Earth is blessed with diverse mangrove species. And biodiversity in mangrove species is a good thing because a diverse mangrove forest is far more resilient, productive, and capable of providing ecosystem services than a monoculture forest.
Though estimates vary, there are at least 50 and maybe as many as 80 mangrove species in the planet with the highest concentration of species in the Indo-Pacific region. The Philippines is home to approximately 35 to 46 species of mangroves, making our beloved country one of the most mangrove-rich countries in the world. Commonly found genera in the archipelago include Rhizophora (bakhaw), Avicennia (bungalon), Sonneratia (pagatpat) and Nypa (nipa).
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| World map of the mangrove distribution zones and the number of mangrove species along each region. Source: Gold Standard. |
There is one mangrove species that is considered extremely rare in the Philippines. It is the Kandelia candel, also known as Baler Bakauan.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources Adminstrative Order No. 2017-11 (DAO 2017-11) lists the Kandelia candel as a critically endangered species, meaning it is a species facing extremely high risk of extinction in the wild in the immediate future.
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| DENR Administrative Order 2017-11. Kandelia candel is included in the list of critically endangered flora species. |
The
K. candel is extremely rare that it was thought to only be found in only a few specific sites in in the province of Aurora. The occurrence of
K. candel in Aurora was first recorded in 1996, when a mangrove specialist working as a consultant of the then Aurora Integrated Area Development project discovered the species in Baler and Casiguran Bay. Thus, the local name Baler Bakauan. Since then, no other sigthing of the species in other provinces in the Philippines has been reported until in 2025. Last year, it was seen in the social media accounts of mangrove expert Dr.
Jurgenne Primavera and UPLB professor
Ethan Hernandez that they visited
K. candel in a mangrove forest in Tinambac, Camarines Sur. Eureka! Two respected scientists confirming the presence of the extremely rare mangrove species in the home province of the Mangrove Loving Penguin (MLP).
Wow. If Kandelia candel is in the MLP's neighorhood then I gotta see it for myself. Who was I gonna contact to know the exact location of the extremely rare mangrove species? Social media provided the answer. In her facebook post about the visit to Tinambac's
K. candel, Dr Jurgenne Primavera mentioned a group of the
Eagle Scouts Association of Camarines Sur called
Bagacay Outfit 723. With the speed of communication increasing dramatically with the advent of social media, it was not difficult to track down the leader of Bagacay Outfit 723 in the person of Caloy Ubaldo.
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| Group photo of Dr. Jurgenne Primavera's visit to Brgy Bagacay, Tinambac in late 2025. Dr. Primavera is at the leftmost while Caloy Ubaldo is second to the right. |
Caloy is a nature loving teacher at the
Bagacay National High School in Tinambac. He is a mentor to a group of Boy Scouts known as the Bagacay Outfit 723. Caloy resides in Naga City and patiently travels 42 kms via motorcycle to Barangay Bagacay to teach. Blessed with a generous heart, he readily said yes when I communicated to him my request to visit the mangrove forest where the
K. candel is located. So we agreed to meet on the last Saturday of February in Tinambac. Meeting place was in front of the Bagacay National High School.
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| The Mangrove Loving Penguin in front of Bagacay National High School |
Excited for the opportunity to see the extremely rare
K. candel, me and my son Marcel were early at the meeting place. Barangay Bagacay is actually the first barangay of Tinambac coming from the neighboring town of Calabanga. The two towns are separated by the Tigman River. We did not, though, have to wait long for Caloy as he arrived on time per our agreed meeting time. After some brief introduction, he asked us, on our pick up truck, to follow him, on his motorbike through the maze-like road of a nearby fishing village. After two rights and two lefts, we parked our vehicles beside a six-foot seawall. We walked for a few meters and Caloy fetched one of his students from a house at the end of the road. Her name is Zyrie and her house is rhe one closest to the mangroves.
We stepped off the concrete road and walked for more than a couple hundred meters on a sandy shore till we reach the mouth of the Tigman River. Caloy then pointed to a big patch of mangroves along the river. He called this area the Mangrove Site 4.
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| The mouth of the Tigman River. The river empties into San Miguel Bay. |
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| MLP with Teacher Caloy and student in front of Mangrove Site 4 |
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| The mud inside Mangrove Site 4 is knee deep. |
Mangrove Site 4 is where we will see for the first time the K. candel. We crossed a branch of the Tigman River and all four of us were soon knee deep in mud. Then Caloy calmly and without much fanfare pointed to a mangrove and said that this is a K. candel. At first glance, that mangrove looked similar to the more common Bakawan Babae (Rhizophora mucronata) beside it. Both mangrove species actually belong to the same Rhizophoraceae family which have common characteristics like viviparous germination and prop/stilt roots.
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| A Rhizophora mucronata on the left and a Kandelia candel on the right |
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| The MLP beside a K. candel. How rare can you get. Found in only 2 provinces in the Philippines |
But upon closer inspection, we can see the defining differences between the two.
On the root structure, R. mucronata is characterized by its prominent, tangled prop roots (stilt roots) that grow directly from the trunk, providing stability in deeper water. K. candel do not have these prominent, tall prop roots. Instead, the K. candel have a more braided root appearance at the base which are called buttresses.
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| K. candel has a specialized root system characterized by a thickened stem base, buttress-like roots, and often braided at the base. |
On the propagules (seedlings), R. mucronata produces the lobgest, heaviest, and thickest propagules (often 60 cms). On the other hand, K. candel produces shorter, more slender propagules (generally up to 40 cms). In fact, the specific name candel of this mangrove species is derived from the Latin word "candela", meaning a candle, referring to the slender, candle-like shape of its propagule.
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| K. candel produces a propagule - a specialized elongated seedling that germinates while still on the tree (vivipary). The K. candel propagule is shorter compared to that of the R. mucronata. It often appears as a slender green "candle" hanging from the mangrove. |
Caloy also mentioned that the bark of K. candel are not succeptible to barnacle infestation unlike in R.mucronata. Barnacles attach to the stems and prop roots of R. mucronata, often leading to the death of the plant due to the cement they produce for attachment. On the part of K. candel, mature trees and their bark appear more resistant to barnacle infestation. Studies show that K. candel extracts contain metabolites like alkaloids, flavonoids and tannins that inhibit barnacle larva settlement.
While listening to the knowledge sharing of Caloy, the MLP was able to video him talk about the major difference of the rare
K. candel and the more common
R. mucronata. Here is the
link to this video which I shared in the
Mangrove Loving Penguin YouTube account.
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| MLP YouTube video of the K. candel. Here is the link |
Quite fascinating to get to know more about this extremely rare mangrove species. The K. candel thrives along the inner banks of tidal rivers and creeks, preferring locations with specific tidal levels. It acts as an effective mud binder and coastline stabilizer, protecting against erosion. The presence of an extremely rare mangrove species like the K. candel signifies a high value, unique ecological niche, often indicating a relatively undisturbed or specialized habitat that requires conservation. It highlights biodiversity hotspots.
MLP's knowledge about mangroves is enriched thanks to the generosity of Caloy and his student in sharing what they know about the K. candel and other species. It is inspiring to see a high school teacher teaching his students and boy scouts love of nature in general and mangroves in particular.
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| Caloy holding a Pagatpat wildling (Sonneratia alba) that they will bag and nurture in their nursery. |
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| Zyrie, one of the students of Caloy, is quite knowledgeable of mangroves. No formal training on the subject, just field work with the help of the celphone. |
Inspiring, which begs the question - how and why did a group of boy scouts and their teacher start this initiative for mangoves? Let us hear it from Caloy's own words:
"The Bagacay Outfit initiatied mangrove planting activities in December 2017 in New Caaluan, Tinambac as part of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines' (BSP) backyard camping environment initiative. This location was designated as Bagacay Outfit Mangrove Site 1. In March 2018, in collaboration with Barangay Old Caaluan, Bagacay Outfit 723 established Mangrove Site 2. Since that time, the organization has consistently conduced mangrove planting , coastal clean up drives, and outreach programs in partnership with the Barangay Old Caaluan Council and the local community. To address the demand for mangrove seedlings, Bagacay Outfit 723 established a mangrove nursery in Sitio Catdose, Barangay Bagacay, which became Mangrove Site 3. In 2019, with support from former Barangay Captain Glori Dazal and Jacky Tolentino of the Environment, Disaster Management, and Emergency Response Office (EDMERO), the group launched a mangrove reforestation project along Putol Beach and Tigman River, now recognized as Mangrove Site 4. In 2022, in partnership with the Barangay Local Government Unit of Cagsao, Calabanga, reforestation efforts were expanded to Sitio Bugiw, resulting in the establishment of Mangrove Sites 5 and 6. As members of the Scouting community, Bagacay Outfit 723 aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, participating in the World Scout Environmental Program, Tide Turners Challenge, and Scouts of the World Award. These programs emphasize environemtal protection, climate action, and coastal management to enhance local livelihoods and promote conservation. In 2024, personnel from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (DENR CENRO) Goa identified the rare Kandelia candel mangrove species during geo-tagging activities along Tigman River. This species has previously been documented in only two locations in the Philippines: two towns (Bales & Casiguran) in Aurora."
Spoken like a true practitioner of the Boy Scouts spirit of willingness to help as inspired by Chief Scout Robert Baden-Powell. The founder of the Boy Scouts movement in 1908, Lord Baden-Powell emphasized proactive service, urging fellow Boy Scouts to "try and leave this world a little better than you found it." He also viewed nature as a "temple" and his key teachings on the subject included "as a Scout you are a guardian of the woods."
Such dedication and enthusiasm for both nature and service from Caloy and his Boy Scouts of Bagacay Outfit 723. And we need that same kind of positive energy from all of us as we do something helpful for biodiversity. Zooming out, biodiversity loss is a major global risk. In a Feb 2025 article , the World Health Organization (WHO) pointed out that biodiversity loss is an unprecedented global crisis driven by human activity, with approximately 1 million species facing extinction. It disrupts essental ecosystem services like food production, water purification, and climate regulation, threatening over US$ 1 trillion in annual economic value and key health services. Key drivers of biodiversity loss include land-use change, climate change and overexploitation.
Zooming in, what Caloy the Bagacay Outfit 723 are doing in taking care of the mangrove sites in the coastal barangays of Tinambac and Calabanga have a positive impact on the biodiversity in the area. In addition, it should be a source of pride and joy for Tinambac that their mangrove forest is home to a diverse number of mangrove species, including the rarest of Philippine mangroves - the Kandelia candel. The more diverse a mangrove forest the better. While individual mangrove are remarkable for their ability to thrive in harsh, salty and oxygen-poor environments, it is the combination of different species that builds a robust coastal defense and a thriving habitat for other wildlife.
As for the Mangrove Loving Penguin, it is a rare treat to be face to face with the extremely rare K. candel. Not many can say that in their lifetime, they have seen up close an critically endangered flora and fauna. Hopefully, with Bagacay Outfit 723, the community and the government working closely and effectively together, the number of K. candel would flourish and soon be out of the list of critically endangered species of the DENR. When that happens, we will surely have tried and made this world a little better.
Amen to that.
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| Caloy gazing at the thriving mangroves of Mangrove Site 4. |
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| The experience of visiting the K. candel and other mangroves in Mangrove Site 4 reminds the MLP that the function of life is merely not to exist but to live. |
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