A NATIONWIDE project by a group of international and local marine conservationists, seeking to protect the local sea and raise fish bounty, is set to get implemented this month, a top official of Rare Foundation Conservation Fellows Philippines (RARE) said during project presentation at Quest Hotel in Cebu on November 18.
Known as Fish Forever, the project will be undertaken in 12 coastal locations across the country to rehabilitate the sea and spur its produce for food security and the sustainable livelihood of fishermen, said Rocky Sanches Tirona, RARE Philippines vice president.
RARE, an international nonprofit organization espousing marine conservation and plenty, said fishermen in communities along the coastlines “used to catch 40 kilos of fish per unit of effort in 1940. However, by the year 2000, this number had gone down to 3 kilos.”
The foundation also noted that “in the 873 coastal municipalities in the country, more than 1.6 million people earn a living from the seas.” About 85 percent (1.3 million) are fishermen from communities along the seaboards. Five million of them are sea-dependent.
The scarcity of fish and destruction to marine habitat in municipal sea waters are largely due to illegal fishing, like dynamite and cyanide, affecting “almost 60 million people, or 56 percent of Filipinos, who get their protein from fish,” Rare said.
The project, which is a partnership among Rare, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Sustainable Fisheries Group of the University of California, seek to “curb overfishing and safeguard” long-term food security and livelihood for millions of fishermen, who rely on the sea for food and income.
One of the challenges, however, is the fact that small fishermen at times “abused the bounty of the sea,” Tirona said.
Ray Morales, a chemist and conservation fellow from Lubang, said “behavioral change among fishermen is required.” Without it, the project may not succeed.
“Much of the campaign to raise awareness is directed at fishermen to make them understand and support the project by obeying the laws and stop practicing illegal fishing,” Tirona said. “The aim is not to teach a community to fish,” said Brett Jenks, Rare CEO. “It’s to help make sure they can fish forever.”
Fish Forever requires “setting up exclusive access privileges, where fishermen have free access to fish, fish recovery zones [sanctuaries], monitoring and evaluation, and local enforcement system,” said Emilie Litsinger, senior manager of the EDF’s Philippines Oceans Program. The project local RARE fellows are implementing in municipal waters was already conducted and saw success in different parts of the globe, she said.
Litsinger noted it requires community support, fishery management, links to markets and sound fishery policy.
The 12 locations include the coastal municipalities of Masinloc, Zambales; Looc, Occidental Mindoro; Lubang, Occidental Mindoro; Mercedes, Camarines Norte; Gubat, Sorsogon; San Carlos City, Negros Occidental; Manjuyod, Negros Oriental; Tayasan, Negros Oriental; Libertad, Antique; Culasi, Antique; Dapa, Surigao del Norte; and Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte.
“In the first two projects we had good results in terms of reduction in the number of intrusions, such as illegal fishing,” Tirona said. “We measure based on abundance and biomass of the fish in the sanctuaries.”
The first project in 2010-2012 worked in Surigao del Sur, Bohol, Negros Oriental, Davao, Cebu, Southern Leyte and Camarines Sur, achieving a 47-percent increase in fish-productivity grown in fish reserves. Literacy on marine conservation among fishermen rose to 15.3 percent.