Samar Island Natural Park
| Samar Island Natural Park | |
|---|---|
| Samar Natural Park | |
Entrance to the Panhulugan Cave at the Sohoton Natural Bridge Park | |
| Location | Samar |
| Nearest city | Tacloban |
| Coordinates | 12°2′10″N 125°12′40″E / 12.03611°N 125.21111°E |
| Area | 333,300 hectares (824,000 acres) |
| Established | February 20, 1996 (forest reserve) August 13, 2003 (natural park) |
| Governing body | Department of Environment and Natural Resources |
.svg){kind=link}
The Samar Island Natural Park, in Samar, is the largest contiguous tract of old-growth forest in the Philippines. It is the country's largest terrestrial protected area, with an area of 333,300 hectares (824,000 acres). The buffer is spread north to south over the island's three provinces (Eastern Samar, Northern Samar and Samar province) and totals 458,700 hectares (1,133,000 acres), about a third of the entire island of Samar.
The park includes some of the island's well-known natural landmarks and landscapes which have been earlier designated for protection, namely the former Sohoton Natural Bridge National Park, the former Calbiga Caves Protected Landscape, the former Taft Forest Wildlife Sanctuary, the former Jicontol Watershed Forest Reserve and the former Bulosao Watershed Forest Reserve. It has a large biodiversity. It is a center of plant and animal diversity and endemism in the Philippines containing a number of threatened species belonging to the Eastern Visayas and Mindanao biogeographic region.
Samar Island Natural Park was declared a national park under Republic Act No. 11038 (Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act of 2018) signed by President Rodrigo Duterte in July 2018.