Community-Based Marine Sanctuaries in the Philippines: a Report on Focus Group Discussions
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COMMUNITY-BASED MARINE SANCTUARIES in the PHILIPPINES:A REPORT on FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS Brian Crawford, Miriam Balgos and Cesario R. Pagdilao June 2000 Coastal Resources Center Philippine Council for Aquatic and University of Rhode Island Marine Research and Development Community-Based Marine Sanctuaries in the Philippines: A Report on Focus Group Discussions Brian Crawford Coastal Resources Center University of Rhode Island Miriam Balgos Graduate College of Marine Studies University of Delaware Cesario R. Pagdilao Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development Department of Science and Technology June 2000 Acknowledgments The authors of this paper would like to thank the numerous individuals who assisted with this effort. Over fifty participants from a diverse mix of institutions participated in a series of four focus group discussions whose inputs, comments and explanations about their respective experience contributed substantially to the contents of this report. A list of participating individuals and institutions is provided in Annex 5. We particularly appreciated the participation of individuals who traveled long distances from locations outside the city venues to attend, especially the representatives of local people’s organizations. We are grateful to the many participants who provided lists of community-based marine sanctuary sites for possible inclusion in the field investigation, as well as related secondary data and references. We greatly appreciated the assistance of the Marine Science Institute (MSI) of the University of the Philippines and the Silliman University Marine Laboratory (SUML) and Center of Excellence in Coastal Resources Management, for serving as venue hosts in Manila and Dumaguete respectively, and particularly the assistance of Porfirio Aliño, Charina Conte and Maricar Samson of MSI, and Hilconida Calumpung, Roy Olsen de Leon, Pacita Raterta, and Julieta Luchavez of SUML. The Coastal Resources Management Project-Philippines (CRMP- Philippines) team, including Catherine Courtney, Alan White, Rebecca Pestano-Smith, Mike Ross, Evelyn Deguit, Melvin, Cookie, Glen, and others, provided work space and logistical support for the Cebu focus group discussion preparations, access to the Coastal Municipal Database, organized a field trip to Olango Island for the Indonesian participants, and supplied them with mountains of documents and information. We would also like to thank the SUML staff, Roy Olsen de Leon, Pablina Cadiz, as well as Mario Pascobello from Apo Island, for arranging a field visit to Apo Island for the Indonesian participants following the Dumaguete focus group discussion. Additional thanks are extended to Chris Rotinsulu and Asep Sukmara from the Proyek Pesisir (Coastal Resources Management Project –Indonesia) North Sulawesi Field Program who contributed their perspectives in the Cebu and Dumaguete focus group discussions, and to several University of Rhode Island faculty, graduate students and Coastal Resources Center staff who also contributed their comments on the draft background paper, focus group agenda, the preliminary conceptual framework and the initial list of factors contributing to the success of community-based marine sanctuaries. Our appreciation is also extended to several staff from Philippine Council for Aquatic and Marine Research and Development (PCAMRD) who assisted with arrangements for the focus group discussions, including Ester Zaragoza, Adela Corpuz, Precious Samonte and Eileen Redera, as well as Jun Olandez who represented PCAMRD in Cebu and Dumaguete who along with Adela assisted in note taking. We would especially like to thank Dr. Rafael Guererro III, Executive Director of PCAMRD, for expressing his support and enthusiasm for this project and his inspirational remarks at the opening of the first focus group discussion in Manila. Lastly, we would like to thank the David and Lucile Packard Foundation who provided the funding which made the discussions and this report possible. i Table of Contents Page Acknowledgments......................................................................................................... i Executive Summary ...................................................................................................iii Ringkasan Eksekutif (Executive Summary in Bahasa Indonesia) ........................ ix 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Project Overview.................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Philippine Component.......................................................................................... 1 1.3 Community-Based Coastal Resources Management and Marine Sanctuaries in the Philippines.................................................................. 4 1.4 The Indonesian Context in North Sulawesi........................................................ 10 2. Models and Conceptual Framework for Community-Based Marine Sanctuaries in the Philippines .............................................................. 13 2.1 Definition of a Community-Based Marine Sanctuary........................................ 13 2.2 Benefits of a Community-Based Marine Sanctuary........................................... 15 2.3 The General Program Model and Conceptual Framework ................................ 16 3. Factors Contributing to the Success of Community-Based Marine Sanctuaries ............................................................ 29 3.1 Context Factors .................................................................................................. 31 3.2 Project Intervention Factors ............................................................................... 33 4. Community-Based Marine Sanctuary Sites in the Philippines....................... 37 5. The Field Research Design and the Philippines-Indonesia Workshop .......... 38 5.1 The Field Research Design ................................................................................ 38 5.2 The Joint Philippines – Indonesia Workshop..................................................... 39 Annexes ....................................................................................................................A-1 1. References and Selected Bibliography................................................................A-2 2. Focus Group Discussion Agenda ........................................................................A-6 3. Discussion Questions ..........................................................................................A-7 4. Summary of Factors Influencing Success (Impacts) from a Literature Review by R. B. Pollnac.........................................................A-9 5. List of Participants ............................................................................................A-13 6. Community-Based Marine Sanctuary Sites ......................................................A-18 7. Examples of Municipal Ordinances for a Community-Based Marine Sanctuary and Marine Reserve .............................................................A-31 8. Summary of Participant Evaluations of the Focus Group Discussions.............A-42 ii Executive Summary A group of fifty-four field practitioners and experts with extensive experience in community-based coastal resources and marine protected area management in the Philippines, representing a diverse group of institutions and backgrounds, participated in a series of four one-day focus group discussions during January 2000. The purpose of these meetings were to discuss and summarize experience and lessons learned with respect to the establishment, implementation, promotion and widespread replication of community-based marine sanctuaries in the Philippines. This report summarizes the results of these discussions. It explains what is a community- based marine sanctuary, and what are their potential benefits. It describes the conceptual framework or general model which is applied in the Philippines and variations within this model which can be found among numerous examples now existing in hundreds of coastal municipalities. It details a range of measures of success, and potential context and project intervention factors that are considered to influence success. The annexes to this report include: the focus group agenda and discussion questions; a list of the focus group participants; a list of marine sanctuary sites; references and selected bibliography; a summary of participant evaluations and examples of municipal ordinances establishing a marine sanctuary and marine reserve. The Philippines now has over two decades of experience with community-based marine sanctuaries and a growing body of literature concerning the lessons learned from this experience. Hundreds of marine sanctuaries have now been established, but it is uncertain how many can be considered successful. Many people believe that a large number of these community-based marine sanctuaries are not yet operating successfully and the possible reasons for this were discussed by the focus groups. Marine sanctuaries can generally be defined as permanently closed areas where all human extractive activities are prohibited, particularly fishing. These are also referred to as “no- take” zones. In the Philippines, this definition applies to many areas called fish sanctuaries, marine sanctuaries and in some instances marine reserves. However, marine reserves are generally defined as