Marabut: Photo by Pol Lanting
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Part I: Fishery industry situation in the Philippines
The fishing industry is essentially about fishing resources and fishing communities that draw life from these resources. An archipelago of some 7,110 islands, the Philippines has an extensive coastline of 17,460 kilometers in length, the longest discontinuous one in the world according to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. It has about 26.6 million hectares of coastla waters and 193.4 million hectares of oceanic waters, where 2,500 species of fish dwell, making the country the richest in marine biodiversity.
With its 24 major fishing bays and gulfs, the sea is a reliable source of food for the people. In the country, fish ranks second as the most important staple food. People in both urban and rural areas rely on fish as their major source of protein.
The fishery sector provides direct and indirect employment to over one million people, or about five percent of the national labor force, of whom 65 percent (675,677) are in municipal fisheries, 26 percent (258,480) in aquaculture and 6 percent (56,715) in commercial fisheries. Besides the fishermen themselves, their women often sell their fish catch or help them undo the tangled nets and long lines. In the larger fishing communities, there are fish brokers, wholesalers and retailers who occupy stalls in urban markets selling fish, and suppliers of fishing gear, nets and long lines. Such communities often revolve around fishing as their major economic activity. (Szanton)
Although not a dominant player in the national economy, fisheries is nevertheless an important sector, with its contribution to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.8 percent (P67.8 billion) and 3.8 percent (P34.3 billion) at current and constant prices, respectively. The country ranked as the 12th among the 80 top fish-producing countries in 1995. It had a total production of 2.3 million metric tons or 2 percent of the total world catch of 112.9 million metric tons. (BFAR)
Yet the conditions of municipal fisheries do not augur well for the small-scale and even middle-scale fisherfolk who rely on relatively shallow waters to fish. Over the past 30 years, the country's coastal resources have been subjected to relentless fishing activities and other forms of coastal resource exploitation which have resulted in damaged corals, mangrove deforestation and decreasing fish catch. According to BFAR, 80 percent of the mangroves from early 1970s to early 1990s were wiped out, leaving only 7.6 percent. It could be worse today. The BFAR has also noted the decline in municipal fisheries from 1993 to 1998, showing a decrease of about 10 percent.
Cases of trawl fishing in shallow municipal waters have been reported, although we still have to hear of them penalized for violating fishery laws. Several NGOs have documented cases of individual trawl fishing activities in their respective areas of operations, but there is no comprehensive research on the trawling activities in the entire country, which makes it difficult for us to pin them down for part of the damage in the fishing grounds.
For instance, Rudy Hermes, marine biologist of Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), last October 6, 1997 said after a Ragay Ecological Assessment (REA) of the marine resources on the waters surrounding Tagkawayan, Quezon that the area was already overused and nearing depletion. This was evidenced by the following findings: growth overfishing - fish caught were getting smaller; recruitment overfishing - fish were getting caught even before they reach the age during which they were able to spawn; and ecosystem overfishing - some species of fish could no longer be found. He said this was because of trawl fishing.
He reasoned that reefs and seaweeds, which serve as home to several species of fish, would be destroyed by trawling activities on shallow waters. But even on deeper parts, trawling would only add to overfishing because of the big number of trawlers. A huge amount of money would also be needed to patrol the area. This expense would even be larger than the amount to be collected from the license fees to be paid by trawlers.(PBSP report)
In San Miguel Bay in Calabanga, Camarines Sur in 1998, the Haribon staff likewise had similar findings about trawl fishing. Somehow, trawl fishing proved to be a big hindrance in its efforts to help rehabilitate the capiz fishery, a major livelihood source of the local population. Three coastal villages in San Miguel, located in the eastern coast of the Bicol region, are known havens of capiz shell. Its staff said trawl fishing was the main cause of the rapid deterioration of the bay and the decline in fish production. It "is ecologically destructive because it scrapes the substrate and depletes the bottom-dwelling organisms. Many species as by-catch are thrown, wasted and uprooted from their natural habitats. It also stirs up sediments that may be transported to adjacent ecosystems and cause the suffocation of corals, capiz shells and other marine organisms." (Haribon report)
Early in 1995, field workers of the Commnunity Extension and Research for Development (CERD) reported that trawl fishing activities were rampant in Maqueda Bay near the port of Catbalogan, Samar's capital town. Although it is illegal for trawlers to fish in municipal waters, trawl fishing seemed to be tolerated by the local authorities as the boats were owned by a relative of the Catbalogan vice mayor then.
We can cite a number of other cases wherein trawl fishing has proven to be destructive to coastal marine resources in several areas of the country. Unfortunately, no systematic research has been undertaken on this, which explains why we can only rely on reports from NGOs and people's organizations in fishing communities.
And it is not just the trawlers which are prowling around municipal fishing waters. Bigger commercial fishing boats equipped with superlights also do, sneaking inside the bays at night and drawing the fish out of marine reserves, sanctuaries and artificial fish shelters to deeper waters where they trap the fish and haul these into their boats. These boats use sonar devices to track fish, freezing equipment to store the fish for the export market and professional boat pilots and engineers with large crews of fishermen to man their boats. According to the law, their areas for fishing are the waters 15 kilometers beyond the municipal shores, but because of poor law enforcement, these boats are often seen fishing inside municipal waters.
The incursion of commercial fishing boats inside municipal waters and the subsequent depletion of fish appear to have pushed the smaller, less equipped municipal fishers to use more drastic fishing methods, using small dynamites or homemade explosive devices to extract whatever is left in their fishing grounds. Some of them are forced to go farther out to sea or venture to other fishing grounds as the scarcity of the fish in their own villages has made their livelihood uncertain.
Conflicting Policies
The issue of marine conservation therefore is both an environmental concern and one of survival for the local fishing communities and the fishing industry in the country. It thus makes a lot of sense to involve the resource users themselves in conservation efforts. Unfortunately, conservation-oriented policies are not likely to win against policies that promote the further exploitation of the country's fishing grounds in the service of commerce and the global markets. For instance, the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act of 1997 (R.A. 8435), authored by Sen. Edgardo Angara who once aspired to become the country's president, seeks to catapult the agriculture sector - which includes the fisheries - to global competitiveness in the light of the impending trade liberalization.
This is in line with the 1994 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which has included fish and fish products in the general market access. The country has committed itself to supply fish to Japan and some European countries. This explains the country's frenzy to develop fishponds to supply the market in the early 1990s. According to Ibon Facts and Figures, "this preference for aquaculture over polycultures has resulted in the massive conversion of mangrove forests in the Philippines," a fact which is conveniently set aside in favor of its contribution to the revenues.(Ibon Facts and Figures)
Conversion of mangroves to fishponds appears to have been encouraged by the Fisheries Decrees of 1975 which allowed people to lease mangroves for fishpond development. Data from DA in 1986 showed that the total land area converted to fishponds reached 1,429.4 hectares. Fishponds under the Fishpond Lease Agreements (FLAs) covered 393.3 hectares. However, not a word is said about the cause of mangrove destruction in official primers on coastal resource management. It appears government does not want to admit that fishpond development contradicts conservation efforts. (Sikat)
Quite expectedly, the government's efforts towards higher productivity are paying off. From 1993 to 1998, the same period during which municipal declined in catch, aquaculture and commercial fishing increased by 13 percent and 18 percent, respectively. These two sectors are projected to increase further over the next six years starting in 1998 by 17.2 percent and 51.7 percent. (Agrikulturang Makamasa)
Aquaculture advocates in the country claim the shift to it will relieve the pressure in capture fisheries. What they do not say is that the fish meal used to feed cultured fish is harvested from the sea by commercial trawlers and purse seiners.
With aquaculture consuming more than it can produce, this will not decrease pressure but will further increase it on the overexploited seas. In 1994 alone, 32 million tons of fish or 30 percent of world fisheries production were used for feeds. (FAO)
There are other effects on the industry as a whole as the country gets hooked into globalization, such as the flooding of the domestic market with cheap imported fish products which can drive prices of similar local goods plummeting, the issue of government subsidies on the industry that is biased towards commercial fishing, or the introduction of new (and more efficient) fishing technologies which could further deplete local marine resources, etc. More important, this has affected whatever programs for food security the country has because now the impetus is towards producing for global markets catering to exotic tastes rather than producing food for domestic.
Globalization has created structures of governance which leave "governments without rights, but with exclusive responsibilities for food security, and international organizations like the World Bank, IMF and WTO with absolute rights and no responsibilities." A market-driven industry will divert fishers and capitalists to produce high-value products instead of food for the masses. This has been the experience with the prawn industry. With retail prices of a single prawn higher than the minimum wage, these products cannot definitely feed the impoverished masses of the country. Thus, we find ourselves exporting food products yet food is not available in our plates. It is ironic that the some of the top exporters of shrimp, prawns and fish, such as the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and India, also have most of their population undernourished. (Sikat)
The Fisheries Code and its Implementation
On the other hand the Fisheries Code of 1998 (R.A. 8550) has provisions which are pro-conservation and pose obstacles to this production thrust. Some of its provisions:
But whether these provisions are implemented at all or to what extent these are implemented are matters which have to be seriously looked into. It is probably too early to tell. However, these are provisions which could serve as anchor for any advocacy work for municipal fisheries. According to the NGO Sikat, even at this stage, commercial fishing operators are starting to lobby for changes in the code because some provisions cited above appear to be too restrictive as far as they are concerned.
"Although the Fisheries Code of 1998, Sec. 94, has legally put a stop on the wanton conversion of these rich ecosystems, the perception of government that the Fisheries Code is a trade barrier certainly does not make it a sacred cow. Only more than a few years old and the Fisheries Code is already swamped with proposed amendments to make it compliant with the modernization and liberalization program of government. We would not be surprised if the lobby for its amendment somehow succeeds." (Sikat)
At the municipal level, the implementation of the Fisheries Code is even more doubtful. Municipal governments are usually not known to be staunch advocates of conservation or keen on protecting their fishing grounds against incursions by commercial fishing boats, especially if these vessels belong to some powerful businessman or have connections to some politician. What often prevails is the politics of patronage and accomodation where local politicians try to please all the parties involved in the conflict over fishing areas. On the one hand, the local politician finds it difficult to impose his authority on someone who could be more powerful than he is. But on the other hand, he must play politics with his constituency because, after all, numbers mean votes.
The case of the residents in Manicani island above amply demonstrates how local political figures behave when confronted with some entity which represents more powerful interests. The trawl fishing in Maqueda Bay near Catbalogan, Samar in early the 1990s is another case in point where harmful fishing devices were tolerated by the authorities.
Indeed, the issue of marine resource conservation goes beyond mere physical biomass concerns. It goes to the core issue of political power at all levels. At the national level, we have policies which appear to run in opposing directions, and government agencies bumping against each other in their programs. At the local levels, municipal governments are not usually the cooperative types when it comes to conservation. Sometimes, they are even hostile to the idea of conservation especially if they are out to protect certain interests. Any conservation program of marine resources must confront these realities, and draw up schemes and strategies designed to harness the local authorities for conservation.
This is roughly the situation which government agencies - the DENR and BFAR - are trying to address in various intervention schemes, in many instances, in partnership with nongovernment organizations. But, as we shall later see, these government interventions have their own inherent limitations in their respective mandates. In their own way, nongovernment organizations have managed to come up with their own schemes independent of government. The subsequent pages of this paper will discuss such interventions, pinpoint which are workable and which are not, and lay down some general guidelines on approaches which might work in the best interest of marine resource conservation and the continued survival of the local fisheries in the Philippines.
Fishing Subsectors
At this point, it would probably help in intervention strategies to classify fishermen to find how how much control they have over resources (usually indicated by the kind of equipment that they use) and their access to other livelihood as these would in many ways affect their attitude towards conservation. For instance, a fisherman with greater access to other forms of livelihood, such as a farm, would be more willing to sacrifice his fishing activity than someone who has no other means of income. Or a fisherman who is employed in middle-scale fishing or commercial outfits would not be able to participate in conservation efforts. Whereas an independent small-scale fisherman would have more leeway to do so.
Several studies done in the '60s to the '80s describe those at lowermost wrung as "subsistence", "artisanal" or "municipal" or "small scale" fishermen. While Ardales and David lump them together as "muncipal, "small-scale" and "subsistence" fishermen, Szanton calls them only as "subsistence" reserving the term "municipal" to include small fishing outfits which, in Spoehr's study, are classified as "middle-scale." At any rate, subsistence fishermen usually reside in coastal villages near or far from the town centers (there are even fishing villages in major urban centers), fish on their own or with an assistant, work on an informal sharing arrangement, use motorized or non-motorized bancas, long lines or small nets and do not stray far from their base. Their catch is usually sold locally in the neighborhood (peddled around by the women and children of the family) or in the market, if there is a functioning market. In many of such villages, fishers take on other livelihood to augment their income. Many work in the farms to plant, harvest or do weeding jons in the rice fields, or do other odd jobs like carpentry, construction work, etc. to cope with the demands of survival and support growing families.
The number of such fishing households in the community might vary from less than 100 to some 300 (if it is a prosperous fishing village and close to the urbanized market). With very few exceptions, houses are usually made of a mixture of thatched nipa and bamboo. In the village, there might be an elementary school and a chapel, an outdoor cemented plaza with a stage to be utilized for community gatherings, volleyball and basketball games, benefit dances and similar affairs. While in fishing villages with access to agriculture, fishers could still find other sources of livelihood, it is different in bigger towns and villages close to the town centers where fishing is done on a fulltime basis. The core community of Estancia (Szanton 1981), "a fishing and marketing town in northern Iloilo, had 1,013 households, and was home to 563 men who worked on the larger fishing outfits - and another 40 men who were independent subsistence fishermen." So would several other typical fishing villages in the country. Fishermen in these villages, whether they are independent fishers or working in municipal fishing outfits, would certainly find it difficult to shift to other livelihood if pressured to do so. Efforts to promote conservation projects in these communities would meet more resistance than in communities with easier access to agricultural and other sources of livelihood.
Beside the subsistence fishing are the bigger outfits which Spoehr calls "middle-scale fishing". These evolved as the demand for fish in the bigger towns and cities increased. Newer and more advanced fishing technologies also developed. These fishing boats could now venture out to deeper seas with bigger crews to operate them, including the once-independent fishers who abandoned their light crafts to go with the more advanced fishing gear. Here, the fisherman starts to lose control over his catch and gets but a share of it, often a very small portion. The advantage in this arrangement is at least his daily survival is more assured by the use of better technology. But the owners of these crafts rarely go out fishing with the crew, even though many of them also live in the community. Still the working and sharing arrangements are informal and based on the catch, although they may not always be honest.
In Szanton's 1960s' study of Estancia, a fishing town in Iloilo province, he notes "the share system has remained viable and relatively unmodified. Both outfit owners (middle scale fishing entrepreneurs) and the fisherman regard it as a theoretically fair method of payment, and there is no indication of its disappearance in the foreseable future." The conditions today seem pretty much the same.
At this level, the marketing of the fish is done by the outfit owner himself either directly to retailers who go to the shore to meet the fishing boats or at the bigger urban market to wholesalers or brokers, who in turn would distribute the fish to retailers "through a patronage system."(Spoehr)
These types of fishermen in middle-scale fishing would most likely not involve themselves in conservation efforts. In many intervention strategies, however, it is sad to note that these classification of fishermen is not factored into their strategies for intervention.