Ten years ago a local conservation leader Yalap Yalap became a Rare Conservation Fellow in Palau to help conserve the hawksbill turtle. In December 2010, the president of Palau signed a moratorium on hunting the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and provided additional restrictions on catching other species of sea turtles. Informing policy in an island nation with 300 islands and about 20,000 people was no easy feat. Conservation and policy change are lofty goals and, as Yalap and two subsequent Rare leaders who built on his early work in Palau have shown, persistence doesn’t always go unrewarded.

Five hundred miles west, in the Philippines – with about 7,000 islands and more than 90 million people – influencing marine policy is even more ambitious. There the objectives are amplified exponentially: not just one species, but entire ecosystems. Fortunately, Rare launched not one, but twelve campaigns in the Philippines to work towards creating replicable conservation strategies to safeguard marine resources, protect the livelihoods of fishing-based communities and inform policy on all levels.

“In a way the Philippines is similar to Palau because there are people scattered across many islands,” says Khanh Nguyen, partnership manager at Rare. The Philippine campaigns are still in their infancies, but Rare and its partners are already addressing the need to build a targeted strategy linking community support with policy change. In the Philippines, this means targeting the local governing units, which hold the most decision making power over use of natural resources. Rare has already formed alliances with a sort of “league of mayors” – engaging them in campaign goals and planning. In a first for Rare, the Philippines team will hold a social-marketing workshop designed specifically for the mayors from all 12 campaign sites. Attendees will learn firsthand the value of social marketing to advance community-based goals and receive tools they can use to improve their own communications. A second workshop is also in development to introduce a broader network of mayors and local leaders to Rare’s approach, which is being promoted and implemented with several strategic partners working nationwide. The goals for this second event include increasing demand for social marketing among local government leaders in the Philippines, recruiting potential partners and stimulating new sources of funding and support. Rare’s longtime partner, the Packard Foundation, has provided the funds to support both of these efforts.

The Philippines present a somewhat unique situation in that, as a nation, they have already established a pervasive system of marine protected areas. The problems arise in managing these areas and enforcing the necessary regulations. Many are what Matt Lutkenhouse, Pride English Program (PEP) director, calls “paper parks,” where the policies exist but are not actually implemented. When choosing sites in which to work, Rare staff looked more at the people than the biology of the places and selected locations where effective management and community buy-in seemed most plausible. Lutkenhouse has a lot of confidence that the new class of fellows, who spent nine weeks in the Washington, D.C. area this fall, will be able to dramatically enrich local knowledge and management practices. “They are extremely bright and opinionated,” says Lutkenhouse. “In many ways, they know more than we do.”

The twelve campaign sites in the Philippines encompass near-shore reef systems, most of which are visible from shore and over which the local governments have jurisdiction. Throughout their campaigns the fellows will highlight how to best manage successful no-take zones and marine protected areas rather than targeting illegal fishers. It is often difficult to place blame, or determine a causal effect, when dealing with the oceans. During classroom discussions many of the fellows consistently brought up the impact that large commercial fishing fleets have on fish stocks. “We try to get them to focus on the things they can control,” says Lutkenhouse.

“It’s always best to let the community own the issues,” says Lutkenhouse, but government support is almost always a critical ingredient for success. In the Philippines it is a huge asset that the local mayors support the fellows and that they are at the start of their terms. With a Rare education and social marketing training both the fellows and the mayors will be better equipped to argue their community cases on a state or national level and ultimately could have larger impacts on marine policy.

In a recent blog, Ruby Lobrigo Mendones, one of the fellows who began her training this fall, writes, “I urged [my community] to become “oragon” [the local Bicolano word for “excellent”] leaders by showing the world and Rare we can take care of our seas.” Yalap Yalap showed us all that community engagement can rise through the ranks all the way to the president’s pen. Here’s hoping for more “oragon” results.