SUAKCREM
on Ensuring Long-Term Sustainability of Sanctuary
A beach
resort (top, left) was built in Balicasag Island by the Department
of Tourism after a marine sanctuary (top, right) was established.
Years before that, beautiful shells have been collected around the
island and sold both inside and outside the country (bottom).
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SUAKCREM
Director, Dr. Angel C. Alcala provided comments on long-term sustainability
ensuring policies for the 15-year old marine sanctuary of Balicasag Island
off Bohol Province.
On his revisit to the island, Alcala found the sanctuary
heavily disturbed by scuba divers. Sea urchins, sea cucumbers and seashells
were removed. These findings were probably causing harm to the sanctuary
as manifested by the low fish density and the wary behavior of serranids
(lapu-lapu) toward divers.
As an expert and as one of the leading initiators in
the establishment of the said sanctuary in the early 1980s, Alcala expressed
his concern that the above manifestations may lead to depletion of fishery
stocks. Thus, among the recommendations he made to ensure long term sustainability
of Balicasag fishery resources are:
- Maintain the sanctuary as
a no-take zone where nothing should be removed.
- Extend the no-take reserve
beyond the drop off to protect sea shells inorder to have a sustainable
shell fishery.
- Activate the community organization
to help enforce the sanctuary regulations and reduce threats.
"CB-CRM
is a Poverty Alleviating Project"
Angel C. Alcala
Director, SUAKCREM
Dr. Angel
C. Alcala presented the Community-Based Coastal Resources Management (CBCRM)
of Apo Island during the Philippine mayors’ forum at Dumaguete City on September
29, 2000.
Alcala pointed
to the Apo CBCRM as a project that has addressed issues on poverty, alternative
livelihood, environmental pressures and development of the coastal community.
He told the participants that until people are empowered and organized to
manage the depleting natural resources as their own, no development would
ever happen.
Mayors from Luzon,
Visayas and Mindanao including Dumaguete City Mayor Antonio Felipe Remollo
attended the said gathering on poverty alleviation and environmental related
programs.
International
Panel Thumbs-up to SUAKCREM’s Paper
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The
long-term monitoring at Sumilon and Apo island has produced convincing
evidence that reserve protection results in significant increases
in density, mean size and biomass of target species. |
Dr. Garry R. Russ and Dr. Angel C. Alcala received the best paper award
given by the international panel of International Society for Reef Studies
(ISRS).
The authors published the said paper in volume 17
of the international journal, Coral Reefs. The paper is entitled “Natural-fishing
experiments in marine reserves 1983-1993: roles of life history and fishing
intensity in family responses”.
The paper examined the effect of fishing pressures
on the abundance and species richness of families of coral reef fish at
Sumilon and Apo islands in the Philippines from 1983-1993. It also provided
scientific proof that knowledge of life history and fishing intensity
alone is not sufficient to predict response to fishing.
SUAKCREM
Participates in the 9th ICRS
Dr. Angel C. Alcala was
one of the nine plenary speakers during the 9th International Coral Reef
Symposium (ICRS) at Bali, Indonesia on October 23-27 2000.
His talk on the "Role of Socioeconomic Factors in Coral Reef Protection
and Management" informed the participants that the establishment of network
of marine reserves and community –based coastal resource management is a
successful approach to stop the degradation of the coral reefs and coral
reef resources heavily impacted by man.
In the ICRS, SUAKCREM researchers gave oral presentations
on the new coral disease in Central Philippines and algae coral interactions.
Dr. Laurie L.J. Raymundo presented The Etiology and Pathogenesis of the
Porites, Ulcerative White Spot Disease, and Aileen Maypa discussed particularly
the effects of algae on settlement and early survival and growth of the
coral Pocillopora damicornis.
Researchers
from SUAKCREM participating in the 9th ICRS. Dr. Laurie
Raymundo (2nd from left) and Aileen Maypa (3rd from left).
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In the same manner, over 1,000 international researchers presented studies related to the theme:
“World Coral Reefs in the New Millenium: Bridging Research and Management
for Sustainable Development.
More Lectures
on CRM
For the past two
months, academic institutions and civic organization from Visayas and Mindanao
invited Dr. Angel C. Alcala to talk on Coastal Resources Management (CRM).
Among the inviting
institutions and organization were:
- Cebu Normal University (CNU),
Cebu City, Philippines
- Davao State College (DSC),
Davao del Norte, Philippines
- Jaycees Club, Visayas Region,
Philippines.
The lectures took place in October and November 2000.
Third Sanctuary on the Same Municipality Soon
The formal inauguration
of a marine sanctuary in barangay Binaliwan will mark the third of the established
sanctuaries in Mahinog Municipality in Camiguin Province.
The inauguration will come right after the said municipality approves
the Binaliwan Barangay’s resolution on the establishment of the 8.5- hectare
marine sanctuary.
SUAKCREM and Camiguin Polytechnic State College (CPSC) helped in
community organizing work, installation of buoys and mapping the sanctuary
site.
PEW Sponsors SCUBA
SUAKCREM supported the need of the Selinog community for an expert
diver to regularly monitor its sanctuary and be an available buddy for local
and international tourists.
Through the Pew
Fellows Program in Marine Conservation, SUAKCREM sponsored a free training
on self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (SCUBA) on November 26-30
2000.
An open water
SCUBA Instructor, Cesar Jalosjos trained a diver from Selinog Island, Frederick
E. Senit. Two others from the City government of Dapitan, Mr. Ronilo B.
Ruiz and Elda Gimena were also trained together with Bobmil C. Flores from
the Rizal memorial State College of Dapitan City.
