Conservation of coastal resources in Anilao, Batangas through

establishment, management, and regulation of MPAs

Introduction

The Philippines is composed of over 7,000 islands with an extensive marine ecosystem
and millions of Filipinos living along the coast (Bulao, 2022). Fish and other aquatic
products are the staple food of the Filipinos and the fisheries sector provides
employment to over a million people in the country (Angeles, 2018). However, issues
such as overfishing, pollution, water quality, and overexploitation have affected the
fisheries industry in the Philippines which is facing a lot of challenges due to harmful
human activities (Bulao, 2022). The coast of Anilao, or the Municipality of Mabini, in the
city of Batangas in Philippines is best known for tourism and fishing activities. Among
tourists, diving is a popular sport with five diving resorts between the Twin Rocks and
Arthur’s Rocks sanctuaries (Dalisay, n.d.). It is also a place of tremendous marine
biodiversity and is referred to as the ‘centre of the centre’ due to the presence of 319
different species of hard corals (CIP, 2011).

In order to conserve the rich biodiversity of the region, the government of Philippines
has initiated several Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) projects. The first of such
projects was initiated in 1988 after the Haribon Foundation reported a decline in coral
reef health and abundance of fish (Rawlins, n.d.). In 1991, the Mabini Marine Reserve
was established and three marine sanctuaries were developed which were declared to
be ‘no-fishing zones’. Furthermore, the local communities were instructed to carry out
non-destructive fishing activities in other parts of the reserve (Rawlins, n.d.). The
Coastal Resource Management Board (CRMB) was established in 2002 for
implementing policies, enforcing regulations, and initiating waste management
programmes in the region (Rawlins, n.d.).

Despite several initiatives and committees that have been set up to conserve marine
resources along the coast of Anilao, most of them are not implemented properly. For
instance, the Marine Reserve Resource Executive Committee (MR-REC) was
established in 2006 with its members comprising of local community members such as
boatmen and fishermen; however, reports from 2008 have found the committee to be
inactive (Rawlins, n.d.). A study by Christie et al. (2005) reported that laws and
regulations are not properly enforced in Anilao due to confusion in roles and
responsibilities, conflicts in multiple policies, political intervention, informal and
inconsistent enforcement, and not meting out punishment to violators.

Therefore, keeping in mind the lack of a proper coastal resource management system in
place, in order to conserve the marine resources in the region and manage the fisheries
industry, this study aims to establish and regulate marine-protected areas (MPAs) along
the coast in Anilao, Batangas. This will be achieved through the following objectives:

1) To establish, monitor, and evaluate indicators such as diversity, abundance, and

biomass for evaluation of MPA regulation;

2) To evaluate species-specific fish response to CRM efforts; and

3) To evaluate performance indicators related to community empowerment such as

participation, influence, control, conflict management, and compliance.

RESEARCH MATRIX

Objective What needs to Method Analysis required

be done
1) To establish, Establishment Select MPAs based Periodically review
monitor, and evaluate of MPAs on biogeographical and revise
indicators such as qualities, ecological boundaries if
diversity, abundance, processes, and necessary
and biomass for presence of habitat of
evaluation of MPA endangered species
regulation Regulation of Decide on the Periodically review
MPAs restriction of activities and revise
based on the regulations if
economic and/or necessary
social importance of
the MPA
Setting up (i) Abundance (i) No. of species
indicators from one group /
total number of
species from all
groups
(ii) Diversity (ii) Number of taxa
present
(iii) Biomass (iii) Sum of dry
mass biomass of all
individuals in the
MPA
(iv) Conservation / (iv) Calculate
Ecological Stability Simpson’s Diversity
Index
2. To evaluate Setting up (i) Abundance of key (i) Abundance of
species-specific fish coastal fish- coastal fish species key species
response to CRM based indicators calculated when fish
efforts are most active at
intervals of 4
 months, expressed
as number per site;
Poisson distribution
will be used for
(ii) Environmental analysis
drivers (ii) Analysis of local
environmental
conditions such as
water temperature
and water depth
that may affect
activity and spatial
aggregation
patterns of fish; site-
specific wave
exposure may also
be calculated using
Simplified Wave
Exposure Index to
analyse fish activity;
a semi-parametric
model will be used
to assess spatial
variation and inter-
annual variation
3. To evaluate Setting up (i) Effectiveness of (i) Availability of
performance indicators performance resource management plan
related to community indicators management and rules for
empowerment such as strategies accessing
participation, resources;
influence, control, presence of a
conflict management, decision-making
and compliance committee; regular
monitoring of
resources
(ii) Effectiveness of
(ii) Presence of
legal management
sufficient legislation;
strategies
compatibility
between traditional
and formal legal
regulations;
(iii) Effective enforceability
representation of (iii) Presence of
stakeholders systems for co-
management;
enhancement of
 community
(iv) Compliance organizing activities
(iv) Monitoring and
surveillance;
willingness of
people to comply by
rules; capacity of
people to engage in
sustainable
activities;
transparency and
accessibility of
(v) Conflict management
management regulations
(v) Reduce and
manage conflicts
within a group,
between groups,
between groups
and community, and
between community
members and
people outside the
community
References

Angeles, P. K. C. (2018). Coastal Development: Sustainability or Destruction? De La

Salle University, Manila, Philippines.

Bulao Rolan, J. G. (2022). The problems of coastal environment and natural resources:
The case of the Phillipines. Kuroshio Science, 9-24.

Christie, P. (2005). Legal issues affecting sustainability of integrated coastal

management in the Philippines. Ocean & Coastal Management, 48, 336-59.

CIP. (2011). Verde Island Passage. Conservation International Philippines.

Dalisay, V. J. C. (n.d.). Coral bleaching in Anilao, Mabini, Batangas and its potential
implications to tourism demand. MSTM 514: Tourism and climate change: Responding
to challenges.

Rawlins, D. (2009). The Marine Protected Area Network of Batangas Province,

Philippines: An Outcome-Based Evaluation of Effectiveness and
Performance. Ritsumeikan Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 25, 55-75.