The Philippines FISH Project is a USAID-financed technical assistance project that aims to use sustainable practices to increase the harvest of fish in the Philippines. FISH stands for Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest.
Residents of the Philippines depend on productive fisheries for food and income, but the fisheries are in severe decline. Enforcement of basic regulations is challenging and habitat-damaging fishing practices, such as the use of poisons or explosives continues to degrade the ecosystem. Protein deficiencies now exist among coastal fishing communities because of steep declines in the catch.
The FISH Project is a seven-year commitment by USAID to provide advice and assistance to local governments and stakeholders in four targeted areas to build capacity for effective management. The targeted areas are strategically important fisheries and key areas of biodiversity conservation.
The FISH Project takes a holistic view of the stressors on the ecosystem. For instance, population pressures are leading to overfishing and poor land-use practices that impact the coastal ecosystem. As part of its strategy, the FISH Project is supporting reproductive health programs.
The program is implemented in partnership with the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Philippines. The program has already met its chief objective of realizing a 10-percent increase in fish stocks in four targeted areas by 2010 and funding is set to expire in December 2010.
Mission
The mission of the Philippines FISH Project is to use sustainable practices to increase the harvest of fish in the Philippines.
Objectives
The primary objective is to increase fish stocks by 10 percent in the four targeted implementation areas by 2010. Supporting objectives include the following:
Capacity Increases for Fisheries Management
National Policy Framework Development
Constituent Development
Lead Organizations
Key Parties
The Philippines FISH Project is a USAID-sponsored initiative that is managed under contract by Tetra Tech EM Inc., which proposed the following structure:
In the past, Philippines had open access fisheries policies, allowing its fisheries to be exploited by foreign vessels and overfished.
The FISH Project builds on a previous USAID-financed initiative, the nine-year Coastal Resource Management Project (CRMP). CRMP provided technical assistance and training to help coastal communities, local government units, non-governmental organizations and national government agencies improve their management of coastal resources. CRMP ended in 2004.
The Philippines adopted coastal resource management as a basic, local government service. Some authority was decentralized, providing for the greater involvement of local government units and communities in resource management.
However, few coastal municipalities had the capacity to manage their natural resources because of deficiencies in their personnel, budgets, planning capacity and technical knowledge. Attempts to implement fisheries restrictions on effort and gear enjoyed limited success, partly because of a lack of law enforcement programs and community education programs.
Law enforcement is hampered by a weak judiciary. In the Calamianes Islands, for instance, a judge visits the area only three times a year, according to USAID. Few attempts to prosecute violations of fisheries regulations are successful, because few witnesses and complainants can attend hearings in another region.
The Ecosystem
Four targeted areas were selected for implementation of the FISH Project in the Philippines, which is home to the highest diversity of coral reefs in the world and once had highly productive fisheries. The areas - the Calamianes Islands, Tawi-Tawi, Danajon Bank and Surigao del Sur - include coral reefs, mangrove forests, sandy beaches, seagrass beds and protected bays and inlets which all provide diverse marine and coastal habitats. Danajon Bank includes the only double barrier reef in the Philippines.
The targeted areas are home to grouper, Bumphead wrasse, and tuna among other commercially-important species. Two threatened species of marine crocodiles have been found in the Calamianes. Five species of endangered sea turtles, including the Green Turtle, Loggerhead, Hawksbill, Leatherback, and Olive Ridley, have been found in Suriago de Sur.
Threats
Threats include long-standing overfishing and illegal fishing with many large vessels operating illegally in the offshore fisheries. Dynamite and poisons are used in fishing, particularly by low-income fishers. In the Calamianes area, use of dynamite has destroyed much of the reef.
Poor land-use practices are also negatively impacting the ecosystem, including sedimentation from deforested areas, conversion of mangrove forests to fish ponds and poor waste disposal practices.
Strategies
The strategies used by the Philippines FISH Project include:
Monitoring
A monitoring program was established to collect baseline information on fisheries and related resources, and develop a better understanding of the resources and threats. Every two years, special monitoring undertakings will collect the biological information needed to assess impacts from the program.
Assessment and Evaluation
Annual reports produced by USAID measure the progress of the program against numerical goals for each of its objectives, including the primary objective and the supporting objectives, called intermediate objectives.
Web site hosting primary information on the Philippines FISH Project: http://www.oneocean.org/
USAID feature on the Philippines FISH Project: http://www.usaid.gov/stories/philippines/fp_philippines_fishes.html
USAID Web site: http://www.usaid.gov/