Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project Is to Give SCUBA Diving and Marine Survey Training to Local Counterparts

Southern LeLeyteyte Coral Reef Conservation Project - Results of Community and Scientific Work - May 2004 to December 2005 1 Coral Cay Conservation Effective coastal zone management, qualified project scientists, prior to including conservation of coral reefs, assisting in the acquisition of data. requires a holistic and multi-sectoral Finances generated from the volunteer approach, which is often a highly programme allow CCC to provide a range technical and costly process and one that of services, including data acquisition, many developing countries cannot assimilation and synthesis, conservation adequately afford. With appropriate education, technical skills training and training, non-specialist volunteer divers other capacity building programmes. CCC have been shown to be able to provide is associated with the Coral Cay useful data for coastal zone management Conservation Trust (the only British-based at little or no cost to the host country charity dedicated to protecting coral (Hunter and Maragos, 1992; Mumby et al., reefs). 1995; Wells, 1995; Darwall and Dulvy, 1996; Erdmann et al., 1997). This technique has been pioneered and successfully applied by Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), a British not-for- profit organisation. Founded in 1986, CCC is dedicated to ‘providing resources to protect livelihoods and alleviate poverty through the protection, restoration and sustainable use of coral reefs and tropical forests’ in collaboration with government and non- governmental organisations within a host country. CCC does not charge the host country for the services it provides and is primarily self-financed through a pioneering volunteer participatory scheme whereby international volunteers are given the opportunity to join a phase of each project in return for a financial contribution towards the project costs. Upon arrival at a project site, volunteers undergo a training programme in marine life identification and underwater survey techniques, under the guidance of Acknowledgements Coral Cay Conservation would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to the The staff of the Municipal Agricultural following people, without whom this Office of Padre Burgos project would not have been possible: The Philippine National Police of Padre Burgos Hon. Rosette Y. Lerias, Provincial Governor for Southern Leyte, for her Professor Senona A. Cesar and the other vision and constant encouragement staff of Leyte State University Gerry L. Ledesma, and all the staff from The staff of Southern Leyte State the Philippine Reef & Rainforest University Conservation Foundation Inc (PRRCFI) The members of the Coastal Resources His Excellency, Peter Beckingham, British Management Network of Southern Leyte Ambassador to the Philippines, and the staff of the British Embassy, Manila, in In alphabetical order, Günter (Southern particular Sherah Chua and Nicole Leyte Divers), Pete (Peter’s Dive Resort) Cadwallader and Ron (Sogod Bay Divers), for their support and for sharing their knowledge Hon. Eva L. Tomol, Board Member for of Sogod Bay Southern Leyte Our Filipino staff, Delia, Tata, Loni and Hon. Genis S. Murallos, Provincial Ariel, whose loyalty, trust, and Administrator dedication are valued more than we could ever say Hon. Rimmon Borces, Municipal Mayor of Padre Burgos A very special thanks goes out to Dag Navarette, Neil Pretencio, Lloyd “Wang The barangay captains of Santa Sofia, Yu” Abiera, Andy Arnaiz, Emmanuel Lungsodaan, Tangkaan and Buenavista Gulay, SB Boniel, and Mam Beverly Navarette, for their support, their advice Nedgar Garves and all the staff at the and, most of all, for their friendship. Provincial Tourism Office All the international volunteers who Mam Eva Abad and all the staff at the gathered the data and made this possible Provincial Coastal Resources Management Report By: Office Shay O’Farrell, Jan Willem Van Bochove, Hannah Bodley, Douglas Fenner, PhD, and Tim Packeiser of GTZ Peter Raines, MBE, July 2006 Executive Summary The Southern Leyte Coral Reef teams from the project’s inception in Conservation Project (SLCRCP) is a tri- September 2002, until December 2005. It partite initiative, convened jointly by also contains a synopsis of community Coral Cay Conservation (CCC), the work and capacity building activities Philippine Reef and Rainforest undertaken at the new project base, Conservation Foundation Inc. (PRRCFI) between May 2004 and December 2005. and the Provincial Government of Community and capacity building work Southern Leyte. undertaken prior to May 2004 have previously been presented in Taylor et al The project has been undertaken with (2004). the objective of assisting in the conservation of the coral reefs of Sogod Over the 19 month period covered by this Bay for the long-term benefit and food- report, CCC project staff undertook an security of the residents of the Province. extensive community education Three strategies have been identified as programme. In excess of 500 students appropriate for achieving this objective, from the schools and colleges of Southern namely: Leyte had the opportunity to learn about their reef resources, through a series of 1 - Conservation education for the Open Days held at the CCC project base, fisherfolk, schools, colleges, and Local plus various workshops and seminars Government Units (LGUs) of the Province organised, or attended, by the CCC Project Scientist. As a result of an 2 - Capacity building of technical skills innovative study visit to the famous Apo amongst the employees of the Provincial Island marine reserve in Negros Oriental, Government of Southern Leyte 4 new community-based Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) were created in the 3 - Resource appraisal of the current Municipality of Padre Burgos by the status of the coral reefs of the bay fisherfolk and LGUs. Furthermore, a series of successful teacher training From September 2002 to April 2004, the workshops was held, 14 MPA wardens SLCRCP was based near the town of were tutored, extensive mangrove Malitbog, from where CCC dive teams planting projects were undertaken, and assessed the north-eastern and north- Provincial Government Employees were western reefs. In May 2004, the project qualified in SCUBA diving, plus marine moved to the Municipality of Padre science and surveying. Burgos, from where the reefs of the south-west and Limasawa Island could be CCC survey teams conducted a total of assessed. This report contains an analysis 531 survey dives, producing a total of 671 of all of the data gathered by CCC survey individual survey records for the reefs of Executive Summary the bay. Because the location of each of Low abundances of commercially these surveys was determined using a important fish and invertebrate species Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, provides an indication of over-fishing of these data can be imported to a the reefs within the Bay and highlights Geographic Information System (GIS), to the concern that fish stocks are facilitate spatial analysis. These data considered to be both biologically and will be made freely available to the economically overfished in most areas of resource managers of Southern Leyte, to the Philippines. allow for target specific querying of the dataset, as well as the selected analysis The high diversity and abundances of fish presented herein. species and live hard coral cover in existing fish sanctuaries, such as From these data, a total of 10 benthic Napantau on the eastern coast of Sogod habitats were identified within Sogod Bay, are extremely attractive to divers. Bay. Hard coral cover was found to The presence of Whale sharks and various increase towards the mouth of the bay, other ‘megafauna’, such as turtles and which may be linked to sediment input different shark species, represent great into the north of the bay. The majority potential for dive related tourism in this of sediment appears to stem from the area. extensive river systems entering at the apex of the bay near Sogod town and this may result in high levels of sediment deposition and therefore relatively low hard substrate upon which corals will settle. Coral species diversity was found to be exceptional in certain areas of the bay with a number of rare species being identified. For example, 141 different species of corals were recorded on a single dive by the coral taxonomist, Dr. Douglas Fenner in December 2005. Efficient management and implementation of sustainable fishing practices is essential if the health of these reefs is to be conserved. Table of Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 The Philippines ........................................................................ 2 1.2 Southern Leyte ........................................................................ 2 1.3 Threats to the coral reefs of Sogod Bay ........................................... 4 1.3.1 Sedimentation ......................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Pollution and nutrification........................................................... 6 1.3.3 Fishing Pressure ....................................................................... 7 2 Capacity Building 3 Scientific - Background and Methods 3.1 Background........................................................................... 23 3.2 Methodology ......................................................................... 23 3.2.1 Geographic Information System................................................... 26 4 Scientific - Results and Discussion 4.1 Results from oceanographic and impact data................................... 29 4.1.1 Water temperature

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