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.§