In a special half hour show, CNN’s Call to Earth meets conservationist Karina May (KM) Reyes who is on a mission to protect the Philippines’ last ecological frontier.

Palawan, a cluster of islands in the Philippines, is home to underground rivers, turquoise coastlines, and lush mountain peaks. The entire area, covering more than 1,700 islands, has been designated a biosphere reserve by UNESCO, and it also hosts two world heritage sites, the Puerto-Princesa Subterranean River National Park and Tubbataha Reefs.

Despite these designations, threats still remain from mining, the illegal wildlife trade, climate change, and deforestation.

Reyes is the cofounder of the Centre for Sustainability PH (CS), leading a grassroots mission to protect the archipelago. She tells CNN, “Palawan is super special because from ridge to reef, you have pristine landscapes – mountains that still retain old growth canopy cover all the way to coral reefs that still have incredible biodiversity, whether you’re after manta rays or whale sharks or tiger sharks or turtles.”

Rainforests once covered around 90% of the Philippines, she explains, but now less than 3% of intact old growth forest remains – the majority of which is in Palawan, “Our mission is to conserve the Philippines’ last remaining 3% of pristine rainforest through the establishment of national parks.”

The team’s first project began in 2014, targeting Cleopatra’s Needle, one of the mountains on the main island of Palawan. It is also the ancestral domain of the indigenous Batak tribe, who rely on the natural resources of the surrounding forest to sustain their livelihoods. Reyes says, “If we didn’t have indigenous Batak still here on (the) land, we wouldn’t continue to have the forests that we do. It’s as a result and as a blessing of their stewardship of the area that we still have access to these forests, and they haven’t been destroyed.”

Working closely with the Batak people, CS gathered data on the area, building a case for why it should be protected, and in 2017, the hard work paid off, with the entire area of Cleopatra’s Needle – more than 41,000 hectares – declared a critical habitat. The designation includes a ban on the extraction of minerals, logging, quarrying and wildlife trading.

Now, their attention has turned to Sultan Peak, a mountain in the southern half of Palawan island, which has no formal protection. Reyes describes the area, “The area that we’re trying to protect is about 8,000 hectares, pristine rainforest, also this incredible watershed system, and it’s completely unstudied.”

Reyes hopes that they will be able to protect the area within three years. But even after getting community buy-in and gathering an array of scientific data, she says challenges remain, “At the end of the day, if you don’t have politicians and decision makers on board, then there’s no one there to sign off that law.”

Reyes sees a key part of her role as communicating the area’s wider value. She concludes, “Protecting these areas is so important, not just for biodiversity, but also for protecting vulnerable communities from climate change.”