Amid the government’s heavy investments in and bias for tourism development in the Calamianes Group of Islands (CGI) in Palawan, the Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest (FISH) Project initially faced some difficulty in drawing attention to urgent fishery issues and introducing measures to manage the area’s rich and infinitely valuable -- but highly threatened -- marine resources. Perforce, it framed its messages and aligned a few of its strategies with the government’s tourism goals, while keeping its focus on its own fisheries management objectives. With perseverance and the emerging tourism potential of the marine protected areas (MPAs) it assisted, the Project slowly built an active constituency for sustainable fisheries in government and civil society that now offers hope for saving the fishery resources of Calamianes and the thousands of small-scale fishers and their families whose well-being depends on fishing.

Challenge
The CGI includes the main islands of Busuanga, Coron, Culion, Calauit and Linapacan at the northernmost portion of Palawan province. The Agutaya and Cuyo groups of islands are sometimes considered part of the group although their affiliation is more with the northern Palawan mainland. All told, about 160 islands under four municipalities (Busuanga, Coron, Culion and Linapacan) comprise the CGI; together they cover a total land area of 1,600 sq km or 11 percent of Palawan Province.

The CGI represents one of the most biodiverse groups of islands in the Philippines. It is endowed with extensive fringing reefs, mangrove forests, seagrass beds, estuaries, sandy beaches, shoreline cliffs, protected bays, coves and inlets. Coral reefs and seagrass beds border virtually all of the islands and contain some of the biggest numbers of coral and seagrass species recorded in the Philippines. These diverse marine habitats provide life support to a wide array of marine mammals, fishes, turtles, invertebrates and aquatic plants that contribute significantly to food security, employment, tourism development and livelihoods in the four municipalities.

Incredibly beautiful natural seascapes featuring tropical lakes and majestic vertical “karst” cliffs especially around Coron Island, make Calamianes most attractive to tourism development. Also, the area has many cultural and historical attractions to keep visitors’ interest. Culion, a leper colony for some 90 years and once the world’s largest, teems with history, visible in old buildings that survived the ravages of time and war. The sea surrounding the islands is dotted by many World War II-era shipwrecks that are major tourist attractions in themselves.

Sadly, beneath the splendor lies a simmering cauldron of issues. The very natural assets that are indispensable to local resident and so attractive to visitors are at the center of manifold resource use issues that could imperil the future of the islands and its inhabitants.

Rapid population growth. The CGI hosts one of the oldest tribes in the Philippines, the Calamian Tagbanwas, who are possible descendants of the Tabon Man and thus possibly one of the original inhabitants of the country (Wikipedia, 2010). The Calamian Tagbanwas are a tribe that traditionally subsists primarily on fishing using hook-and-line, spears and nets, and on farming small kaingin (slash-and-burn) gardens. They have certain beliefs that influence their use and management of fishery resources. These beliefs are primarily centered on the imbakan tungian (fish sanctuary) and panyaan (sacred place where giant, human-like octopus or pugita dwell), observance of kustumbri (customary laws) on resource access and use, and the role of mamaepet (elders) in implementing traditional laws as means of discipline (Mayo-Anda, et al, 2006). The inland lakes of Coron Island, one hour by outrigger motorboat from Coron town proper on Busuanga mainland, as well as deep areas in the sea are considered panyaan, and must be carefully avoided. (PAFID, 1999)

These traditional resource management practices have faced major challenges since deep-sea fishing was first introduced in the islands in 1947. At about this time, the area experienced an influx of migrants from Luzon and Visayas who worked either as fishers or miners (Mayo-Anda, et al, 2006). Since then, the population of the Calamianes has exhibited tremendous growth, averaging 3.4% in recent years, with growth from migration accounting for at least 15% of the increase in population in the last five years (FISH, 2005b). Business and employment opportunities in fishing, then pearl farming, live reef food fish trade and lately tourism have been the main magnet for many migrants.

Regrettably, these mostly resource-based industries have been allowed to grow with too little regard for sustainability, causing untold damage to vital resources that support fisheries. With about 72,000 (NSO, 2002) inhabitants and an average population density of only about 50 persons per sq km, the CGI as a whole remains one of the least densely populated areas in the Philippines, but human activities have impacted negatively on the island’s natural resources. (FISH Project, 2005b)

Resource degradation. Some reefs remain in relatively good condition and impressive to the casual observer, but years of destructive human activities have exacted a toll on marine resources here. Live coral cover was found to be only 39% in 1998, and even lower at 18-25% in 2002 (MERF). Results of a participatory coastal resource assessment (PCRA) organized by FISH in 2005 in Coron Bay indicated even worse reef conditions, with live coral cover ranging from 5% and 30% (FISH Project, 2005a). Furthermore, surveys on reef fish biomass indicated that target species were severely depleted, especially groupers and Humphead wrasses prized by the live fish trade (MERF 2002).

The destruction of coral communities has been due to a multitude of reasons, including illegal and destructive fishing, sedimentation and erosion brought about by deforestation and kaingin, the many environmental impacts of various coastal developments, and the sheer pressure of a fast growing population.

Over the years, illegal fishing has been rampant throughout Calamianes, presumably even in some parts where the Tagbanwas exercise tribal jurisdiction over ancestral domain, a 22,400-hectare area that includes the 7,320-hectare Coron Island and 236-hectare Delian Island and the waters around them. In particular, the use of potassium cyanide and sodium cyanide associated with the live fish trade, as well as dynamite fishing and the intrusion of commercial fishing in municipal waters, have contributed significantly to the heavy exploitation of fishery resources.

Not surprisingly, these problems have hit local fishers hard.

Declining fisheries. Historically, Calamianes has drawn fishing boats from the Navotas Fishing Port in Manila and sustenance fishers from as far as Central Visayas. The islands’ relatively shallow coastal waters serve as interface between the deep offshore waters of the South China Sea and Sulu Sea, and support one of the Philippines’ most productive fishing grounds. Nearshore fisheries are primarily reef and mangrove-dependent and produce valuable catch for subsistence fishers and the live fish trade. Offshore fisheries target small pelagic species, including squid and octopus that seasonally migrate with the ocean currents of the South China Sea. (FISH, 2005b)

But local fisheries have declined tremendously. In the 1980s, fish catch was said to range from 10 kg to 25 kg per fisher per day; the 2005 PCRA showed an average catch of only 5.6 kg. The decline was also evident in the number of commercial fishing units operating out of Calamianes. In 1976, there used to be 115 bagnet units based in Coron (Baum and Maynard, 1976), and in 1994 there were only 42 units left (MERF, 2002). This number was further reduced to 10 in 1998, all before the prohibition on commercial fishing in municipal waters under the 1998 Philippine Fisheries Code came into full effect. In 2004, six years after the Fisheries Code was passed, there were only 5 bagnets operating in Coron and the once thriving dilis-bahura or anchovy fisheries had all but disappeared
(FISH 2005a).

It is unlikely that the enforcement of the commercial fishing ban mandated by the Fisheries Code was a major factor in the continued decline of anchovy fisheries from 1998. Indeed, the absence of any sustained fishery law enforcement was the primary factor that caused the degradation of critical marine habitats and decline of fish stocks. The exploitation of fish stocks in the Calamianes Islands was never really controlled from the time bagnets from Manila came to the islands in the 1960s, through the boom years of trawling in the 1970s and Danish seines in the 1980s, to the entry of ringnets in the 1990s. By 1997, uncontrolled fishing by various gear (including muro-ami and subsequently pa-aling) reduced fish stocks to only 50% of their 1991 levels. (FISH, 2005b).

Unbalanced development. An assessment conducted by FISH in 2004 revealed many obstacles to the enforcement of fishery laws, ranging from practical concerns such as lack of patrol boats to systemic weaknesses like the very poor judicial service delivery -- at that time, a judge based in Puerto Princesa divided his time between multiple area of assignments and could thus visit the CGI only 3 times a year (since 2008, a new judged based in Coron has been serving the area). For the most part, there was simply not enough attention given to fisheries management by local officials, preoccupied as they were with other “priority” concerns.

Typical of areas experiencing rapid population growth, the Calamianes LGUs faced heavy pressure to seek opportunities to expand their economies. Fisheries remained an important area for development that LGUs generally allowed to grow with little control or management amid increasing consumer demand for fishery commodities from both within and outside the CGI. Fueled by high demand (and high prices) for live food fish in the global market, the live fish trade, in particular, exploded in the last 10 years, and overall insatiable consumer demand for fish from both domestic and foreign markets only encouraged more frenetic exploitation of fishery resources. In 2002, Calamianes supplied 55% of the total volume of live fish produced in the Philippines, as well as 45% of all fish landed in Manila (Padilla et al. 2003).

There was also a rapid expansion of pearl farms in the area, especially around Busuanga. The first pearl farm was set up at Busuanga in 1952, and the second 35 years later in 1987; since then 3 more farms were established, bringing the total pearl farm area in the municipality to nearly 7,600 hectares. Pearl farms were also built at Coron, Culion and Linapacan.

And then there’s tourism, which expanded by leaps and bounds in the last few years. The tourism office of Coron reported that visitor arrivals hit 38,489 visitors in 2009, up 178% from the previous year’s total of 13,849; figures from January to June 2010 show arrivals hitting 29,525, a 41% increase from the 20,930 recorded in the same period in 2009 (Coron MTO, 2010). Hotels and similar establishments in Coron, CGI’s tourist hub, reportedly enjoyed an occupancy rate of about 80% last year (The Palawan Times, 2009).

The promise of tourism was a major motivating factor for some of the LGUs’ sometimes controversial investment decisions, particularly in Coron. With support from the Palawan provincial government’s share of the Php150-billion Malampaya fund, Coron embarked on big-ticket infrastructure projects, including a 40-hectare reclamation project with at least 2 hotels, restaurants, souvenir shops, promenade park and other tourist facilities and amenities. (abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak, 2010; News Today, 2009)

Much of the controversy surrounding such developments centered on their impacts on the environment and the fact that they have caused displacement of small-scale fishers. Live food fish collectors gained notoriety for their use of cyanide, and pearl farms, while purportedly beneficial to the marine environment as de facto MPAs, limited the small fishers’ navigation lanes and fishing grounds. As for tourism, besides its potential to contribute to environmental degradation, there was much concern about the direction it was taking: “What was spoken of as ecotourism was, in reality, often coastal resort development – and it was pushing many coastal families off their land as well as squeezing them out of their fishing areas.” (Fabinyi, 2010)

The primary concern for FISH when it started its field operations in the CGI was that the LGUs’ seemingly singular focus on tourism development translated into ambiguous interest in addressing urgent fishery resource use issues that impacted small fishers the most. A lack of interest was apparent from a study of the LGUs’ 2004 budget allocations: of the 4 CGI municipalities, only Busuanga allocated a budget for programs and activities that could be loosely described as supportive of coastal resource management (CRM) or fisheries management.

Objectives
The FISH Project was designed to bring to the next level the Philippine experience in CRM by building much needed fisheries management capacity especially at the local level. It officially started in September 2003 and had a total life of 7 years (2003-10). The Project was tasked to work with the Philippine government through the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) and other concerned agencies to begin a process of reform from open access to managed resource use in fisheries.

Calamianes was one of four FISH target areas, which also included Danajon Bank in Central Visayas, Lanuza Bay at the Philippines’ eastern Pacific seaboard, and Tawi-Tawi Bay in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In Calamianes, FISH set out to build local capacities for CRM in general and fisheries management in particular based on the following specific objectives:

1. Promote CRM as a basic service of LGUs through a participatory planning process;
2. Establish a network of MPAs;
3. Introduce appropriate effort restriction measures to protect maturation and spawning of fish stocks and conserve overfished species;
4. Promote and implement fishery registration and licensing;
5. Strengthen coastal law enforcement; and
6. Introduce a framework for fisheries management.

Strategies and Actions Taken

Entry and baseline assessments. FISH launched its Calamianes operations in 2004 out of its field office in Coron, which covered all four CGI municipalities. That year, the Project implemented several simultaneous activities aimed primarily at introducing itself to local partners and setting up the mechanisms needed to begin the capacity-building process. Partners from various sectors were identified from among those who were working or involved in CRM in the CGI and coordination arrangements were defined through a memorandum of agreement (MOA) signed by cooperating partners. At the same time, efforts were undertaken to engage the LGUs, resulting in a MOA with FISH to implement common CRM objectives.

Baseline assessments were also conducted in 2004 to gather initial information on the status of the CGI’s fishery resources. Done primarily to track Project performance, these assessments were undertaken largely independently of local partners. However, in 2005, after the entry phase, the Project organized a PCRA activity involving members of fishing communities. The activity had three objectives: 1) to set baselines for CRM, 2) to train LGU staff as well as community members to monitor changes in the condition of fishery habitats, and 3) to begin building an active constituency for CRM.

Constituency-building outside the LGU, although part of the Project’s overall strategy, was deemed a critical strategy after it became apparent that despite the adoption of MOAs between FISH and the LGUs, there was no real commitment on some of the LGUs’ part to invest in CRM. Of the four partner LGUs, Busuanga and Linapacan manifested significant interest in supporting Project-assisted interventions, while Coron and Culion were far less supportive, having other perceived priorities. Because of its leadership position as the business and government center in the CGI, Coron in particular became the focus of the Project’s constituency-building efforts.

Participatory coastal resource assessment. PCRA is a social mobilization strategy that has proven particularly effective not only in promoting stakeholder awareness and understanding of the need for CRM but also in getting local communities actively involved in coastal protection and management. Through PCRA, participants from various community sectors in the CGI – including barangay officials, leaders and members of people’s organizations (POs) and youth and women’s groups, LGU staff, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), national government agencies (NGAs) and other stakeholders – learned how to conduct actual site assessments with different groups surveying mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs, and conducting interviews. They were also trained to gather secondary information useful to CRM, map resource use and issues, and identify fishing and other relevant trends.

The PCRA data provided baseline information necessary for planning and future resource monitoring and assessment. They also proved useful for emphasizing the need for concrete actions to address the alarming decline of CGI’s fisheries. Combined with the more science-based baseline assessment results, they provided enough argument to convince some LGUs to invest in CRM, but other LGUs needed more prodding. Particularly in Coron, the Project had to build support for CRM from the ground up. Using participatory resource management approaches, adult education and various modes of information and communication, it cultivated advocates and champions in the communities first and worked its way up through the LGU ranks to the mayor’s office, eventually generating much needed support for CRM.

Establishment and strengthening of MPAs. Another proven participatory strategy that the Project heavily relied on to engage stakeholders was the establishment of community-based MPAs. The Project facilitated the establishment of the Decalve Strict Protection Zone in Coron, Bugur Sand Island Marine Sanctuary in the municipality of Culion, and the Sagrada-Bogtong MPA and Concepcion Marine Reserves in Busuanga and Quaming Marine Reserve in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively. Starting in 2005, it also assisted the Siete Pecados Marine Park, which was earlier established under the USAID Sustainable Environmental Management Project (SEMP).

Stakeholder participation was sought from the selection of MPA sites through baseline assessment and planning all the way to the management and maintenance of the MPAs. For each MPA, the Project organized and trained a management board composed of community members who monitored MPA activities and made decisions about its management, and a special team that enforced MPA rules. In addition, the FISH special activity fund (SAF) helped to purchase construction materials to build MPA guardhouses, patrol boats and monitoring and communication equipment, while participating communities contributed labor and other material support. Such highly participatory process engendered among members of each community a sense of ownership, pride and responsibility over the MPA they were tasked to manage and motivated their continued involvement in managing it.

The establishment of MPAs also turned out to be the one activity that otherwise still ambivalent LGUs found easy to support. The tourism potential of MPAs helped to convince the LGUs that their support of CRM did not take away from their tourism development targets, but in fact contributed to them. This was especially true for Coron and to some extent Culion, where the Project began in 2005 to underscore the tourism benefits that could be generated by MPAs, after initial discussions on proposed fisheries management interventions failed to create much LGU interest. User-fee systems instituted in MPAs with tourism potential provided another incentive to LGUs looking for ways to expand their revenue base.

All told, the Project assisted 8 MPAs in Calamianes, including the Balisungan MPA and Minugbay-Malbato-Tagpi MPA, which was established in Coron in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and the San Miguel MPA in Linapacan, which was established in 2008. These 3 additional MPAs were set up to complement the already existing MPAs. Combined, all MPAs covered nearly 1,378 hectares of municipal waters and formed an MPA network designed, based on a hydrodynamic and larval dispersal study commissioned by the Project in 2005, to regenerate fish stocks through the protection of spawning areas. In Coron, the LGU’s tourism objectives were also considered.

In 2006, the first MPAs established – notably Siete Pecados and Decalve – were opened to tourism and marketed as major “ecotourism” sites, each with a user-fee system. In another two years, Siete Pecados was generating an average of Php300,000 per year in user fees.

To fishers in some of the well-managed MPAs, the benefits came within a year of MPA establishment, evident in visible positive changes in fish stocks within the MPAs or in some cases, increased fish catch for fishers operating near the MPAs. To LGUs, the potential of MPAs for tourism and revenue-generation became apparent a few months after the MPAs were opened to visitors. Early indications of the tourism potential of Siete Pecados and Decalve were clearly what prompted the Coron LGU to allocate for the first time a Php100,000 budget to CRM, a small amount that nonetheless helped carry the fisheries management planning process forward.

Fishery law enforcement. Illegal fishing was one of the first fishery issues that the Project attempted to address, primarily through the creation and training of municipal coastal law enforcement teams (MCLETs) composed of community members, the police, coast guard and other concerned agencies. Enforcement training was conducted in several stages, from the basic enforcement course to enhancement and specialization courses fitted to the peculiar needs of individual sites.

Basic enforcement training began as soon as the MCLETs were organized. The existence of enforcement units was required primarily because they would be the main focus of skills and capacity building. The basic course covered fisheries and maritime law enforcement topics and legal and tactical approaches to site-specific violations. Enhancement training focused on the enforcement of site-specific ordinances covering such measures as temporal and spatial restrictions (including MPAs), registration and licensing, navigation, investigation and report writing, while specialization courses consisted mainly of the standard fish examiner’s training course offered by BFAR but also included plotting and chart work, media relations, and trainers’ training.

IEC was also a key module in coastal law enforcement training courses, particularly in the aspects of prevention and detection in the law enforcement continuum. It covered relevant skills and methods that coastal law enforcers could use to “sell the law” and promote compliance, emphasizing the role of enforcers as “public educators” who could help transform community perception toward illegal fishing, especially cyanide and dynamite fishing, as highly undesirable and unacceptable behaviors.

Building multi-sectoral support for sustainable fisheries. As well as training its partners to “sell the law,” the Project conducted its own information, education, communication and advocacy activities to promote new fishing norms among fishers and their regulators as well as the general public. The objective was to expand the support base for sustainable fisheries within and outside the fishing communities.

Special events were used to highlight fishery issues and showcase their solutions. Part of the strategy was to foster among locals a sense of pride in the CGI’s natural environment, by emphasizing its importance and uniqueness, explaining the threats it faced and encouraging active involvement in the implementation of specific solutions. Various FISH-produced signboards, billboards, radio plugs and other information materials carried these messages and call to action.

To create a forum for civic action, the Project facilitated the organization of the Tangay ‘Y ang Laud Calamian (Friends of the Calamian Sea), a volunteer group consisting of professionals, elected officials, youth leaders, and women leaders and fishers groups. This organization was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and accredited by the four CGI municipalities.

Other sectoral groups were also engaged in the advocacy effort, including the business and indigenous sectors. Working with the Philippine Coast Guard Auxilliary, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and one barangay in Coron, the Rotary Club of Makati-Salcedo provided funding support to a local PO for mangrove reforestation, identification of suitable MPA sites, various IEC activities and livelihood support. SARAGPUNTA, a Tagbanwa organization, was tapped to promote fisheries management in Coron Bay – given their jurisdiction over a large portion of the Bay, the Coron Tagbanwas are an important ally in the promotion of sustainable fishing practices in Coron.

Also, the Project’s early interventions included reproductive health (RH) information and services, which involved the participation of health workers and community organizers. This RH component was implemented in 3 villages in Coron, where the Project assisted in the preparation of development plans that linked reproductive health objectives to CRM issues and trained community-based “peer educators” to promote awareness on the population-environment, or in this case, the population-overfishing connection.

Effort restrictions. To address overfishing, the Project encouraged the adoption of relevant effort restriction measures. One of the earliest policy studies that the Project assisted looked into policy options for the live reef fish trade. Aimed primarily at addressing overfishing and habitat destruction, this policy study was used by the provincial government of Palawan as reference for the Palawan Live Reef Fish Ordinance of 2005. Earlier, the Project recommended minimum and maximum size limits for the harvesting of coral trout (suno) but dropped the proposal when this provincial ordinance was passed. The ordinance prohibited the use of compressors in all fishing activities and established a closed season and quota system for live reef fish. These restrictions were subsequently adopted by the four CGI municipalities and have been in effect since 2008.

Table 1. Salient points of the policy study conducted by the FISH Project on the live reef food fish trade in Calamianes (Pomeroy, et al. 2005)

The policy goal is for a sustainable fishing industry in Palawan Province that ensures viable fish stocks, ecosystems and livelihoods for present and future generations. The short-term (1-4 years) policy objective is the development of a sustainable LRFF industry in the province through the reduction of threats associated with destructive fishing and overfishing. The long-term (5-10 years) policy objective is the protection and conservation of fish resources and marine ecosystems in Palawan through development of sustainable capture fishing and mariculture; marine ecosystem conservation and rehabilitation; and viable livelihoods and community and economic development for coastal communities. Policy options are based on three evaluative criteria, namely ecological, institutional and economic. Specific indicators and measures for each criterion are as follows: a. Ecological -- Two specific indicators are used: fishing activity – which is measured by CPUE and exploitation rates / yields per recruit of fish species targeted by LRFFT; and marine ecosystem condition – which is measured by percent of live coral reef cover. b. Institutional -- Four specific indicators are used, each of which could be measured as low, medium or high: political acceptability – which is measured by perceived and actual level of support of LGU for the policy; social acceptability – which is measured by perceived and actual level of support of the local community members, specifically fishers and their households, for the policy; industry acceptability – which is measured by the perceived and actual level of support by major industry players (traders / middlepersons, boat owners / operators, exporters) for the policy; and administrative feasibility – pertains to the existence of laws and policies to support the policy option and of a workable monitoring and enforcement system, and the cost of policy option. c. Economic -- Two specific indicators are used: private benefits and costs – which are measured as the benefits and costs that accrue to individuals and firms as a result of the policy option, such as income, livelihoods, food security and quality of life; society value – which is measured as the diverse social and economic values of coral reefs being provided to society as a whole, and to distant as well as adjacent communities. These include marketable values (associated with products, functions and services) and non-marketable values (associated with opportunity, cultural significance, bequest and simple existence). Four policy options to address short-term objectives are presented: a. maintenance of the status quo; b. provincewide ban in LRFFT; c. regulated LRFFT – 1 (ban compressor fishing, ban nonresident fishers from municipal waters, close spawning aggregations, impose size limitations on selected target species, set up a cyanide detection-testing laboratory in Coron, and establish a monitoring team and network); and d. regulated LRFFT – 2 (do not allow trade in municipalities with more than 50% coral reef cover in poor condition: Coron, Cuyo, El Nido and Taytay. Three policy options to address long-term objectives are presented: a. Stimulation of sustainable live reef fish mariculture b. Ecolabeling c. Community and economic development

The Project also proposed closed seasons for siganid fisheries and size limits for blue crab fisheries, but these were not adopted. Despite their apparent readiness to address the issues related to the live reef fish trade and their support of MPAs, the LGUs were largely averse to introducing measures that directly addressed overfishing and resource use conflicts.

All four LGUs did adopt their own comprehensive municipal fisheries ordinances (CFMOs), based primarily on the 1998 Fisheries Code and some provisions of the 1991 Local Government Code. The CFMOs provided some important guiding principles for fisheries management that the LGUs could apply as necessary, such as the use of fishing privileges to control fishing effort in municipal waters. Toward this end, the LGUs also supported fishery registration and licensing aimed at providing the information needed to regulate fishing activities: all four LGUs adopted the necessary ordinance to officially establish the registration and licensing system based on guidelines that FISH helped to formulate.

Fishery registration and licensing. To assist the process of adoption and subsequent implementation of registration and licensing, the Project also provided training in fishing vessel admeasurement, fisheries database management and other skills relevant to vessel, gear and fisher registration and licensing. This was part of the effort of the Project to pilot Executive Order (EO) No. 305 series of 2004 which devolved the registration of municipal fishing vessels to LGUs. EO 305 was advocated by the National Anti-Poverty Commission Fisherfolk Sectoral Council and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines to facilitate the registration of municipal fishing vessels.

At the close of Project operations in 2010, registration was still ongoing, and there had been no attempt to use registration information to guide fisheries management planning and decision-making. Lack of compliance by fishers was the main reason cited by LGUs for the slow progress of the registration process.

Fisheries management planning. As the LGUs became more engaged in FISH interventions, they began to participate more closely in discussions leading toward the preparation of the Calamianes Integrated Fisheries Management Plan (CIFMP). The discussion took two years, as it was stalled by municipal water delineation issues for some time. The LGUs were unable to agree on an acceptable resolution to existing boundary disputes, and in the end agreed to set aside delineation issues and pursue co-management as an option.

The CIFMP was adopted by all four LGUs through a MOA signed during the Calamianes Fisheries Summit on May 23, 2008. It described the following fisheries management strategies (CIFMP, 2008):

1. Management of fishing effort through the promulgation and adoption of fishing effort restriction measures for fishing gear that are considered detrimental to the integrity of resources and habitats;
2. Protection of the sustainability of target fish stocks and intensively-fished species through the imposition of spatial and temporal restrictions such as closed seasons and closed areas to enable maturation and spawning of grouper and siganids that are intensively fished or rapidly declining;
3. Protection of critical coastal habitats through the establishment of a network of MPAs;
4. Strengthening of regional law enforcement initiatives; and
5. Formulation of a zoning system for various uses in accordance with the existing ECAN framework.

However, the plan contained very few specific provisions for the implementation of these strategies, generally only those related to law enforcement and MPAs. To support plan implementation, the Project initiated the preparation of a zoning scheme that identified existing and potential uses of coastal resources in the CGI. Fisheries use zone maps were drawn up for adoption by the municipal councils of the four LGUs.

Expansion. Despite limited resources, the Project managed to bring some technical assistance to other LGUs, including Araceli (PCRA), Puerto Princesa City (monitoring and evaluation), and several municipalities that participated in a training workshop on MPA planning, monitoring and evaluation organized by the Project in Narra in 2009. Such assistance resulted in the establishment of MPAs and CRM adoption by some LGUs.

Results and Impacts

The following results in Calamianes contributed to the FISH Project’s overall performance indicators:

1. All 4 CGI LGUs adopting fishery registration and licensing and implementing a coding system for municipal fishing boats;
2. Law enforcement units, prosecutors, and judiciary trained and/or assisted in fisheries law enforcement in all 4 LGUs;
3. Effort restrictions introduced (1 for each LGU);
4. Eight existing and new MPAs assisted, 5 of them functional (2 in Busuanga, 2 in Coron, 1 in Culion);
5. All LGUs adopting CRM;
6. CIFMP adopted by all LGUs; and
7. Reproductive health information and services linking population growth to environmental degradation delivered to 3 villages in Coron

With most management interventions only in their early stages of implementation well into the exit phase of FISH, these results did not necessarily translate to very significant impacts on fisheries management in the CGI. Of the many interventions introduced by FISH in the area, the establishment of MPAs generated possibly the biggest impacts on governance. The biophysical results were mixed, but across all four CGI municipalities, the MPAs helped the Project gain the LGUs’ cooperation. In the case of Coron, in particular, the initial success of a few of its MPAs motivated the LGU to support community-based management initiatives, as well as some of the Project’s other interventions.

Combined, the four LGUs’ total investments in CRM and CRM-related activities increased more than 200% from Php400,000 at the start of FISH in 2004 to Php1.26 million in 2009. In 2004, only Busuanga had a budget allocation for CRM; in 2009, all four LGUs had such allocation, ranging from Php150,000 for Coron to Php540,000 for Busuanga. Although miniscule compared to the actual amount needed to fully implement the LGUs’ CRM programs, it was tangible progress nonetheless – the LGUs’ bias for tourism and other big-ticket development projects remained evident, but it had been tempered by a higher awareness among some decision-makers of the urgency of the local fisheries situation.

Reports on any direct economic benefits accruing to fishers from MPAs were mixed and anecdotal, with some fishers in Busuanga claiming higher fish catches and others saying their catches did not change. But even among stakeholders, the MPAs inspired profound changes in attitude and overall outlook on their capacity to effect change in their communities. Such attitudinal changes were most evident in community members who were directly involved in the management of MPAs. By the end of the Project’s field operations, for example, the management board of the Sagrada-Bogtong MPA in Busuanga had a regular budget allocation for MPA maintenance, while deputy fish wardens at the Decalve MPA performed their patrol duties around the MPA on their own initiative, with virtually no prodding from their leaders.

To some extent, the participatory strategy employed by FISH also helped create some level of transparency in government. With the various stakeholders’ involvement in fishery law enforcement, for example, there was a clearer understanding of the government’s enforcement functions and authority, closer coordination among various agencies and sectors involved in enforcement and thus fewer occasions for graft and corruption.

Remaining Gaps and Recommendations

Tremendous effort went into the implementation of the FISH Project, but capacity-building in fisheries management in the CGI has only really just begun. The Project leaves behind at least two important documents that the four LGUs have already committed to implement: the CIFMP and fisheries use zoning plan. How well they deliver on their commitment could decide the future of fisheries in Calamianes.

To effectively implement the plans, the LGUs must formulate and adopt the appropriate implementing rules and regulations, and aid agencies and other organizations that are now currently working or plan to work in the CGI might consider assisting the process. There are also specific action items in the plan that could be implemented immediately, two of which are the integration of the MCLETs into a Calamianes-wide law enforcement team and the unification of the different CFMOs.

The registration and licensing system must be fully implemented to serve the purpose for which it was designed – not to generate revenues for the LGU, which is only a secondary benefit, but first and foremost to provide the information needed to manage fishing effort. Fisheries management must be a continuing process that involves regular monitoring of fisheries activities and the condition of fish stocks, assessment of fishing effort level and management, detection and identification of solutions, and adoption of new measures as needed. The CGI LGUs have yet to develop the full capacity to do all these, but they can begin with the tools that the FISH Project already equipped them with, so that any future technical assistance can focus on bringing the capacity-building process forward.

By encouraging the participation of community members in the management of the MPAs, the Project just managed to give small fishers a small role in the development of coastal tourism in the CGI. Burning questions about equity of access to coastal resources are answered in part by the fisheries use zoning scheme that FISH helped developed. The zoning framework plan must be implemented and remaining issues must be resolved -- and soon -- to prevent any further displacement of small fishers.

Considering the importance of the CGI as a source of fish for Metro Manila and other urban areas, the national government, through BFAR, should put more resources into assisting the LGUs in the management of municipal fisheries and the enforcement of fishery laws. To address the perennial lack of personnel, the bureau should see about adapting the Department of Health's strategy of using roving specialists who pay regular visits to communities. For the long term, BFAR, together with supporting organizations and the academe, should work toward fully capacitating LGUs in fisheries management by training local government personnel (including elected officials) in enforcing fishery laws and managing fishing effort according to the principles of sustainable fisheries. This will help ensure effective and continuous implementation of programs that support sustainable and responsible fisheries, especially those that directly address crucial issues threatening the equity of access to fishery resources and preferential rights of small fishers.

With their growing environmental activism, newly minted advocacy groups such as the Tangay ‘Y ang Laud Calamian could take a strategic and more active role in pushing forward a clear agenda for sustainable fisheries. The CGI still needs to develop a vigilant civil society that recognizes local leaders who strongly support sustainable fisheries and censures those that abandon or oppose it. By making their current leaders accountable for what happens to local fisheries, they could set the bar in fisheries governance for their future leaders and everyone else to follow. (Edited by A. Sia / FISH Project; 30 July 2010)

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