Protect the environment, invest in the future
By Marit Stinus-Remonde
Manila Times
September 14, 2004
Advocates of protection of the environment are often accused of being antidevelopmental—as if there was a conflict between protecting our natural resources on one hand, and ensuring there would be clean air to breathe, minerals to extract, fish to catch, and clean water to drink on the other. Protecting the environment, that is, not depleting and destroying everything today, is necessary to ensure our own survival and that of future generations.
Millions of Filipinos depend on marine resources for their daily survival and livelihood. Small-scale fishermen and fish vendors have no other source of livelihood than a day’s fish catch. There was a time when a day’s fishing would yield a bountiful harvest. Life was easier then. However, years of overfishing, pollution of our seas, and destruction of the habitat of fishes and other forms of marine life have resulted in a dwindling catch for the country’s small-scale fishermen. Today, a fisherman can hardly survive on what he catches in the sea. Some fishermen resort to dynamite fishing and fishing with illegal fine-mesh nets in order to improve a catch that can no longer provide for his and his family’s needs.
The plight of these fisherfolk is sad. With the banning of fine mesh nets (which catch even the small, young fish), especially in areas with seagrass (the fine mesh nets are dragged over the seagrass, thus destroying the habitat of fishes), some small-scale fishermen find themselves on the wrong side of the law. They are apprehended by fellow small-scale fisherfolk who as fish wardens patrol the municipal waters to ensure that fishing methods that are destructive to the marine resources are not being practiced. The illegal nets are confiscated. Without a net, no catch.
In Ormoc, after months of pressure from Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, the local government is now contemplating to allow the use of fine mesh nets that the existing fisheries’ ordinance bans. The fisheries’ ordinance was passed only in January 2003 and the ban on fine mesh nets (beach seine or baling) included upon the recommendations of a resource and social assessment of Ormoc Bay conducted by the University of the Philippines Visayas in 2002.
The ban was effectively enforced last year. After five months, the fisherfolk noticed improvements in both fish catch and number of species present in the fishing grounds. Unfortunately, a few fishermen affiliated with Bayan Muna and Anakpawis insisted on continuing using the banned nets. Physical encounters between these fishermen and the Bantay Dagat discouraged the latter from confiscating the nets, and eventually the patrols stopped entirely. I was told that these poor fishermen work for a kapitalista who owns both boat and net. In traditional landlord-tenant style, this kapitalista gets at least 50 percent of the catch, while the other half is divided among the six to eight fishermen who man the boat. On at least two instances, minors were seen among the crew.
Bayan Muna and Anakpawis are fond of calling themselves progressive and propoor. I have a very hard time seeing anything progressive or propoor in their support for a fishing method that is detrimental to the longer term survival and progress of the community in general, the small-scale fisherfolk in particular. Let us hope that the newly elected mayor of Ormoc City would not let political accommodations and expediency come at the expense of economic and social progress of his city.
Aside from the actual positive results of vigilant protection of our marine resources as experienced by fisherfolk in Barangays Linao and Naungan, Ormoc City, there is other positive news. Smart Communications has equipped members of a national alliance of fishing communities and fishery organizations with cellular phones. These cellular phones will help strengthen the communication among the various groups, especially the groups that guard some 122 marine sanctuaries all over the country.
“Coastal communities that thrive on fishing and other stakeholders in fishery conservation have taken the initiative to protect [marine protected areas] in order to arrest and eventually reverse the degradation of resources in their areas,” a press release from Smart states. The coastline “gives millions of Filipinos access to bountiful marine resources, which provide food and livelihood. Fish . . . meets half of our protein requirement.”
It doesn’t make any sense not to take care of our marine resources. It is suicidal to promote their continued destruction. Many marginal fishermen know that, and they have committed themselves as fish wardens, guarding the resources that will not only feed their families today, but will also send their kids to school in the years to come. While the resources invested by Smart in equipping fish wardens with cellular phones may be a drop in the bucket for Smart, it encourages the fisherfolk to take an active role in defending and enhancing the resources on which they depend for livelihood and survival.
Investing in the protection of our country’s marine resources is an investment in our future. And that is truly progressive and propoor.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/14/yehey/opinion/20040914opi2.html
By Marit Stinus-Remonde
Manila Times
September 14, 2004
Advocates of protection of the environment are often accused of being antidevelopmental—as if there was a conflict between protecting our natural resources on one hand, and ensuring there would be clean air to breathe, minerals to extract, fish to catch, and clean water to drink on the other. Protecting the environment, that is, not depleting and destroying everything today, is necessary to ensure our own survival and that of future generations.
Millions of Filipinos depend on marine resources for their daily survival and livelihood. Small-scale fishermen and fish vendors have no other source of livelihood than a day’s fish catch. There was a time when a day’s fishing would yield a bountiful harvest. Life was easier then. However, years of overfishing, pollution of our seas, and destruction of the habitat of fishes and other forms of marine life have resulted in a dwindling catch for the country’s small-scale fishermen. Today, a fisherman can hardly survive on what he catches in the sea. Some fishermen resort to dynamite fishing and fishing with illegal fine-mesh nets in order to improve a catch that can no longer provide for his and his family’s needs.
The plight of these fisherfolk is sad. With the banning of fine mesh nets (which catch even the small, young fish), especially in areas with seagrass (the fine mesh nets are dragged over the seagrass, thus destroying the habitat of fishes), some small-scale fishermen find themselves on the wrong side of the law. They are apprehended by fellow small-scale fisherfolk who as fish wardens patrol the municipal waters to ensure that fishing methods that are destructive to the marine resources are not being practiced. The illegal nets are confiscated. Without a net, no catch.
In Ormoc, after months of pressure from Bayan Muna and Anakpawis, the local government is now contemplating to allow the use of fine mesh nets that the existing fisheries’ ordinance bans. The fisheries’ ordinance was passed only in January 2003 and the ban on fine mesh nets (beach seine or baling) included upon the recommendations of a resource and social assessment of Ormoc Bay conducted by the University of the Philippines Visayas in 2002.
The ban was effectively enforced last year. After five months, the fisherfolk noticed improvements in both fish catch and number of species present in the fishing grounds. Unfortunately, a few fishermen affiliated with Bayan Muna and Anakpawis insisted on continuing using the banned nets. Physical encounters between these fishermen and the Bantay Dagat discouraged the latter from confiscating the nets, and eventually the patrols stopped entirely. I was told that these poor fishermen work for a kapitalista who owns both boat and net. In traditional landlord-tenant style, this kapitalista gets at least 50 percent of the catch, while the other half is divided among the six to eight fishermen who man the boat. On at least two instances, minors were seen among the crew.
Bayan Muna and Anakpawis are fond of calling themselves progressive and propoor. I have a very hard time seeing anything progressive or propoor in their support for a fishing method that is detrimental to the longer term survival and progress of the community in general, the small-scale fisherfolk in particular. Let us hope that the newly elected mayor of Ormoc City would not let political accommodations and expediency come at the expense of economic and social progress of his city.
Aside from the actual positive results of vigilant protection of our marine resources as experienced by fisherfolk in Barangays Linao and Naungan, Ormoc City, there is other positive news. Smart Communications has equipped members of a national alliance of fishing communities and fishery organizations with cellular phones. These cellular phones will help strengthen the communication among the various groups, especially the groups that guard some 122 marine sanctuaries all over the country.
“Coastal communities that thrive on fishing and other stakeholders in fishery conservation have taken the initiative to protect [marine protected areas] in order to arrest and eventually reverse the degradation of resources in their areas,” a press release from Smart states. The coastline “gives millions of Filipinos access to bountiful marine resources, which provide food and livelihood. Fish . . . meets half of our protein requirement.”
It doesn’t make any sense not to take care of our marine resources. It is suicidal to promote their continued destruction. Many marginal fishermen know that, and they have committed themselves as fish wardens, guarding the resources that will not only feed their families today, but will also send their kids to school in the years to come. While the resources invested by Smart in equipping fish wardens with cellular phones may be a drop in the bucket for Smart, it encourages the fisherfolk to take an active role in defending and enhancing the resources on which they depend for livelihood and survival.
Investing in the protection of our country’s marine resources is an investment in our future. And that is truly progressive and propoor.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/sept/14/yehey/opinion/20040914opi2.html
