Download Assignment No. 1 Topic: Secondary Research Resource Person

Assignment No. 1
Topic: Secondary Research
Resource Person/Facilitator: Crissy Canlas
1. Alino,P.M. (ed.) (2003). Philippine Coral Reefs through Time. Workshop Proceedings. Second Atlas of
Philippine Coral Reef Service. Coral Reef Information Network of the Philippines. Retrieved Sept. 11,
2010 from Philreefs database.
ISSUES AND THREATS IDENTIFIED
Reef sites along the South China Sea biogeographic region were affected by the coral bleaching event in
1998 and are in various stages of recovery. Chronic disturbances such as siltation and overfishing are
commonplace, and needs to be addressed by their local governments in all three provinces:Pangasinan,
Zambales and Palawan. Illegal fishing activities (i.e. use blast, fine-meshed nets) remain rampant in
Pangasinan. There are reports of poaching inside MPAs like in Anda and Bugor Island which is attributed
to the poor enforcement and patrolling. This may also mean that there is a need to heighten local
communities’ evironmental awareness as well as encourage active participation in coastal management
efforts. Commercial fishers encroach in the municipal waters of Bani, Pangasinan, while coral reef fishes
are collected for the aquarium trade in San Salvador Island. In Port Barton, the establishment of
seaweed farms seemed to have affected the water circulation within the bay. Natural disturbances such
as the crown-of-thorns (COTS) outbreak that happened in May 2004 hampered reef recovery in El Nido.
SOLUTION OFFERED
Instead the total area of municipal waters (or barangay waters, if applicable) as the denominator,
rather than area of the habitats as illustrated earlier. For example, in Anda Pangasinan, there are five
existing MPAs covering an area of 104 ha. or ~1 km2 . Assuming that the area of Anda’s municipal
waters is about 10 km2, the proportion of protected area Anda is at 10%. If, for example, local
communities decide to increase their protected areas by 5% (i.e. 15%) then they can decide to either put
up additional MPAs, like two 10-ha. size or one 20-ha. size – to increase the total to 120 ha. or just
increase the existing size of their MPAs by 4 ha. Here, options become clearer for the local communities
to decide on. There are however, standing issues on municipal boundary delineation which may need to
be resolved soon.
Quibilan, M.C. Baria, M.C. and Tiquio, MGJ, The South China Sea Biogeographic Region 2. Trono, R.B.,
Troeng, S.,Vergara S. (2008) ZOoming into the Future of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas, Tropical Coasts, 15, 5862.
Retrieved September 12, 2010 from www.pemsea.org
THREAT IN VERDE ISLAND PASSAGE, THE CENTER OF CORAL TRIANGLE
The Philippines is one of the 17 megadiversity countries in the world. Its biological diversity is under
threat from habitat destruction and overexploitation. In 1997, the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) developed and adopted the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan
(NBSAP) in an attempt to address the country’s biodiversity crisis.
Quibilan, M.C., Ambal. R.G. and Vergara, S.G., Evolving Processes in Developing Site Conservation
Targets p.22
SOLUTIONS OFFERED: Site Conservation
Site conservation is one of the most effective means to reduce global diversity loss. Identifying and
prioritizing sites where biodiversity must be conserved immediately, is a basic and necessary step to
focus resources to revert the declining trends.
How:
1. Compilation of a list of species that could potentially trigger Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) within the
region. This list includes: (a) species that are currently recognized on the IUCN Red List of Threatened
Species as globally threatened; (b) species that possess highly restricted ranges; (c) species that
congregate in high densities; and (d) species that qualify using IUCN criteria as globally threatened but
have not yet been assessed for listing;
2. Compilation of existing data on population sizes of species that could potentially trigger KBAs, and
mapping of the localities at which they occur;
3. 3. In consultation with the Global Marine Species Assessment, initiation of the IUCN Red List process
for species that qualify using Red List criteria as globally threatened but have not yet been assessed for
listing;
4. Identification of vagrant threatened species that should be excluded from the KBA process;
5. Application of thresholds to populations of each trigger species to identify KBA sites;
6. As resources allow, undertaking directed surveys of candidate KBAs where trigger species are
suspected to occur or population size is unknown;
7. Delineation of KBA boundaries by overlaying locations of non-vagrant threatened species and
populations of other species that could trigger KBAs with available maps describing management units;
8. As resources allow, identification and taking appropriate actions to safeguard KBAs and populations of
trigger species within KBAs; and 9. Documentation of data used and all steps undertaken during the KBA
identification and delineation processes.Information is then published.The following sections describe
the processes involved in the identifi cation and prioritization of site conservation targets at the
ecoregion/seascape scale and how it was refi ned at the national level (i.e., Philippines) using the Key
Biodiversity Areas (KBA) approach.
3. Miclat, R.I., Gonzalez, R.o.M.and Alino, P. (2008). Proceedings of the Coastal ZOne Philippines 2.
Sustainable Financing and Marine Protected Area Congress, MPA Support Network, Marine Environment
and Resources Foundation, Inc. Retrieved 9/12/10 from www.pemsea.org
1.1 WHAT ARE THE cHALLENGES
The efforts are not without accompanying challenges. There is still a need to get more
stakeholders to understand, appreciate and become involved in the activities. Lack Sustainable
Mechanisms for Financing; Lack funds caused by misuse of funds and wrong prioritization; Lack/limited
funds Lack government support/ Chief Executive support; Lack support for policy formation;Lack support
for Law Enforcement; Lack support for M&E; Lack support on IEC for leaders and people; Lack of
community support and trust; Lack ICM plan in LGU Development Plan
(Erni, E.G., Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Program towards Sustainable Coastal Development for
the Province of Bataan in Miclat, et al, p.34)
1.2 WHAT WERE THE CRITICAL RESPONSES
CAPACITY BUILDING.FISH Project provide support to improve capability of our project partners in
controlling input and output for management. Input controls means, to constrain directly any aspect of
the fishing effort such as: who does the fishing (licensing), when they can fish (closed season), where
they can fish (zoning and MPAs) and how they can fish (what gear is allowed.
(Armada, N.B.1. MPA and Ecosystem-Based Fisheries Management (EBFM): The FISH Project
Approach p.38)
POLICY.Policy investment engaged the highest levels of government to highlight the biodiversity
importance of the Verde Island Passage (VIP) as part of the Sulu-Sulawesi Seascape (SSS)corridor-wide
initiative has solicited the participation of 5 provinces: Batangas, Oriental and Occidental Mindoro,
Marinduque and Romblon. (De Guzman , B.A., Vergara,S.G., Upscaling Efforts in MPA Management:an
Analysis of Two Cases in the Philippines p.40). UPSCALING. Many fisheries scientists (Roberts and
Polunin 1991; Russ and Alcala 1996; Alcala 2001) believe that considering the alarming levels of
overexploitation of many reefs, marine reserves may be one of the few management options available
to maintain a critical spawning stock biomass needed to sustain reef fisheries. More recently, upscaling
community-level MPAs into larger-scale management efforts, such as establishment of MPA networks
and marine corridors, is seen as strategic in increasing effectiveness and potential benefits of protection
(Allison et al. 1998).
(De Guzman , B.A., Vergara,S.G., Upscaling Efforts in MPA Management:an Analysis of Two Cases in
the Philippines p.41)
SUMMARY
The Sulu-Sulwesi Sea as described by Ross (2008) holds rich natural resource heritage of coral reefs and
is home to 1.8 million people. It links 13 coastal and two non-coastal nations. It covers seven million sq
km of sea area with 234,000 km of coastline 36,289 km of which comprise the philippine coastline.
But the authors consider it " A Legacy under threat". The desire to unify effort in Sulu- Sulawesi Seas
could be undermined by impending threats.First is the increasing human population with little access to
financial and social services and are very dependent on marine resources resulting to overfishing and
other destructive forms of fishing. Second is the erosion or destruction of marine ecosystem due to
various types of pollution and habitat-damaging activities. Third, the disconnected levels of governance
hence, capacities of stakeholders and government entities are inadequate. The paper lacked details and
information that would support these contentions, however, due to its parallelism to other Asian
countries, the need to support these claim is moot and academic. The article drives home to the point
that: "reducing these threat is everyone's concern".Therefore, effort must be made to gain public
support. However,to gaining public support could be obtained through what the authors called
"purposive communication". There are entities who committed to reduce these threats. They are the
Asian Development Bank, GTZ, Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, USAID, and AusAID.