By Dr. Jose Ingles | ingles.jose@gmail.com
Capture fisheries today
The future of fisheries in the country toward providing food security and proper nutrition is bleak. Poverty rate in the fisheries sector has swelled from 31 percent to 43 percent in the past six years. In 2014 the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) admitted that overfished fishing grounds are more of a rule rather than the exemption, with 10 of 13 major fishing grounds as overfished.
A vision for the future
Given the current status and performance of both capture and farming sectors, it is expected that our seafood security is already compromised as we progress to 2040, when our population is expected to hit 150 million. By then, our seafood gap will be around 5.2 million tons, using our present annual per-capita consumption of 36 kilograms. If we fail to reverse the current trend of declining productivity, the country will be importing (if we have money to pay) its seafood needs.
In short, the Philippine fisheries needs a comprehensive action plan designed to regulate fisheries to solve the overfishing problem and to bring the fisheries population to sustainable levels.
So, what needs to be done? These strategies are proposed.
Restructure the Fisheries Governance Framework: We are currently managing our fisheries resources based on political, not ecological, boundaries. This needs to change based on the reality that fish swim across political boundaries. Currently, fisheries in municipal waters are under the local government units (LGUs) using political boundaries as unit of management. Quite distinctly managed are the commercial waters managed by the BFAR, using a commodity-based approach.
Solutions: The only way to effectively manage our fisheries resources is to use an ecosystem approach to management either using the fishing ground or as fishery commodity as the unit of management and is governed by the BFAR, including resources under the municipal waters.
Suggested action points
Identify, through a national policy, fishery-management units (FMUs) all over the country.
Set up a management structure to govern these FMUs. This may include the activation and creation of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils (FARMCs) that will work with LGUs, or if the fishery area falls within National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas), a Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) or a similar entity.
Fully devolve and strengthen the regional offices of the bureau of fisheries and aquatic resources to better serve the local constituencies, according to the Local Government Code (Republic Act 7165). Note: While a national policy to declare FMUs may appear straightforward, this proposal may contravene with the Local Government Code and may need for both the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Interior and Local Government to issue a joint memorandum.
Stop overfishing: Sadly, according to the BFAR, in 2014 10 of 13 major fishing grounds of the country are overfished. Many of our fisheries resources are extirpated locally. We need to change the current strategy of seeking new grounds to address overfishing. Unfortunately, we have ran out of new fishing grounds to exploit, and many of our current fishing grounds are either fully exploited or overfished. Our neighboring countries are developing their own fisheries and, in the near future, are terminating fishing access agreements.
How do we stop overfishing?
Regulate fishing capacity—This is the single most important and effective goal for our fisheries resources to recover. While illegal fishing contributes to overfishing, it is the unmanaged and unregulated legal fishing that contributes to overfishing.
Stop IUU fishing—It is not only illegal fishing but also undocumented fishing and unregulated fishing that needs to be addressed. This is eliminated by keeping track of licenses issued and their corresponding fishing areas, such as who are allowed to fish where and when. Cheap technologies are in the market to address this issue.
Develop safety nets—Reducing fishing capacity means temporary loss of livelihood and productivity. But these needs to be done for long- term gains. Policies, such as closures or reducing number of fishing days, have negative social and economic impacts that need to be addressed before being implemented. Fairly, large sums of support needs to be invested.
Introduce new approaches to fisheries management—Rights-based management approach are proven effective way to manage fisheries at sustainable level and assuring equity of benefits to stakeholders, both small scale and large scale. This approach could be fitted to suit local fisheries conditions and must be given a chance to be tested. However, for the scheme to work effectively, it requires an effective electronic catch documentation system that will monitor catch (see solution on the electronic CDS) in almost real time of each and every fisher within the fishery.
Reform BFAR’s performance indicators to fisheries management: As a country that is signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, (SD 14 oceans goals), we need to:
Adopt metrics that reflect sustainable food security: The metric to achieve food-security goal is not necessarily an increase in fisheries productivity (often done at the expense of environment degradation) but on achieving sustainable seafood production.
Suggestions: Some useful indicators would be the number of fishing grounds or fish populations recovering; increase in catch rates of fishers; the reduction in incidence of red tide; the improvement in water quality of bays and gulfs that allow healthy fish to be reared; or 100-percent compliance of fishers to various policies; full compliance of our country to international commitments; reduction in poverty rates among fishers, etc.
Incentivize compliance to regulations: Encouraging incentives for compliance rather than focusing on disincentives, penalties and fines are approach that have been proven to work.
Comprehensive review of all fisheries policies: Undertake a comprehensive review of the existing policies, some of which are contributing to overfishing problem. BFAR should adopt that all policies are based on science.
Develop a future-looking fisheries sustainability plan: Improve medium- and long-term plans and programs of the BFAR to reflect future seafood needs of the country, and taking into account present and future realities internalizing impacts of climate change. Current programs and investments in livelihood, such as fad deployment program, the mangrove silviculture program and the distribution of more fishing gears, are all palliative measures that exacerbate overfishing or habitat conversion as in the case of mangrove replanting. These perverse subsidies needs to be redirected toward gainful programs.
Strengthen fisheries research performance—Good science provides the basic foundation for policy in order to effectively manage our fisheries resources. Lack of sufficient information and research personnel to undertake analysis are two main reasons we have weak management of our fisheries resources, the main cause of overfishing.
Our country is ranked seventh globally in aquaculture production, third in seaweed production and 12th in wild capture, yet, has less than 100 fisheries scientists, most are in academe. The academics are doing mostly upstream research. The BFAR-National Stock Assessment Program scientists deal with the applied science, working on a national scale needs of the country. We need more than just fisheries biologist but a rooster of resource economist, anthropologist and social scientist working together to provide good fisheries policies.
Solutions:
Strengthen science by providing sufficient plantilla positions to fill up the lack of science staff in the LGUs that can provide advice and technical knowhow.
Improve the performance of fisheries schools in the country. In 2015 graduates of 34 fisheries schools have zero passing rates in the fisheries board examination.
Current investments of the BFAR in 2016 budget for research are predominantly for salaries of research personnel. With serious lack of information to provide basis for policy, a budget of 2 percent to 3 percent of GDP for research needs is a good amount to produce good science and good policy.
Develop an electronic Catch Documentation System—Having enough research personnel will not be effective without availability of accurate information that are regularly collected (catch, species composition and effort data) in major landing sites of the country. These data are analyzed into information that will drive the needed policy to monitor the performance in the fisheries. An electronic Catch Documentation System (CDS) offers advantages of fast and efficient data collection and retrieval system that is not prone to fraud and cheating, cheaper and allows fast analysis of data into information for policy use.
Solutions:
Engage a commercial software company that provides the service for a standardized CDS for the country. The CDS could be expanded to include traceability that will facilitate the compliance of stakeholders and the BFAR in the issuance of catch certificates required by importing countries.
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Dr. Jose Ingles is WWF’s Coral Triangle Programme coordinator for Fishery Improvement Projects and Policies.