Marine Rehabilitation & Resource Management

Introduction

The strategies for CRM are many depending on the site and the particular problems of management. Highlighted here are several strategies for solving some of the management issues existing in the Philippines, namely:

1. municipal marine parks and reserves
2. limiting fishing effort
3. artificial reefs or habitat
4. mangrove reforestation

The above strategies are explained below and references are made to on-going projects in the country where they assisted to implement small-scale CRM plans.

1. Municipal marine parks and reserves

One of the most successful strategies is that of municipal reserves where there is some form of limited entry to and guidelines for uses in special zones within the marine reserve.

A marine reserve constitutes a defined space to which specific forms of management are applied which normally includes limited entry. On the other hand, a marine park is a specialized version of a marine reserve where various uses are encouraged which emphasized education, research and preservation, sometimes implemented by zonation schemes.

The function of marine parks and reserves are enumerated as follows:

a. intensive management of specific areas
b. protect ecosystems, habitat, processes of biotic diversity and species
c. sustain yields and productivity
d. protect aesthetic qualities
e. protect cultural sites and values
f. used for education and research
g. used for recreation and tourism

Although all the above functions can be attributed to marine parks and reserves, in the Philippines the main motivation for setting up municipal marine reserves and parks is to enhance fishery yields and to rehabilitate marine ecosystems and habitat.

1.1. Principal steps in the design of a coastal or marine protected areas.

In all marine protected areas or marine parks and reserves there is what is called a core area which is the same as the sanctuary. The core or sanctuary is always within the practical limitations, chosen on the grounds of the relatively good quality of the marine habitat. All thing being equal, amore productive areas or more intact habitat area should be selected as a core area. The surrounding areas or buffer zone will then benefit from the relative productivity of the core. In the Philippines, the model is usually a sanctuary surrounded by a traditional fishing ground where no destructive methods are allowed. The surrounding area of the core should have representative habitats so that the total reserve has all major habitat represented. The sanctuary is a strictly protected area where no fishing or collecting is allowed.

Sanctuaries, one protected for at least two years will harbor a large number of fish which will reproduce and eventually migrate outside of the sanctuary. In this way, sanctuaries serve as gene pool or replenishment area for outlying areas of the reserve. The long-term effect is to increase the fish yields of fishermen in areas outside of the sanctuary. But it is also important that all destructive methods be stopped in the vicinity of the marine reserve and sanctuary.

1.2. Example of Municipal marine reserves and sanctuaries in the Philippines.

A good example of municipal marine reserve and sanctuary is Apo island near Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental. This municipal reserve includes a sanctuary on the southeast side where no fishing or collecting is permitted. The remainder of the island is within the reserve area where only traditional and ecologically sound fishing activities are allowed. In this reserve, all fine mesh nets, spear fishing on scuba, Muro-ami and kayakas fishing as well as other illegal methods are totally banned; and the area is being patrolled by local management committee.

Another example is Sumilon Island under the jurisdiction of Oslob, Cebu in which management implementation for a municipal reserve was considered as off basis. Such situation occurred for Sumilon because after some time of protection, intense fishing operations occurred in the sanctuary. The story behind this violation pertains to local political changes which were not aware of the value of the conservation and management efforts at the site. In 1988, the program was revived, and now the island is again protected.

Fish yields on the two islands increased from the implementation of marine reserves and sanctuaries over the years. In the case of Sumilon Island, as was mentioned above, the sanctuary was violated in the late 1984 and caused an overall decrease in fish catch. In both cases, the fishermen at the sites agreed that the fish catch had increased significantly and were supportive of the program.

On the other hand, abundance of fishes in both sanctuaries increased dramatically with management. The case of Sumilon was reversed in ap84 during the violation but again reversed in 1988 when protection was again given to the island.

Another recently implemented marine reserve is San Salvador in Zambales province. In 1988, this island became a municipal marine reserve of the town of Masinloc. The island has a 126 ha sanctuary, the largest municipal sanctuary in the Philippines, and is surrounded by a 500 m reserve boundary. This island community-based project continues with the direction of the community.

Before the implementation of the project, the island reef although with generally good coral cover has very little fish population since it had been heavily fished with many methods including dynamiting, use of cyanide and fine mesh nets in the shallow reef flats. Presently, the sanctuary is being monitored for fish abundance and diversity to evaluate the changes over a two year period of initial implementation. Initial findings show that the fish abundance increased significantly during the first year.

Similar to other marine reserve protects in the Visayas, the community has played an active ole in the formation of the marine reserve. Sign boards and information materials had been put up in obvious places on the island and the people actively patrol the reserve. Also, a marine management committee had been formed which will be responsible for all management decisions and actions in the reserve.

To boost the conservation effort of the island, a municipal ordinance was passed to ban collection of aquarium fish around the island because of the bad reputation of the fishermen, who have often used sodium cyanide. Recently, there have been intensive trainings to convert the cyanide fishermen to use barrier nets for aquarium fish. This has been successful in that now essentially all the fishermen have promised not to use said poison. They are now convinced that the poison destroys the very habitat needed to support their fish.

Further, the San Salvador project has received active support of the town mayor. He visits the island often and has even donated a boat through the municipal government for use by the community to patrol the reserve. This support of the municipal government has been important in the overall success and will help to sustain the program after the initial project implementation.

2. Limiting fishing efforts

Another general strategy which needs to be considered in most inshore areas of the Philippines is the limitation of fishing effort in one form or another. Fishing effort has grown beyond the sustainability of the resource so that it must be scaled back. Limits to effort come in the form of:

a. license, right to fish
b. economic disincentives (taxes, cost of entry)
c. territorial use rights in fisheries (TURF’s)
d. municipal control
e. limited access
f. area closure, sanctuaries, seasons.

Of the above enumerated approaches, few have been successful in the Philippines except possibly limited entry through municipal marine parks and reserves. Licenses have not been effectively used except for some limits on commercial fishing effort. Two scenarios can be sited to illustrate these strategies:

2.1. Open access fishing regime of a Philippines island

In essence, there are no limits on small-scale fishing efforts in the Philippines. The result is that catch per unit efforts has declined to a point where today the average fishermen barely catches enough to feed his family in many inshore areas. Most such areas are severely overfished. This is a tragedy of open access fishing where there are no controls on the number of fishermen, their efforts o timing. Everyone losses in this situation because the total catch is much smaller that it could be and each individual catch very small.

2.2. Controlled access fishing regime for a Philippine island

A possible solution to limiting the amount of fishing effort and for encouraging more local responsibility in controlling gears used, is to limit access by municipal boundaries. Such a system, analogous to territorial use rights in fisheries, would have the effect limiting the mobility of small-scale fishermen to their own territorial waters. Within municipal boundaries, it might then be necessary to issue licenses to limit the total number of fishing boats. Although this system is not yet operational, it is considered in the Lingayen Gulf area in Region I.

2.3. Artificial reefs (ARs) or Artificial Habitat

Artificial reefs are commonly understood to serve as a means of habitat enhancement. In actuality, it is not well documented that ARs really do enhance habitat. Rather, most essentially a show that ARs simply aggregate fish or are essentially a supplementary fishing ground. ARs make it easier for fishermen to find and catch fish. The problem with this is that in overfished areas, ARs increase the level of overfishing if not managed properly. ARs are commonly known to be a deterrent to bottom trawling because they snag the nets. Thus, in some countries like Thailand, the main reason to deploy concrete ARs is to discourage trawling in shallow inshore areas.

This section presents an overview of ARs and will try to answer some of the questions about ARs as a means of habitat enhancement as opposed to fish attracting devices.

Most As in the Philippines have been constructed with old tires. Tires have been proven to be effective in that they are usually free, easy to transport and chemically stable in marine waters. The disadvantage of tires is that they are light and need to be weighted and are vulnerable to storm because of waves action, even as deep as 20 meters. They also need to be tied together properly so that they do not eventually lie flat on the bottom. Although the potential for tire reefs is good, many tire reefs in the Philippines have not been designed according to their limitations and ended up buried in the sand or washed away by storm waves.

When tire reefs designed and placed at the right depth, it can endure for many years and eventually provide the substrate for a new coral reef. In the documentation of the oldest tire reef in the Philippines, it has been shown that the 13 year old tire reef has been totally covered with coals and other encrusting animals and seaweeds making it look like almost the same as coral reef. Majority of the fish inhabiting this reef are residents which have established their community in the AR. In this case, it can be said that habitat enhancement has occurred from the placement of ARs. This reef has been monitored for tenyears for fish catch harvested by fish traps placed adjacent to the reef. There has been a consistent catch using only this method so that the resident fish population has not been overfished o damaged by destructive methods.

Artificial reef function in the following manner:

1. increase habitat space and surface area for marine organisms to attach and colonize and
2. attract fish and other organisms and eventually increase biomass of fish and other marine life once reproduction occurs within the newly formed habitat.

The main point to remember about artificial reefs is that initially, they only aggregate fish. Later, after they have established a viable new habitat with many marine animals as residents, they can increase the biomass of fish. In this regard, ARs are often misused because eventhough they are thought to increase total fish catch in the area, all they really do is attract fish from other areas. Thus management of the ARs is essential to prevent further overfishing of an area.

Bamboo has been successfully used for AR construction in communities where the fishermen are willing to renew the material every three to four years. But, since bamboo is not durable beyond this period, it is generally not considered for habitat enhancement. Rather, it is only useful as a fish attracting device and should only be used as such.

Small pelagics are not normally caught in the vicinity of ARs placed on the bottom near the shore. Fish attracting devices (FADs) placed near the surface in offshore areas attract these fish. In recent years, the importance of the fishery for small pelagics has increased as fishermen venture into deeper waters. As a result, FADs or “payaos” have come into use to catch these fish. “Payaos” have become very common in some deep water channels in the Philippines. They are used to attract tuna, jacks, mackerel and other small pelagics so that they are gathered into small area for capture. Gear used to catch fish near “payaos are usually hook and line, and purse seine type nets. The problem with “payaos” is that they ae unregulated and cause overfishing of some species. They can effectively be used to enhance the catch of small-scale fishermen who have access to “payaos” but they can also be taken advantage of by commercialize boats.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has played a very active role in the development of ARs in the Philippines beginning late 1970s to the present. It has disseminated much education materials on ARs, assisted in their site selection and deployment and monitored some of these AR projects in the country. But even with all these efforts, there remains a lot of room for the improvement of the present program specifically in the proper use of ARs for habitat enhancement and fishery management.

To summarize the role of ARs in the CRM, they should be used as much as possible to enhance and extend habitat and not only to attract fish. They will only exacerbate overfishing if not deployed with some controls on their use. They should sometimes be placed in sanctuaries to ensure that they really enhance habitat and increase fish biomass in the long term. Now, the tendency among community groups is to construct ARs and allow all fishermen to fish on the reef. This kind of open access regime only defeats the potential benefits from ARs.

3. Mangrove Reforestation

An important strategy for reforestation of coastal areas is the replanting of mangrove trees in old habitat sites. This portion of FSP work will come under the mandate of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and will be implemented through community-based mangrove reforestation projects as an integral part of the bay CRM plans.

Many benefits come from mangrove forest. Mangroves provide:

a. coastal protection
b. human livelihoods
c. habitat and/or food for many plants and animals

The importance of mangrove ecosystems in the coastal areas has been emphasized above. The main benefits from mangroves are those of natural productivity which support a food chain leading to many fishery species such as shrimp, crabs and some fish; coastal protection through their through their barrier effect and livelihoods in the form of sustainable wood cutting and collecting of products from plants themselves.

The trade-off between value of replacing mangrove habitat with other uses such as shrimp ponds and maintaining a sustainable use regime of the system is now being evaluated. It has been determined in the Philippines that the value of harvestible products from a one hectare equivalent of mangrove forest and its nutrients over one year is more than Php10,000.00. Thus those destroy it should think twice.

In summary of CRM and its strategies, it is necessary to remember that integration is the key. All activities in coastal areas which impact the environment and its resources in any manner should be considered in CRM planning. Watershed deforestation and erosion cannot be excluded from planning. The various actors and resource users must also be considered. They may be industries, small-scale fishermen, shipping and many more. Political groups, both government and non-government should be included in the planning. CRM planning is holistic in nature and sets priorities for what is practical to accomplish and what is effective.

If we work together, CRM planning with its strategies of marine sanctuaries and reserves, improved law enforcement and communication, artificial reefs, alternative livelihoods and more will provide the hope to the rehabilitation and management of the valuable coastal and fishery resources of the Philippines. New approaches and renewed political and personal will is needed to implement such a program. If well planned and implemented, it will have along-term beneficial impact. At this stage, planning is important, it should be done carefully and cautiously.