Community efforts yield new marine protected area in the Philippines

The Philippines has officially designated a new marine protected area after an 18-year campaign by local communities, fisher associations, civil society organizations and government agencies, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced Aug. 13.

The newly created Bitaug Marine Protected Area (MPA), which covers nearly 150 hectares (about 370 acres), is the largest MPA in Siquijor province in the Central Visayas region of the country.

The MPA includes a core zone of 44 hectares (about 110 acres) and a buffer zone of 105 hectares (260 acres), according to the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), a government body.

The coastal waters the MPA covers are home to a high diversity of corals, reef fish and seagrass. They also host high biomass of commercially important fish species, turtles, sharks and other marine wildlife.

WCS, one of the NGO partners involved in the Bitaug MPA’s creation, said in its statement that sharks and rays are prohibited from being caught in the protected area, unless for research purposes. It added the MPA’s management framework will allow ecotourism activities such as snorkeling and diving, with the revenue invested back into the community and local conservation efforts.

WCS and the PIA both credited the successful creation of the MPA to the Bitaug Fisherfolk Association (BitFA), which will co-manage the area with the local government. “Hopefully, in time, we will truly take charge of managing and caring for our MPA. This is the beginning of what we’ve been dreaming of for almost eighteen years,” Othello Manos, president of BitFA, said in the WCS statement.

The PIA added that efforts to protect Bitaug’s coastal waters started in 2007, when the provincial government started promoting village-level marine sanctuaries. The Bitaug village leadership revived discussions a decade later, followed by a community perception survey that showed widespread support for a protected area. Later, surveys by the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation (CCEF), WCS and the University of the Philippines’ Marine Environment and Resources Foundation (UP-MERF) confirmed the coastal waters’ rich biodiversity.

WCS called the new MPA “a testament to the power of persistence, strong community leadership, and multi-sectoral collaboration,” serving as a roadmap for other coastal municipalities to follow suit.

“Our coral reefs, seagrass beds, and mangroves are interconnected. They must be protected together if we truly want to secure our environment and our future,” said Kristine Kate Lim, country director for WCS Philippines.

BitFA secretary Jackelyn Balucan told PIA they made the MPA happen “because we believe in protecting our seas. Our coastal area is rich in mangroves, which serve as breeding grounds for fish.”

“We are hoping that within two years this MPA will generate income for us. We worked hard to have this marine sanctuary because we saw the benefits it brought to other towns,” Manos told PIA.

Banner image: Corals and fish within the Bitaug MPA. Image © Dean Apistar/WCS Philippines.