Achieving Sustainable Food Security:
Strategies for Meeting Fish Production Needs
and Protecting the Environment
Conference of Coastal Municipalities of the Philippines
Manila Midtown Hotel, May 27, 1999

By Dr. William D. Dar
Presidential Adviser on Food Security

LMP National President Jinggoy Estrada, my fellow resource speakers, beloved mayors and conference participants, guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning.

I am very pleased that as I assume a new Cabinet post as Presidential Adviser on Food Security, you have honored me with this opportunity to speak on the very reason, the raison d'etre, for my new job -- an inauguration of sorts. This is really a topic close to my heart, for even as Acting Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, food security was a major focus of our efforts.

Start of Agricultural Recovery

Working under President Estrada's agenda of securing food self-sufficiency and alleviating mass poverty, the Agriculture Department during my temporary stint at its helm was able to steer the agriculture and fisheries sector from last year's dismal performance, an all-time low in twenty years, towards record production yields.

With the crops and livestock subsectors leading this 2.7 percent first quarter growth, it is projected that rice and corn will reach record yields in the first six months of the year, the highest in the history of Philippine agriculture.

We thank God for good weather and the early onset of rains in most parts of the country
for this phenomenal performance.

At the same time, we also have to credit the Department's vision and foresight, including the setting and pursuing of specific and measurable goals, and anticipatory interventions such as improved irrigation facilities, techno-demo farms, and the prompt provision of certified seeds when the rains started coming.

I am glad that on this happy note, I turn over the agriculture and fisheries portfolio to my and the Department's rightful leader, a good friend and benefactor, Secretary Edgardo J. Angara. The start of the recovery of the agriculture and fisheries sector this year augurs well for the country's food security goal.

Food Security Redefined

The start of the recovery of agriculture and fisheries sector this year augurs well for the country's food security goal. As spelled out in the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act (AFMA), food security involves "meeting the food requirements of the present and future generations of Filipinos in substantial quantity, safety and nutritional quality that meets desirable dietary requirements, ensuring the availability and affordability of food to all, either through local production or importation, or both, based on the country's existing and potential resource endowment and related production advantages, and consistent with the overall national development objectives and policies. However, sufficiency in rice and white corn should be pursued."

Given this perspective, food security takes on a scope well beyond emergency measures of the past -- quick fixes that maintain grains as the main food source. Undoubtedly, these emergency measures respond to real needs in particular localities during a given period of time. They serve their purpose, but they are just stop-gap measures.

We would like to move toward becoming a food-secure nation, with a stable, sustainable and predictable supply of nutritionally balanced food, available to all, at all times. Necessarily, this means including fishery resources in the inventory of such stable, sustainable and predictable food supply.

Role of Fisheries in Food Security

In the Philippine context, fish and other aquatic resources are a significant part of food
security. After all, we do not just live on rice, we must have our fish and eat it too!

Seriously, statistics show that fish provide approximately 50 percent of the animal protein in the Filipino diet. In rural coastal communities, which you represent in this conference, up to 80 percent of the animal protein is supplied by fish caught in municipal waters. In other words, fish is the available and affordable choice in many, if not most, of our homes.

From the nutrition point of view, fish provides the highest quality and most efficiently produced dietary protein. And for those of us who are afflicted with high blood pressure, high bad cholesterol levels, or just plain poundage surplus, fish provides a healthier diet option.

On the macro level, the fisheries sector contributes approximately 20 percent of the value of production per year of the agriculture and fisheries sector.

Fisheries in Decline

The critical role that fisheries play in the food security equation becomes a cause for alarm when we consider the dwindling and collapsing supply of fish under pressure of increased population.

The continuing decrease in the amount of fish available as food is shown in the net loss of fisheries-related food production, measured against population growth, as recorded between 1987 and 1996. This decline is ironic, considering that during the same period there was a dramatic increase in the number of fishing boats and their tonnage.

Our small fishers in particular have been hard hit. Catching fewer and fewer fish each year, they are sinking deeper into poverty. To cite an example, fishers in Olango Island in Cebu have estimated their current daily fish catch per fisher at 2 kilos per person. This is a horrendously scant harvest for a person whose living depends on it!

Based on trends in fish production decline and population increase, projections of the per capita food fish supply indicate that the annual portion of fish that could be available to each person could decline to about 10 kilograms by the year 2010, down from current estimates of 24 kilograms. For a fish-eating country like ours, this is definitely a bleak scenario.

At the same time, aquaculture, which had delivered part of its promised production potential, has turned sluggish as it suffered the consequences of inadequate production and environmental management.

The diminishing supply of fish as food and other edible marine products has been brought about not only by overfishing but more so by the degradation and depletion of the habitats that nurture this food resource - such habitats as the coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves.

For instance, as a result of extensive fishpond development, our mangroves have diminished from 450,000 hectares in the early 1900s to about 150,000 hectares today. Needed by many marine species for shelter and food, these mangrove forests can support more than 600 kilograms per hectare per year of natural fish production in the nearshore waters.

Other coastal resources that have been severely degraded are our coral reefs. These are the "rainforests of the sea," where the density of fishes can be 100 times greater than the ocean average, and where one coral reef can be home to up to 3,000 species.

Of the estimated 27,000 square Milometers of coral reef hab tat, less than 5 percent is in excellent condition and over 70 percent in poor to fair condition. What does this mean? A healthy coral reef of one square kilometer can produce enough fish for 400 people per year, while the same coral reef in poor condition can barely feed 100 people in a year. When we also consider the fact that reefs which are damaged or destroyed take 50 years or more to recover, we can better appreciate the urgency of protecting and nurturing this important habitat.

Coastal Resource Management

With the current level of pressure on our coastal resources, there is no technology available to increase the quantity of fish needed to feed our growing population. The answer to the continuing decrease of fish available as food is not to engage in more fishing but to allow the stocks to recover. How is this done?

Coastal Resource Management (CRM) is the strategy that has been adopted by the government to address this need to protect and nurture the fisheries resource and the coastal habitats, in order to ensure a sustainable food supply from our municipal waters. At same time, CRM also focuses on alleviating the deepening poverty of coastal communities in the coastal areas by enhancing the livelihood base in these communities.

The goals of CRM are to enable all stakeholders to manage our coastal resources in a sustainable manner and to generate the greatest benefit to the largest number of people for the longest possible time. Specifically, CRM aims to achieve three critical results, namely:

One, fishing effort must be reduced to sustainable levels. Overfishing inside and to a lesser extent outside municipal waters is the primary cause of the serious decline in Philippine fisheries.

Two, illegal and destructive fishing practices must be stopped. Illegal fishing in municipal waters has resulted in economic gains confined to a few individuals and large economic losses to the majority of coastal stakeholders.

And three, coastal habitats must be protected and managed. The quality of critical coastal habitats, specifically coral reefs, seagrass, and mangroves, must be maintained and improved for sustainable coastal resource use.

LGUs as Frontline Stewards

CRM works to achieve these three critical results through a participatory process of planning, implementing, and monitoring of sustainable uses of coastal resources. This is where the LMP, particularly the coastal municipalities, play a significant and crucial role.

For while it is the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that have the national mandate for coastal resource management, it is the local governments that must implement CRM in the coastal communities, serving as action centers for achieving the three critical results in CRM.

Tasked to manage municipal waters, the LGUs in coastal communities must stand as frontl,ine stewards, safeguarding the coastal environment and fishery resources for equitable and judicious use. As frontline stewards, you will need to facilitate the formation of barangay and municipal-wide resource management organizations to address and resolve issues associated with commercial fisheries, municipal fisheries, aquaculture, and marine environment protection.

You also have to mobilize your coastal constituents, particularly the small fisherfolk, since law enforcement will only be effective with broad-based community awareness and support. After all, it is the livelihood of these municipal fishers that is at stake.

On the provincial level, multi-sectoral implementation groups will have to be formed to provide a mechanism to consolidate resources and technical capabilities for helping the municipalities.

And on the national front, partnerships with the private sector, financial institutions and foreign donors must continue to be strengthened to facilitate the management of our coastal resources and sustain its gains.

A New Department of Fisheries

Given the urgency and magnitude of managing our coastal resources for food security and social equity, it becomes imperative that the National Government be enabled to effectively and efficiently fulfil this challenge. This can be accomplished with the creation of a separate Department of Fisheries.

More than just coordinating separate efforts of various government bodies, the new Department of Fisheries shall be better able to integrate and focus the government's efforts for the sustainable development and modernization of the fisheries sector.

With its specific mandate, the new Department shall then be able to address the particularities and peculiarities of the fisheries sector both on the macro and micro levels - as distinct from agriculture.

The new Department of Fisheries shall then be better able to intensify government's thrust to protect and rehabilitate our coastal habitats and aquatic resources and to uplift the lives of our municipal fishers and coastal communities.

Food Security for All

By establishing the Department of Fisheries, the government shall be accelerating its efforts for food security, strengthening its thrust to provide a stable, sustainable and predictable food supply for our countrymen, available and affordable for all.

By building a food-secure nation, we shall be building a strong and secure citizenry. Such a citizenry is our best resource for the present, and our strongest investment for the future.

Let us all be stewards of our future. Thank you, and 1 wish you all success.