OVER SEAS -- The Online Magazine for Sustainable Seas

Northwest Bohol

The CRMP learning area covers five municipalities in northwestern Bohol: Buenavista, Inabanga, Clarin, Tubigon and Calape, a total area of 35,446 hectares stretching to 75.2 km of coastline with a population of 140,820 persons (1995). CRMP also assists five municipalities, Loon, Panglao, Dimiao, Candijay and Getafe, in its expansion site. Signs of over-exploitation and environmental degradation are all over the place, brought about by illegal fishing activities (particularly the use of modified Danish seine (locally known as hulbot-hulbot), baby trawl, sodium cyanide and dynamite) , illegal fishpond construction, and the the extraction of coral and white sand quarrying. Local government units have initiated efforts -- mangrove reforestation (Banacan Island in Getafe has the largest man-made mangrove in Asia) and the declaration of closed seasons for blue crabs and rabbitfish (siganids), for example -- to arrest the decline of fisheries. CRMP hopes to harness these local initiatives to jump-start a wider and more integrated implementation of coastal resource management.

Joining hands for PCRA
Tontonan, Cuasi and Song-on join the list of successful training sites for participatory coastal resource assessment (PCRA) in Bohol. Sixty participants joined the training which was held last February 5-6.

"This training program is a collaborative effort of CRMP and its partners in the NGO community and the local and national governments," says Learning Area Coordinator Camilo Cimagala. The Department of Agriculture shouldered the cost of the participants’ meals, the local government provided the venue and sound system, and CRMP supplied the training materials. The resource speaker came from the NGO Haribon while another NGO, the International Marinelife Alliance, served as the secretariat.

Fish sanctuary in Dimiao
LAC Cimagala also reports that Dimiao, a CRMP expansion area, has completed its PCRA training. Dimiao is the second municipality (after Loon) to train in PCRA. "In Dimiao, because of the PCRA training, the local government has become keenly interested in setting up a fish sanctuary in its area," says Cimagala. A resolution for the establishment of the sanctuary has gone through first reading by the municipal council, he adds. "The mayor says he wants this resolution to be approved upon second reading."

The proposed fish sanctuary is located off Taongon, a village under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Dimiao, in an area covering 11.5 hectares. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has been providing the community valuable assistance, says Cimagala. "They surveyed and mapped the area. Six divers from the regional office visited the site and conducted resource assessment not only within the proposed sanctuary but in nearby areas as well." For its part, the local government unit provided 12 tanks for the divers’ use.

Cimagala says the area selected for the proposed sanctuary is not the most ideal "because the corals are not that robust. But one thing good about Dimiao is they’re really interested in working with us (CRMP) to promote the sustainability of their coastal resources."§