and could be its own barangay if its popul ...
in Barangay
Tanza
Tanza, officially the Municipality of Tanza ( tgl, Bayan ng Tanza), formerly known as Santa Cruz de Malabón, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Cavite, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 312,116 people ...
, connected to the mainland of Navotas by a bamboo bridge.
The island is known for its
mangrove
A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...
s for which it was declared a "marine tree park" and as one of four ecotourism sites in
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
established under the National Ecotourism Strategy in 1999. In 2014, it was home to a resettlement site of about 137 indigent families that mostly occupied the island's southern tip.
The island's name is
tautological toponym, for "pulo" already means "island" in the
Filipino language
Filipino (; , ) is an Austronesian language. It is the national language ( / ) of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the country, with English. It is a standardized variety of Tagalog based on the native dialect, spoke ...
.
Description
Isla Pulo runs along the coast of Manila Bay from the mouth of the Tangos River in Navotas to the village of Salambao at the city's border with
Obando,
Bulacan
Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan ( tl, Lalawigan ng Bulacan), is a province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on August 15, 1578, and part of the Metr ...
near the mouth of the Meycauayan River. It is about long and wide at its widest point, with an area of .
It is joined at low tide to the mainland of Navotas by
intertidal
The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of Marine habitat, habitats with var ...
mudflats.
The island is known to host the remaining old growth mangrove forest found in Metro Manila.
Its mangroves and surrounding mudflats provide sanctuary for 11 species of migratory birds, including the
Chinese egret
The Chinese egret or Swinhoe's egret (''Egretta eulophotes'') is a threatened species of egret from east Asia. The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1860.
Description
The Chinese egret averages 68 cm in height. The plumage ...
,
tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...
,
kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...
,
gull
Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...
and
plover
Plovers ( , ) are a widely distributed group of wading birds belonging to the subfamily Charadriinae.
Description
There are about 66 species in the subfamily, most of them called "plover" or "dotterel". The closely related lapwing subfa ...
. The most common type of mangrove found on the island is the
Avicennia rumphiana
''Avicennia rumphiana'' is a species of tropical mangrove in the family Acanthaceae. It is considered vulnerable by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in the 2008 assessment. , Plants of the World Online considered it to be only a variety of ...
(bungalon). It is also inhabited by 3 species of crabs and 14 species of shellfish.
Until the 1980s, Isla Pulo contained long stretches of white sand beaches and thick mangrove vegetation. Its ecology changed with the arrival of informal settlers in the 1990s. The island had become heavily polluted, with trash from a nearby dumpsite washing up on its shores. Several mangrove trees were cut down for charcoal and many of the island's fauna were hunted for food. A campaign was launched in 2014 to declare the island a critical habitat and eco-tourism area in order to protect the remaining mangroves and restore the island's ecosystem.
All informal settlers on the island were relocated in 2016. A waterbird census conducted in January 2017 reported a sharp increase in the number of bird sightings in the island to 11,782 from 5,302 the previous year, which was attributed to the decline of disturbance following the relocation.
See also
*
Freedom Island
Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...
*
List of islands in the Greater Manila Area
This is a list of islands in the Greater Manila Area in the Philippines.
There are several small islands located within the Greater Manila Area, particularly along the coast of Manila Bay, both natural and artificial. Many of these islands wer ...
References
{{Parks and plazas in Manila
Islands of Metro Manila
Islands of Manila Bay
Navotas
Sitios and puroks of the Philippines