Community-Based Coastal Resource Management (Bolinao Phase II)

SITE: Bolinao, Pangasinan


FUNDERS: Supported by the Coastal Resource Research Network and International Development Research Centre-Canada (IDRC-Canada)

PURPOSE: To improve the sustainability of community-based coastal resource management (CBCRM) in terms of community organization and coastal livelihood development activities through appropriate management, enhanced selection and implementation of criteria for livelihood activities, improved individual- and group capacities and installation of better sustaining mechanisms.

Capacity-building for Peoples’ Organizations
To help the peoples’ organizations (POs) in Bolinao, Pangasinan, Haribon held a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) for first-tier leaders of eight POs there. The TNA validated the need for capacity-building activities to enhance the skills of the PO leaders and to prepare the members for the time when Haribon will phase out of the area on December 2002.

The capacity-building exercises subsequently held for the POs were the following:

Office Management and Human Resource Management;
Training on Administrative and Finance Management, including a workshop on Bookkeeping and Accounting for non-Accountants; and
Trainers’ Training for the local community organizers (LCOs), which was in itself a series of workshops that taught participants how to hold trainings on organizational education and development. After the sessions, it became the responsibility of the first-tier leaders to share their newly-acquired skills to the second-tier leaders.
In addition to the workshops, the LCOs also went on a trip last May 2002 to Bugan Monastery in Tuding, Benguet, to learn about organic farming. The monastery, which operates a native poultry and piggery using biogas and rainwater, based their operations on earth-friendly principles and methods. The trip intended to show the community organizers a sustainable livelihood project which they can learn from before putting up their own livelihood projects in Bolinao.

After the series of trainings for the first-tier leaders, the KAISAKA (Kaisahan ng mga Samahan ng Alay sa Kalikasan), a Bolinao fishers’ federation comprised of eight fishers’ communities, initiated the following activities for their community members: Environmental education, leadership training, community mobilization, livelihood development and formulation, and the review and enforcement of legal instruments relevant to local coastal resource management.

The Goal is Self-sufficiency
At the same time that the leadership and managerial skills of the local leaders were augmented through the various trainings, a trust fund named the Bolinao Peoples’ Organizations Environmental Trust was established through the fishers’ federation KAISAKA to eventually provide financial aid to their environmental initiatives and small-scale businesses.

In keeping with the theme of achieving self-sufficiency for the fishing communities, a sustainable livelihood framework was formulated by the POs with the help of Haribon. The livelihood framework was adapted by the communities through their following initiatives:

Sustainable Integrated Aqua-farm by the Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda ng Victory (SMMV), the fisher’s organization in barangay Victory;
Sustainable Livelihood Development Project by the Samahan ng Magsasaka at Mangingisda ng Pilar (SMMP), the fishers’ organization in barangay Pilar; and
Sustainable Livelihood Concepts by the Samahan ng mga Mamamayan at Mangingisda sa Balingasay (SMMB) and Fisherfolks of Estanza for the Development of the Environment and Livelihood Association (FEDELA) in barangays Balingasay and Estanza, respectively.
Moratorium on Fish Pens and Cages
KAISAKA and Haribon, together with representatives from various sectors of Bolinao, begun an advocacy campaign to tackle the issue of massive fishkills in their bay. The campaign bore fruit in the form of a moratorium on fish pens and fish cages which, due to their increasing numbers and densities, play important roles in maintaining the balance of Bolinao’s marine environment. Another series of dialogs among the local government units of Bolinao, the Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Council (MFARMC) and KAISAKA resulted in a resolution for a Coastal and Fisheries Resource Management Ordinance for Bolinao, Pangasinan.

The KAISAKA’s work on marine sanctuary protection, community fisheries management and planning, sustainable livelihoods and small-scale aqua-cultural development has attracted a host of admirers who view Bolinao as a model in community developmental work. Among its visitors were students of the Social Work Department of Lutheran College, Japan; Cambodian delegates from Participatory Management of Mangrove Resources; students of Asian Social Institute; staff of Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture; and students of International Institute of Rural Reconstruction. A people’s organization’s (Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda ng Victory or SMMV) work on resource management caught the attention of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceutical Company and Rotaract Parañaque which gave commitments of support to SMMV’s mangrove reforestation project.

An SMMV member visited three CBCRM sites in Bali, Indonesia, for a study tour. It was a venue for Filipino and Indonesian participants to share experiences and to learn new strategies in Community-based Coastal Resources Management (CBCRM).

Documenting Field Experiences
CBCRM practitioners and local community organizers in Bolinao have a wealth of information in the form of stories and experiences. In 2002, Haribon decided to compile their stories in two publications:

“Envisioning Life: Community-created Sustainable Livelihood Concepts” encapsulates lessons from community organizing programs and the process of the emergence of sustainable livelihood analysis and development, and;
“Buhay ng Dagat, Buhay ng Manda-ragat” chronicles the experiences of local leaders in implementing CBCRM in Bolinao, Pangasinan. These books are available in the Haribon library.


source: www.haribon.org