Hi Jake

I would start contacting Emerson Sy(hspfounder@yahoo.com) of Herpetologial Society of the Phillipnes(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/herpsocietyphilippines/). He heads a small group of herpetologist, researchers from the University of the Philippines and other countries, and herp hobbyist/lovers and started the society a couple of years ago due to the lack of such organization in PI. He use to reside in Southern California but is currently living in PI. They have been working with the government(DENR) for the protection and education of the masses to benifit the local herp population. There's only a couple of areas that you could probobly go to since there's a lot of devastation and abuse of the natural resources in the country. Partly because of the population density of some areas. Hope this info can get you and others started.

The warning regarding the dangers of traveling is for the most part very true. Frankly there's a lot of poverty in the country and there's a lot of people with nothing to loose. There's also a couple of rebel group organizations that is fighting the government that does target foreigners for ransome to get their organization funded. For the most part do stay away from Mindanao if you can since some areas, although good for herping, is dangerous for foreigners (and even some Filipinos). If you're going around the coutry make sure that you hire someone trusted driver/guide to take you around since sometimes public transportation are targeted by theives. You can usually hire someone for a week or as long as you need them. Also try not to show the "bling-bling" and dress down a bit. If you're a foreigner you're ovious enough as it is. Not all of PI is dangerous and there are alot of resorts you can pick from that is relatively safe. The only work is caution when traveling as with anywhere else in the world. Hope this helps a bit.


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Jonel @ Selective Propagations
www.spsnakes.com

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