Monte Apo

Mount Apo Natural Park protects the volcano of the same name, which at 2,954 metres is the highest mountain in the Philippines, between the provinces of Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental and North Cotabato, on Mindanao. It was declared a national park in 1936, in the country's first generation of protected areas, and was later recategorised as a natural park.

The volcano is a stratovolcano, considered potentially active, with fumaroles and sulphur fields at the higher altitudes and a crater lake. Its complete altitudinal gradient, from lowland dipterocarp forest to cloud forest and summit scrub, supports a floristic diversity among the greatest in the Philippines, with a high degree of endemism and a notable richness of orchids and carnivorous plants.

It is one of the main strongholds of the Philippine eagle, the national bird and one of the largest and most threatened raptors in the world, and it is also home to tarsiers, hornbills and endemic fruit bats. The mountain is sacred to the Bagobo, Manobo and other Lumad peoples of Mindanao. Its main management problems are agricultural expansion on the lower slopes, fires started by hikers and geothermal development around it. It is recognised as an ASEAN Heritage Park.