Baguio eyes P400-M zoo

BAGUIO CITY—The city government here is reviewing a public-private partnership proposal to build a zoo to beef up tourism while advocating biodiversity. The Avilon Wildlife Conservation Foundation, which operates a zoo in Rizal province, plans to construct animal containment facilities at a section of the Baguio Botanical Garden. Remnants of animal enclosures and tunnels that housed a lion can still be found at the garden, which housed a small wildlife sanctuary in the 1950s and 1960s. But the Baguio government at the time could not afford to feed the animal, said Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda during this week’s executive-legislative assembly. Avilon president Joaquin Gaw, who outlined his proposal at the meeting, first introduced the P400-million zoo project in 2019. —VINCENT CABREZA