Angelique M. Songco
Protected Area Superintendent, Tubbataha Reefs
After serving in the Armed Forces of the Philippines for five years, Angelique Songco worked as a scuba diving instructor in the dive shop she owns with her partner of almost 40 years. She worked as a diving professional on liveaboards in the Tubbataha Reefs for over ten years.
With like-minded individuals she helped establish a local environmental non-government organization for the purpose of supporting the conservation of Tubbataha. She represented the NGO on the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board, the policy-making body for the park. The Board hired her as park manager in 2001.
Songco attained a master’s degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, England. She has been named Hero of the Environment by WWF-Philippines twice. Under her leadership, Tubbataha won the Platinum Global Ocean Refuge Award and was named one of the three best-managed large no-take marine-protected areas in the world. She was also awarded the KfW-Bernhard-Grzimek-Preis 2019 for her work in biodiversity conservation.
Although her official designation is Protected Area Superintendent, she is better known as Mama Ranger of Tubbataha. She is a mother of two.
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