Aya Silva, Vice President of Fish Forever, Philippines, discusses how unpredictability in fish stocks and extreme weather events affects coastal communities throughout the Philippines. She also discusses how community-led co-management can offer solutions that best fit the realities faced within individual communities.
Full transcript
What daily challenges do fishers living in the Philippines’ coastal communities face?
Fishing communities face a lot of unpredictability in their day to day. When they go out to sea early in the morning and spend hours out at sea, they don’t know how much fish they can catch. If you ask them and compare them to 10 years ago, 20 years ago, they will say that there’s declining fish catch over the years. They also face a lot of unpredictability in terms of weather, and when those extreme weather events hit, they’re one of the really most vulnerable because they live so close to the shore.
How does this unpredictability affect fishers emotionally?
It makes them feel more helpless because they’re unable to really plan very well about how to save up and how to manage their budget. It also puts a lot of pressure on fishing because if they don’t know if they’re, if it’s unpredictable how much fish they might catch in the future, when there’s a good day for fishing, they might have the, tendency or be forced to over fish so that they can then have enough income to prepare for that unpredictability.
What are the keys to engaging communities in a way that respects their deep generational knowledge of coastal waters?
When we enter a community, we’re not coming in with the solution and saying, oh, exactly, this is how you, you do the zoning, we do the science of it, but we go in with a lot of consultation and understanding what the communities think and feel and believe throughout the generations of their, of fishing to be able to come up with a solution jointly with the communities so that we are more certain that these interventions or these changes will be adopted and the communities are really bought in even more. We are very conscious and intentional about seeking the input of the indigenous people and really working together with them to ensure that the solutions that we bring, again, co-developed with them, are really the most suitable for their realities.
How does the Fish Forever program ultimately affect the natural ecosystems?
The fish stocks are going up again, that they’re bouncing back from a lot of the damage. So that’s the fish, the coral reefs and the sea grass and mangroves. And there’s also increasing biodiversity in these areas that, in the past have suffered.
Why is community-led co-management so important for coastal communities?
The fishing communities, the, the individuals in those communities are not just beneficiaries of our work. They’re instead really the agents of change that can make a difference in their own lives and also in the ocean habitats.
Why does Rare prioritize working with local leaders?
Local leaders are really powerful in a way that no other external agent can substitute for. So even the best of us, the best of Rare or other organizations can go to a community and convince them do something that is nowhere near as powerful as a local leader standing up, and advocating for their community and bringing people along.