Every Rare Pride campaign has a mascot that helps spread the messages of that campaign. The mascot also helps raise awareness about the campaign and the conservation issues that need to be addressed. For instance, the Baby Tiger mascot below is helping to increase the tiger population in the Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary by persuading community members to avoid purchasing wild meat and to report wild animal poaching in order to protect the tigers’ food supply.

Below you’ll find a few tips for how to create a memorable mascot:

What design features did Rare Conservation Fellow Tao add to the mascot to make it likable and less scary than a real tiger?

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The story of the people of San Francisco in the Philippines is a very sad one, yet also one of survival, resilience and pride.

The Municipality of San Francisco was very sadly the victim of a major landslide in which about 100 villagers died. The village has since been relocated, and as a testament to the resilience of its people, the villagers have converted themselves into anti-landslide net producers. As one can imagine, the local livelihood project is extremely heartfelt by the community, and walking through the village everyone seems to be involved in one way or the other.

The fiber for the nets is produced from coconuts. The nets, sometimes called “coconets,” are a soil erosion control system that is designed to prevent landslides.

The fiber is combed and strung and then woven into a net. The revenue from the project is roughly 100 Php ($2 USD) per person per day for 8 hours of work.  Below are a few pictures from the project:

The string is ready for weaving.

The coconut string on the weaving board.

A woman tying two bits of string together before it is woven into the fabric.

The weaving is done by two people who alternate pressing the pedals and passing the string through the weaving board.

Back in the village, a woman sits on her porch and sorts the coconut fiber that was taken from the husk. She removes ay impurities so that it can be strung.

We are able to witness how the entire village in involved in one way or other in the production of the nets. One gets the feeling that the community has been weaving their sorrow into the fiber, until slowly a new sense of hope and peace has come over the village.

The next project this community really wants to take on is that of strengthening their marine protected area (MPA). To this end, Conservation Fellow Dag Navarette and the British NGO Coral Cay Conservation (CCC) are busy developing a plan for a successful social marketing campaign at the site.

This campaign is part of our Program for Sustainable Fishing the Philippines.

Today, overfishing is the leading threat to this important marine ecosystem. Less than five percent of the Philippines’ coral reef ecosystems remain in pristine health, and there are fishing grounds that contain a mere 10% of the fish stock present just 50 years ago. Most near-shore fishing is conducted by subsistence fishers in coastal communities – a group that represents not just a formidable threat, but the most likely driver of an effective solution.

To engage local fishing communities, Rare has launched grassroots campaigns at 12 important sites in the Philippines. All are designed to reduce overfishing in a manner that actually improves the livelihoods of coastal communities, which is the key to sustaining impact long term.

Dag’s campaign will engage communities in the management and enforcement of their marine sanctuaries for the benefit of local people and biodiversity conservation.

Below a few additional pictures from our cohort meeting hosted by CCC, an NGO that brings volunteers to monitor the reef:

Here are our 12 students at the 1^st quarterly meeting and reef monitoring/KAP survey workshop.

This is the beautiful Bay where CCC is based.

This is the whale shark bar at the venue of the workshop. They are the biggest fish on earth and can get up to 18m. They are friendly giants and feed only on plankton. I am hoping to get out on a trip to see them one week end perhaps. March/April is apparently the season.

Here is a mural at the venue showing some of the reef species. The blue angelfish swimming upwards with three white stripes is in the logo of Coral Cay Conservation as it has 3 Cs on its body. The big orange/red fish in the middle is a grouper, one of the most sought after fish on the reef. The black fish on the right with the long wings is a bat fish. Later, as an adult, it changes its shape and becomes a spade fish. I was lucky to see a whole shoal of these when I was swimming in the Tandayag MPA back in November.

Lyretail grouper, also depicted in the mural above. It is an indicator of a healthy and productive reef ecosystem.

The pufferfish blows up when threatened (top left in mural above).

CCC had a very nice puppet show with a coral damsel fish (like Nemo, only this one is called Fred) and a puffer fish. One of the Russian volunteers did a very nice impersonation of the puffer fish.

Two of the students (conservation fellows) practicing survey skills during the workshop. Jovenal (left) and Tian (right) will both be focusing their campaigns on the island of Bohol, where our office is also based.

Conservation fellows Ruby and Anabele practice identifying different species along a transect. The same exercise was later done underwater. One of the challenges were the many hydroids in the water which made for a not so pleasant snorkeling trip. Quite a few of the students walked out with burns on their hands and feet. Still we all enjoyed the exercise…

One more thing I wanted to share is this remarkable sea structure that we visited on the way to the workshop in a neighboring town to San Francisco.

On the right a very modern interpretation for a guard house design. Perhaps the more interesting thing was however the very elegant and long walkway which culminated in a square, inviting the walker to really look at a patch of sea. A very nice way to create an experience for the visitor of the sea. Perhaps a nice idea to replicate at some other MPA sites…

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In 2009 the Pilar Marine Park in the Municipality of Pilar was awarded the prestigious “Most outstanding Marine Protected Area of the Philippines” prize by the MPA Support Network (MSN) and its partners for being the most effectively managed marine protected area which applied to the awards.

The Pilar Municipal Marine Park (PMMP), located in the Camotes Sea, consists of a 30 hectares sanctuary which benefits from complete protection and a 149 hectares reserve where less invasive methods such as gleaning, hook and line and spear fishing are still allowed but any net fishing is not.

MPA enforcement

The Enforcement team selected 24 fishers to be trained as guards. The buoys of the MPA were anchored, marking both the 30 hectares no-take zone , and the 149 hectares reserve where only low key fishing activities such as gleaning, hook and line and spear fishing are allowed by local residents.

Anchoring of the buoys delimiting the PMMP – (Picture by Vincent Lumbab)

The PMMP rules and regulations with corresponding penalties for violations displayed on the pier.

The guard house “Amelita centre” overlooking the PMMP demarcated by buoys.

The guards always do their shifts in pairs and get a nominal fee from the Local Government Unit (LGU) of about 80 Pesos for every 12 hour shift. The time to travel  from the pier to the guardhouse is about 20 minutes by small paddle boat. The structure has been named “Amelita Center” in memory of one of the cherished members of the PMMP Management Board who recently passed away. The guards on call, Jimmy Mayor and Vicente Romo, who were not expecting any visitors, were excited to be interviewed.

Vicente is one of the most experienced guards on the enforcement team.  He was part of the original team trained in 2005. He tells us with great pride that he has already turned in five violators to the Municipal Hall.

“On one occasion a violator could not pay the fine and was relegated to community service, he said. “However in general the fines are being paid.”

When asked how he feels about turning people in he answers: “I feel pity for the violators but it has to be done, and the community respects us for doing so.”

The punishment for infractions within the MPA are on display at the pier on a big billboard. They vary from an official warning (blotter) upon first illegal entry to confiscation of catch, gear and a fine of 500 Philippine Pesos (USD $11) for first time fishing with legal methods within the sanctuary.

Should one be a third time offender fishing with illegal methods within the sanctuary,  such as the use of poison or dynamite, then the fine is as high as Php 2500  (USD $55). In larger cases involving commercial fishing vessels or where the fine cannot be paid, the violators risk jail.

Vicente and Jimmy do all their shifts together as a team. Jimmy joined as a guard three years ago. They enjoy their time together and through their service as guards they have become good friends. They talk about things that are happening in the community and about how the prices for commodities have gone up. It is difficult for them to support their families on the revenue they get from farming alone which is why they are happy with their jobs as guards.  It secures a monthly wage.

They are both also proud to have been beneficiaries of the “most outstanding PMMP guard” award introduced and sponsored by Vice Mayor Maratas since 2007. Vicente was one of the first guards to win the first prize which consists of a sack of rice to the value of Php 1000 (USD $22), roughly the same amount he gets from one month guarding, given that he does a 24 hour guard shift every five days.

Jimmy won the second prize once, which was half a sack of rice. The award is based on 25 percent of the number of apprehensions (reporting of violators) each guard initiates, 25 percent of the votes they get for good guardianship and 50 percent on their attendance. The award is a great motivator for the guards to do their job well and get recognition for their work in front of the community.

Jimmy Mayor (forefront) and Vicente Romo (background and on previous page) at work at the guardhouse

According to Susan Cataylo, the PMMP Management Board Secretary, the Municipal Coastal Law Enforcement team coordinator for the MPA and the CRM Officer at the Pilar Local Government Unit (LGU), the number of infractions within the MPA has dramatically decreased as a result of the establishment of the guarding system. She cites that from January 2007 to June 2010 there have been 30 violations reported by the guards, with a decrease from 19 in 2008 to 8 in 2009 and two so far in 2010.

“The 24 hour guard system has been working very well and illegal fishing practices by local fishers such as blast fishing have pretty much been eradicated from the MPA,” Susan explained triumphantly. “The main problems now are linked to the intrusion of commercial fishing vessels.”

The issue is that the local guards, armed with only a whistle and a small motorized vessel (and recently, since the engine broke down, only a paddle boat) are really not in any position to be boarding and apprehending vessels that are three or four times the size and with a crew of up to 10 or 15 people. A few years back there was an unpleasant incident where the patrol guards were almost kidnapped by the vessel they were inspecting.

The enforcement procedure foresees that a few armed police board the patrol vessel before the guards set off to apprehend a commercial vessel but on this particular occasion there had been none available.

To address the issue of large commercial fishing vessels the Local Government Unit commissioned, last year, the building of a much bigger patrol vessel. The hope is that this vessel will one day patrol the whole island of Ponson, providing protection from commercial vessels not only for the Pilar Municipal Marine Park (PMMP) but also for two more MPAs that the LGU is hoping to establish in the coming years.

According to Susan Cataylo (being interviewed in picture) the number of infractions within the MPA has dramatically decreased as a result of the establishment of the guarding system.

The Local Government of Pilar is building a new, bigger patrol vessel to guard the whole municipal waters of Pilar including the Pilar Municipal Marine Park (PMMP) and two additional planned MPAs. This will help tackle the illegal commercial fishing vessels. The old patrol boat (seen in the water below) will likely continue to have to play a role in patrolling the shallower waters near the guardhouse.

The benefits

Neither Vicente nor Jimmy are fishers but they are still eager to state that through their work, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of fish: “Before, we never used to see hook and line fishermen near the shore,” Jimmy said. “Today we can see many of them lined along the pier and their catch has increased to the point that they are able to catch more than they need for themselves and sell it off to people like us, who like to buy it from them for our own families.”

Vicente and Jimmy are not the only ones who believe the MPA is benefitting the community. Joy Eden Zarco Borja, the local teacher and organizer of the education and outreach group of the MPA said that both the local fishers as well as the women gleaning have noticed an increase in their harvest.

“It happened about two years after the MPA was established,” she explained. “Since 2007 my husband and the other fishermen in the community started to catch more fish, about twice as much as before. And also the women gleaners have noticed an increase in shellfish within the reserve.”

According to Pabling (Pablito Pogata), one of the most well known fulltime fishers in Pilar, fish catch has gone up from about 2 kg per trip prior to the MPA establishment, to 5 kg since 2007. Pabling, who is a hook and line and spear fisher, is also one of the guards at the PMMP guardhouse. He says before the establishment of the MPA many illegal fishers came to the area and used destructive methods. However many of them were caught and prosecuted in the early years of the MPA establishment.  Today violations are less frequent. Instead, the fishers can now benefit as there are “more and bigger fish.”

Local full time fisherman Pabling (top) says the catch from spear fishing and hook and line fishing doubled about two years after the MPA was established. To Pabling the MPA means he can continue to feed and sustain his family. His son (bottom) proudly shows off the spear he uses for spear fishing.

A net fisher’s perspective

The hook and line and spear fishers and the women gleaners in Pilar benefit directly from the MPA.  The  PMMP regulations allow them to continue fishing within the PMPP. One could suppose that the net fishers, who are no longer allowed to fish within the MPA may have a different view. Aman, one of the long standing fishers in the area says that he has been fishing since he was 8 years old.

“In the 1950s and 1960s,” he recalled, “fish were very plentiful. We had small boats back then and nets were no more than 10 m long. Still we were able to get as many as 15 kg of fish in just a few hours fishing a night.”

However by the 80s the situation had changed drastically: “The number of fishermen kept going up and the increasing power of the type of boats and gear employed meant that fish stocks started to rapidly decline. Today we have nets that can be as long as a 1000 m and powerful engines on our boats, yet we struggle to catch as much as 5 kg per trip. It is no longer enough to buy rice.”

Aman, does not think the MPA has actually led to an increase in his fish catch. However, he believes it has ensured that he has a fish catch at all. Without the PMMP, it is likely that the fish stock would have crashed completely. Aman said he has seen the rate of the decline, and believes the MPA has finally put the brakes on the downward trend.

Aman says that his message to fishers in other areas of the Philippines who have MPAs that are not being well managed is: “They should manage their MPA well rather than come here to Pilar to fish. They should take care of their MPA and apprehend those illegal fishers, like here in Pilar which is known throughout the Philippines because it is well managed.”

Monitoring and evaluation

The guided self-assessment process, facilitated by EcoGov in the very early stages of the MPA establishment process helped the community of Pilar identify the areas where they could improve the governance structure and management of their natural resources (see Table 2). Together with the MPA effectiveness rating (see Table 3 below) it became one of the key motivators for the community to take ownership of the management of their natural resources and establish the PMMP.

Table 2.

In 2005 through a guided self assessment process the community of Pilar gave themselves a score of 0.82 out of 1 for Coastal Resources Management (CRM), 0.56 for the Local Government Unit Internal Management and 0.38 for Solid Waste Management, with no score for Forests and Forestland management, as this was not in place. In a first instance they then decided to focus on improving their higher scores and created the PMMP, bringing the score on CRM up to 100% by 2007. In recent years they have worked to also improve the other areas of their governance structure and resource management bringing up their overall score from 0.58 in 2007 to 0.91 by 2009.

The GSA is a simple management tool intended to help to objectively track, guide and assess the process by which LGUs and local communities acquire and adopt relevant best practices in environmental governance. Members of the community appraise their performance according to governance elements of functionality, transparency, accountability and participatory-ness from the ridge-to-reef environmental concerns (forestlands, urban areas and coastal resources) and through the various management functions from planning and implementation, budgeting, contracting/bidding/procurement, permit, licenses and tenure issuance, and law enforcement. Results show improvement over time for all sectors as the LGU and the community adopted good governance practices in the implementation of their plans and programs. In the CRM sector, results show the adoption of processes and systems and improvement of standards of governance.

Table 3. The MPA effectiveness rating results for Pilar in 2007 and 2009 as rated according to the criteria of functionality, transparency, accountability and participatory-ness.

Another key factor in motivating the community to act was the underwater survey of the reef carried out by EcoGov since May 2005. The baseline results were presented to the community at the MPA orientation workshop and showed that the hard coral cover in the MPA was very poor and that there was no significant difference between the coral inside and outside the sanctuary. Biophysical monitoring and evaluation was carried out regularly since 2005. Local representatives were trained on simple reef monitoring methods to form the Monitoring and Evaluation Team of the PMMP.  Since 2007 the local team conducts participatory monitoring and evaluation through a snorkel survey using a “Fish Visual Census” method to measure fish abundance and diversity and a “line transect” method to measure percent cover of corals and other benthic components. In addition, EcoGov also conducted a more technical monitoring survey with a CRM team of scientists.

Continued monitoring of the PMMP appears to indicate hard coral cover is on an increasing trend both inside and outside of the reserve (see Graph 1).

Since 2005, mean density (individual fish/500 m2) of adult reef fish also appears to have been increasing inside the PMMP whilst fluctuating above the baseline outside of the PMMS (see Graph 2), probably as a result of the fishing activities. The commercially important reef fish species (target species) are found to be increasing inside of PMMP (solid line in Graph 2) and decreasing outside of PMMP (broken line). Again the latter probably as a result of the fishing activities. Whilst the data does not yet provide statistically significant conclusive evidence, the trends observed through the monitoring as well as the anecdotal evidence from local fishers on Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) indicate that the MPA is playing an important role in ensuring a sustainable management of the fish stock.

Graph 1. The hard coral cover within the PMMP 30ha no-take zone appears to have increased significantly (note error bars) in only two years from 8 percent in 2005 to 18 percent in 2007. Note: The red bar indicates that the line transect was moved meaning that the 2005-7 and 2008-9 should be viewed as separate data sets. (Picture and graph by Vincent Lumbab.)

Graph 2. The mean abundance of adult reef fish inside the sanctuary is showing an increasing trend whilst the mean abundance outside the sanctuary appears to have initially increased and then by 2009 reached a similar level to that in 2005. The triangle and trend line show the change of abundance of target reef fish. Result need to be interpreted cautiously, taking into consideration the error bars. (Picture by Vincent Lumbab.)

A matter of political will

After four days on the island of Ponson interviewing the LGU officials, fishers, guards, management committee representative, teachers and women running the alternative livelihood projects one is struck and inspired by the strong sense of community and resource ownership in this town. It is clear that the systematic participatory approach to the establishment and running of the MPA, as well as the efficiency and ethos with which the community manages itself, are two of the key ingredients that have made this MPA so successful. But there is a third ingredient to MPA management that seems to be plentiful in Pilar.  Political will.

According to many of the people I have spoken to, not least the mayor of the town, political will is not only very important but also one of the hardest ingredients to stock up on.

“Take for example an incident we had in 2008,” said Jesus Fernandez Jr., M.D. Municipal Mayor of Pilar. “It was the third anniversary of the PMMP when one of the councilors got tempted and took a giant clam out of the no-take zone. It was a really hard decision but we had to ask him to resign from the management team and pay a fine. At first it created a lot of tension and the councilor was very angry. Six months later, however the same councilor admitted that he was happy that he had been fined as it had set an example for the community and shown that everybody gets treated the same when breaking the MPA laws.”

Municipal Mayor Jet (Hon. Jesus Fernandez Jr., M.D.) of Pilar with the Marine Support Network  (MSN) prize received in 2009 for the Pilar Municipality Marine Park as the “Most Outstanding Marine Protected Area of the Philippines” out of 70 nominations.

The story above is only one of many examples where political will was put to the test. Mayor Fernandez Jr. recalls how the very week he had taken office two of his relatives were caught blast fishing in the reserve.

“To make it worse one was a relative from my father’s side and the other from my mother’s,” he added.

So by sending his relatives to jail, the Mayor would risk offending his entire family of relatives in one go.  And yet that is exactly what he did and the two dynamite fishers spent two years in jail. For the duration of this time the Mayor could no longer look some of his close relatives in the eye. “Yet recently,” the Mayor adds with a hint of relief, “my two relatives got out after posting bail and, whilst the case is still in promulgation with the judge, I was invited to my relatives’ party after they were released. It means that my relatives have forgiven me for what I did. I think they realized that it was nothing personal, and I was just doing my job. I did what was right for the community.”

When Mayor Fernandez and Vice Mayor Maratas showed me the PMMPs prestigious award for “best managed MPA in all of the Philippines” they are beaming with pride. And rightly so: there are some 2000 MPAs in the Philippines, more than any other country in the world!

“The marine sanctuary is our asset,” Mayor Fernandez said. “In 2004 there was fish scarcity but today no more. Today we have excess fish to sell such as Lapu lapu and Blue marlin, and eventually we hope to have a fish market here. We are already in the process of starting a new project to purchase freezers so that the fish can be stored properly.”

“Our vision is food security,” he said.

The two leaders are hoping to achieve this not only in Pilar, but on the entire island of Ponson. They are now in the process of establishing two more MPAs: the Cawit Marine Sanctuary on the other side of the island where blast fishing is unfortunately still a regular occurrence; and the DEMSAMAR (Dap Dap Esperanza Marine Sanctuary and Mangrove Reserve), an area where through a mangrove reforestation program the community will be able to regain an important fish nursery area.

There are still many challenges ahead but upon leaving Pilar on the ferry one can only ponder on how lucky the community of the island of Ponson is to have such visionary and committed leaders.

Acknowledgements

A big thank you to Hon. Jesus Fernandez Jr., M.D., Hon. Eufracio Maratas Jr., Vincent Lumbab, May Ybanez, Arun Abraham, Stuart Greene and Steve Watkins for their invaluable input into this document.

I would further like to thank all the community members in the Pilar and neighboring municipality for their open heart, kindness and stories. My sincere gratitude go out to Susan Cataylo, Joy Eden Zarco Borja, Juge Bung Zarco , Pablito Pogata, Jimmy Mayor, Vicente Romo, Loloy Estor, Hon. Mamelito Colminas, Armando Alacha, Guiwanon,  Soledad Cawayan, Hon. Chizelin Maratas, Hon. Rodolfo Go (Dolfo), Hon. Romeo Pugoy Jr., Hon. Marcelo Mandaras, Dionisio (Inco Nicio)Maratas, Felix Tabaranza , Gina Pagalan and Agapita Cruz.

And finally a big thank you to Dodong, Enting and May for guiding me through Pilar.

We wish you the very best with the expansion of the MPA network. Keep up the fantastic work in making the management of the marine resources in Pilar sustainable and the MPA’s the best managed in all of the Philippines.

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In 2009 the Pilar Marine Park in the Municipality of Pilar was awarded the prestigious “Most outstanding Marine Protected Area of the Philippines” prize by the MPA Support Network (MSN) and its partners for being the most effectively managed marine protected area which applied to the awards.

The Pilar Municipal Marine Park (PMMP), located in the Camotes Sea, consists of a 30 hectares sanctuary which benefits from complete protection and a 149 hectares reserve where less invasive methods such as gleaning, hook and line and spear fishing are still allowed but any net fishing is not.

May Ybanez, the Regional Manager, Central Visayas, and Vincent Lumbab Assisting Professional,  CRM with the Philippine Environmental Governance Project (EcoGov 2) funded by USAID, in partnership with Annalisa Bianchessi from Rare Conservation, an international NGO specializing in social marketing, ventured to Pilar.  The purpose was to document one of the “bright spots” developed through years of technical assistance from EcoGov in collaboration with the local government and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and try and find out what makes this MPA so special and why it has been able to be so successful where so many other MPAs have not.

The site

The first impression one gets when coming off the ferry from the nearby Province of Cebu is that Pilar is a tranquil and happy place. The road from the pier to the church provides views of well-tended gardens, a row of simple and quaint looking houses, a newly painted municipal hall building, or “municipio”, a couple of lazy dogs lying on the street and a general landscape of lush green vegetation.

Scientists refer to the 7,107 islands that make up the Philippines as the “center of the center” of global marine biodiversity. Its waters are home to whales, dolphins, 50 species of sea horses and over 2,000 species fish, including the largest fish in the world, the whale shark. Marine resources are also critical to the food security and livelihoods of Filipinos, as fish provide over 50 percent of their protein and support the livelihoods of millions of fishers and fish-related industries throughout the country.

Today, however near-shore overfishing is a leading threat to these marine resources. Less than five percent of the Philippines’ coral reef ecosystems are still in pristine health, and in some fishing grounds, biomass is less than 10 percent of what it was 50 years ago. Most near-shore fishing is conducted by subsistence fishers in coastal communities although illegal intrusions by commercial fishers into municipal waters are cause for concern. Developing local approaches to addressing these threats is increasingly recognized as vital to long-term economic and environmental sustainability in the region.

The town centre of Pilar, called Poblacion, is situated on the north west of Ponson Island in the Camotes Sea. The islands form part of the Camotes group in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. The local dialect here is Cebuano, and the people are lively, warm and outspoken.

Figure 1. Location of the Camotes islands (A) in the Philippines.

Figure 2. Location of the Pilar Municipal Marine Park on the island of Ponson.

The Pilar Municipality is divided into villages known as Barangay. Each of the 13 Barangays of Pilar has its own well regulated community structure so that any decisions taken at the Municipality level can be efficiently implemented all the way to the household level in a matter of weeks. The Municipality counts some 11,000 people represented by 2,580 households. The main sources of income are farming and fishing. However the land is poorly suited for farming and increased erosion and loss of fertility of the land are pushing more and more people to look to fishing or other forms of livelihood to sustain themselves. At present 687 (27 percent) households in Pilar rely on fishing as their main source of income.

Religion plays an important part in people’s lives with a strong presence of both catholic and the protestant churches on the island.

On Sundays people attend church and there is an annual fiesta that celebrates the patron of the church. Religion plays an important part in people’s lives with a strong presence of both the Catholic and the Protestant church on the island. Pilar has recently been awarded the second place for the “most child friendly Municipality of the Philippines”, perhaps the results of the long standing work of Plan International, a non-government organization (NGO) that focuses on child welfare. There are many murals and panels on the island reminding people of the sacredness of childhood and values such as family, health and education.

The beginning – an unhappy birthday story
The recently elected Honorable Vice Mayor Eufrates Maratas Jr is a young and dynamic politician. Upon arrival in Pilar it soon becomes apparent that he and his co-worker Susan Cataylo, who work in the municipal agricultural office, have been two of the key forces in the establishment of the Pilar Municipal Marine Park (PMMP). The Vice Mayor recalls how he had always been fond of the idea of having an MPA. He had heard about the concept during his travels abroad and was convinced there were many benefits to be had from it. So when he returned to his hometown to take on a position as Councilor, he had been keen to put this idea into practice.

In 2004, with the support of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Plan International, he set out to create an MPA for Sitio Amatong in Barangay Esperanza, the village he is from not far from Poblacion (town centre of Pilar).  The village, like so many in the Philippines, had actually already had a designated protected area established in the 1980s through a government program, which had not been very effective. In order to redefine and revive the MPA, Councilor Maratas had followed what had felt like a fairly democratic process: he called for a meeting with fisher representatives, agreed on a size and location for the MPA and passed a Basic Coastal Resources Management Ordinance declaring the MPA.

However during the public assembly announcing the declaration of the MPA to kick start its implementation of the MPA a big quarrel broke out between different groups of fishers. Councilor Maratas began to realize that the MPA was not going to be as easy as just declaring a law. The quarrel had been linked to the fact that on that particular stretch of coastline many fishers have the habit of owning Amatongs, meaning “Miracle holes”. These are artificially constructed holes, some with diameters that reach 2m  that are filled with wood and rocks that aggregate young and old fish. The holes are managed and therefore effectively perceived as owned by individual fishers who will look after them for a year or so and harvest the fish every 3-6 months on average for special occasions such as a child’s birthday.

As not all fishers had been consulted during the declaration of the MPA a dispute had broken out amongst those who felt the MPA would rob them of their ability to harvest their Amatongs during special occasions such as their children’s  birthday parties. “In the end the whole MPA thing had to be blown off,” said Vice-Mayor Maratas.

After this first failed attempt at establishing an MPA, Councilor Maratas recollected how when he heard of the idea of the then Mayor of Pilar, Dr. Jesus P. Fernandez (father of the current Mayor), to create the Pilar Municipality Marine Park (PMMP) his enthusiasm for the project had pretty much been at zero. “This is going to be another Amatong scenario” he thought to himself.

Honorable Vice Mayor Eufracio Maratas Jr has been one of the key people driving the effective management of the PMMP. Yet, because of previous experiences he felt skeptical to begin with.

How things changed

This time, however, things went differently. The establishment of the PMMP followed a rather detailed process that was facilitated in partnership with a skilled technical team from the Philippine Environmental Governance Project. EcoGov is funded through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and implemented with the DENR. The project is designed to reduce threats to biodiversity conservation in the Philippines, using an integrated ecosystem management, or “ridge to reef” approach.  Coastal and marine resource management is one of the key sectors of activity for EcoGov, as destructive fishing constitutes a key threat.

The Project works with Local Government Units to establish new marine sanctuaries that meet minimum governance requirements: management bodies formed, management plan legitimized, budget allocated and management activities implemented. Among the tools developed by EcoGov and its local government partners, is the formation of inter-LGU alliances that will furthermore integrate MPA networks with other coastal and fisheries resources management activities.

Table 1. The process that was adopted by Eco Gov in partnership with the LGU of Pilar in establishing the PMMP

1. Initial site assessment
2. Guided self assessment (GSA) of Environmental Governance of Pilar
3. Baseline survey of the seabed
4. Formation of a Local Technical Working Group (TWG)
5. MPA orientation  and Management Planning Workshop
6. Community Consultations
7. MPA Management planning write shop followed by quarterly meetings of the TWG
8. Public hearing
9. Presentation to the Municipal Development Council
10. Ordinance enactment
11. Annual planning workshop
12. MPA plan implementation (including MPA effectiveness rating)

MPA establishment, explains Vincent Lumbab, the EcoGov Assisting Professional for CRM (Coastal resource management) assigned to Pilar, is based on the adoption of a process that integrates four key governance principles: functionality, transparency, accountability and public participation (see Table 1 above and Annex 1).

“The process was fairly smooth,” Vice Mayor Maratas recalled. Even though as a result of the false start in 2004 he had been a skeptic of renewed efforts, “after the MPA orientation, governance assessment and planning phase I felt that everybody in the technical working group was on board with the idea of forming the MPA,” he said.

Vice Mayor Maratas recalled how the EcoGov staff had done a great job at facilitating the first meeting and providing all the information with regards to the benefits the MPA would bring. It made sense: if a mature fish could produce many more eggs than a younger one, and if the community could protect an area of sea so that coral would no longer be destroyed by destructive fishing techniques, fish would be able to grow to maturity and replenish the waters adjacent to the sanctuary and there would be more fish for all!

Of course there were concerns about where the MPA would be located and what activities would be prohibited. However, the rigor with which the participatory process was applied ensured that everyone who had concerns had an opportunity to raise them at the public consultation and get involved in the decision making process, until everyone was in agreement.

Or well, almost everyone: “by the end of the consultation process those who had been opposed to the MPA were no longer concerned,” noted Aman, a net fisher who used to fish in the waters of the MPA before it was designated. “The only ones with concerns were the illegal fishermen from neighboring villages.”

And rightly so because the community of Pilar was about to start taking pride in the ownership of their MPA!

Next, the different committees formed by the initial technical working group (TWG) started to become very active. The Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Committee  spearheaded by local teacher Eden Zarco Borja and the local women’s group put forward the idea of organizing a MPA King and Queen Pageant contest. The event, which, as Vice Mayor Maratas remembers “ended up taking up much longer than originally planned” was really one of the key events in getting the whole community on board. It involved getting each high school to elect a couple which then went into weeks of practice and preparation for the big day.

The PPPM King and Queen peagent winners. The event raised Php 36,000  (USD $783), which enabled the community to fund the construction of the first PMMP guard house.

As Susan Cataylo recalled, “we wanted the couple to demonstrate not only physical beauty but also intelligence and skill, as a symbol for the way we wanted to manage our MPA.” On the big day, the population of Pilar could vote by placing a donation on their favorite couple. The event generated Php 36,000 Pesos (around USD $783). This was enough for the community to build their first floating MPA guard house.

The MPA king and queen event was followed by many other activities to engage and bring the community on board. Amongst the most memorable are the PMMP bingo socials and Christmas caroling, the activities in the schools and the most outstanding PMMP guard award.

Christmas caroling to raise money for the PMMP (Picture by Vice Mayor Eufrates Mratas)

When asked what made Pilar so successful in its MPA management, May Ybañez, Regional Manager of EcoGov in Central Visayas said: “Pilar adopted a really systematic approach to the creation of the MPA, and then they really made it their own. The MPA king and queen contest was a great example of this: they did not wait for a grant to come from the outside to help fund their guardhouse, but they raised the funds for it themselves.”

Vincent Lumbab (top) and and May Ybañez (bottom) are two of the many Eco-Gov technical and management staff that have been supporting the establishment of the PMMP.

Hypothetical Theory of Change as per the Rare methodology illustrating the change process for the target audiences in Pilar (K- Knowledge, A- Attitude, IC – Interpersonal communication, BR – Barrier removal, C – behavior change, TR Threat reduction, CR – conservation result):

Click to enlarge the Theory of Change.

Part two of the Pilar case study focuses on MPA enforcement, monitoring and evaluation, and the benefits of an MPA.

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During the month of March, Campaign Manager Gildas Andriamalala made plans to organize three leadership and governance training workshops for the leaders of 24 villages in his campaign site. The workshops were delayed, however, in order to accomodate an election being held which would appoint two leaders to the Velondriake MPA (marine protected area) Management Committee.  These individuals would in turn be the designated village leaders on marine matters.

As Blue Ventures helped to facilitate the election, Gildas used the opportunity to stimulate discussion among the community and ask community members to make public statements in regard to local law (known as Dina) as it relates to marine matters.  As a result of these discussions, Gildas came up with the idea to produce a panel for each community that represents what the Dina means to them.  This panel would then be placed by the waterfront of the community, in clear view, to inform everyone of the law and to emphasize that it is being enforced.

“As you can see from the pictures, none of the panels are the same,” Gildas said. “They all had their own idea in every village. Some of them didn’t really care about attractiveness in terms of presentation and writing, but some did it very well.”

This was, in social marketing terms, a brilliant idea. Producing and posting the panels would be a minute task for the community, but it would create significant buy-in and ownership of the campaign.

“The most important thing is that the messages are out and observed by all of the community. For example, in Lamboara, they wrote down everything included in their Dina on the panel,” said Gildas.

Lamboara panel translation: “Velondriake protected area. I’m Vezo; this is why I stop people from doing these destructive practices: Using poison fishing in all regions, buying fish caught from poison fishing, using gear that kill juveniles (mosquito net, gillnet, etc), using beach seine, doing coral overturning and coral destruction, hunting turtle and dolphin, poaching all type of reserve (octopus, sea cucumber, fish, etc), cutting mangroves without authorization, littering along the beach.”

Agnolignoly panel translation: “Stop poison fishing, beach seining, and coral overturning.  Fine: 10,000 ar/person if caught.  I’M VEZO”

Ankindranoke panel translation: “Stop beach seine, poison fishing, and coral overturning. Anyone caught poison fishing pays about a hundred thousand ariary. It is also forbidden to do night diving. It is also forbidden to collect poisoned fish floating  on the surface. The broad community is also allowed to catch people with the committee members.”

Tampolove panel translation: “Go fish in the sea but don’t use poison, beach seine and coral overturning. It’s good to protect marine resources for our future generations’ living.”

Vatoavo panel translation: “‘Velondriake Area’ ISONY- VATOAVO. It is forbidden here to do beach seine and poison fishing. It is forbidden to cut mangrove without permission. Fine: 40-000Ar or 40000Ar”

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While in St. Lucia a few weeks ago I was escorted to the airport by one of the finest Caribbean treasures: the very original St. Lucia iguana.

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The St. Lucis Iguana mascot visits local vendors in St. Lucia

To be honest there were two of us getting escorted to the St. Lucia airport, myself and Rosemary Godfrey, a former Rare Pride Program Manager. And that in itself was already a very special event because this was Rosemary’s very last trip to the airport while working for Rare, or at least the last for now.

She will be moving on to pastures anew after 6 years of excellent work, and if the last year in which I was able to work alongside her is anything to go by, I have seldom met someone so dedicated, thoughtful, and professional in her work. So well done Rose, and thank you for being such an inspiration!

On this trip to the airport we were not alone. In fact, little short of rolling out a red carpet — it was rather an honourable experience. Our escort consisted of no less than an entire group of Forestry Department staff, a big truck with music, and two lizards: a life-sized one and an actual one.

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And not only that, the route to the airport was somewhat prolonged along small countryside roads to encompass scenic spots, town markets, church squares and most importantly school yards. At each stop housewives, shop owners, and tourists would trickle out of their dwellings and children and teachers would flood out of schools to come and shake hands with the giant lizard, dance to the tune of the Pride song, the St Lucia iguana, and come and admire the guest of honour: no not us — the St Lucia native iguana.

So what brought all this about?

The foremost reason for this road show is unfortunately not such a happy one. There is an imminent need to protect the St. Lucia Iguana, a native lizard that is thought to be genetically distinct from the Green Iguana and unique to St. Lucia. The species used to be widespread in St. Lucia, so much so that the Amerindians called the island Iyanola meaning the place where the iguana is found. Today native iguanas are confined to a few remnant areas in the North East and the population, estimated at less than 1,000, is thought to be in rapid decline. Threats include habitat loss from development and sand mining, hunting by humans, stray cats, dogs, and invasive species.

The other “reason” for this road show is St. Lucia’s long standing history with Paul Butler, now Senior Vice President of Global Programs at Rare, and the use of social marketing techniques to bring about social change on behalf of biodiversity and conservation. The Forestry department in St. Lucia is where Paul Butler first developed a social marketing campaign to call for action to protect the St. Lucia parrot. The campaign was such a success that today the parrot has become a symbol of national pride and has even made it onto the St. Lucian dollar bills. More importantly, in large parts of the rainforest the parrots rely on are being protected and the population of parrots which was estimated at less than a 100 in the 1970s has recovered to some 600.

The techniques that Paul Butler used in the late 1980s have been developed to form what is now known as a Rare Pride campaign. The method is being replicated in biodiversity hotspots across the world and the current campaign to protect the St Lucia Iguana is no less than the 100th. How appropriate that it should be back on the island where it first started.

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So what is the current campaign trying to achieve?

“The objectives of the campaign have been set under two distinctive themes” says the St. Lucia Campaign Manager Feria Narcisse-Gaston. “The first is to show the value of the North East and of the native Iguana by creating an eco-brand for the region under the name of Iyanola. The second is to keep it green by enhancing local ownership amongst the communities of the North East Coast.”

 This approach will encourage positive community-led action to protect iguana nesting sites by preventing sand-mining vehicles from accessing the beaches, encouraging men to stop hunting iguanas, changing pet owners behaviour to stop dogs and cats from predating on iguanas and turtles, initiate regular litter collection (to reduce rat predation of iguanas and turtles) and by enabling greater enforcement of legislation (through increased Forestry Office patrols). A parallel objective of the campaign will be to work on improving the regulatory system for development in the area under the motto: make it green.

The long term aim will be to measure an increase in the population of the iguana from less than 1,000 to 1,500 by the year 2020.

The messages are being spread through a range of activities including – the creation of neighbourhood watch patrols, football competitions, an Iyanola Festival, billboards, printed materials such as posters and fact sheets, beach cleanups, and economic enterprises such as craft making and of course…the road show!

And judging by what I have witnessed on our journey to the airport this campaign is promising to be a mover and a shaker. Kids, especially, were finding themselves spontaneously dancing to the tunes of the campaign. I can’t blame them though as the two songs are indeed very catchy. I dare you to listen to either of these two songs without tapping your foot or singing the tune for the next week to come.

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Leader of the Mauritius Pride campaign Cathleen Cybele of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) with a little green friend.

Amongst the many places one could go to learn about environmental conservation, Mauritius is perhaps the ultimate destination. Not only was it once home to the DoDdo, a flightless bird whose disappearance has sparked imagination all over the world – the nation has become an emblem for the power and responsibility that humans carry in determining the fate of other species. It is also a place where extinction and conservation continue to be two very concrete possibilities.

Let me set the scene for you:

In the Southeast of Mauritius there is a small islet named Ilot Chat (Island of the cat). Surrounded by the massive Indian Ocean, it is seemingly no bigger than the average American porch, yet it was the home of two threatened reptile species: the lesser night gecko and the Durrell’s night gecko.

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The colorful ornate day geckos, the “flagship” species of this Pride campaign.

Neither of the two species had arrived here on their own account. Their residency was the result of an experiment of some well intentioned ecologists who wanted to see whether the two species could co-exist before undertaking a larger scale restoration project. All had gone well for several months and the geckos had reproduced up to the 4th generation. Then, one day, the scientists arrived to the islet to find that there was not a single gecko in sight. Instead they were greeted by round bellied rat who beamed at them with content. This single rat had managed to wipe out the entire population of the two species of geckos.

Luckily these populations had been part of an experiment and were not the last ones of their kind. Still, the story illustrates how damaging and ruthless the introduction of invasive species, like the rat, can be.

Reptiles in Mauritius were not always threatened. Once upon a time they were amongst the most numerous inhabitants of the island. They were so successful that they constituted the building blocks of a unique world: an entire ecosystem based on reptiles! Through a process, which in ecology is referred to as adaptive radiation, they had come to occupy all different roles of “society” from predators to prey, from pollinators and seed dispersers to giant herbivores. This is because, with the exception of fruit eating bats, there were no mammals in Mauritius. Then, with the arrival of man in the 15th Century everything changed.

The men who first set foot on the island quickly brought about both the accidental and deliberate introduction of invasive species such as rats, monkeys, deer and pigs. This combined with the more recent threat of habitat destruction (mainly due to development) has meant that today few of the reptiles that constituted this unique ecosystem survive on mainland Mauritius. Several went extinct; others have disappeared from the mainland but survived on some smaller islands and islets of the coast of Mauritius.

Mauritius’ Bay of Mahebourg still hosts four endemic species of reptiles, including the Ilot Vacoas Bojer’s skink. This reptile is thought to be a subspecies found only on Ilot Vacoas, an islet only 1 Hectare in size! As well as the looming threat of the introduction of invasives (including rats, shrews, and snakes) some of the main threats to the reptiles found in the Bay is caused by recreational activities of unwary tourist visiting the islets.

It may come as a surprise that besides the dropping of litter the lighting of barbecue fires can also have a significant detrimental impact. This is not only because of the risk of fire to the vegetation, but also because of the heating of the rocks used by the reptiles for shelter and nesting. Unbeknownst to tourists, dozens of eggs lay in the crevices of the rocks, which immediately fry once heated. This act threaten the Bojer’s skinks greatly, which only lay a few eggs a year.

Luckily for the reptiles the extinction of the Dodo on Mauritius has brought this island to the attention of many conservationists. Amongst them are the members of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) the oldest conservation organisation of the island. The Foundation has saved several species from the brink of extinction including the Mauritian Kestrel – which, during the 1980s, was one of the rarest birds in the world with only a couple of breeding pairs left.

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The campaign is on its way! Above, a  MWF volunteer working with Cathleen interviews a street vendor about her relations with the flagship species.

Today the Foundation has teamed up with the National Parks and Conservation Services (NP&CS) to take on the protection of the endemic reptiles of the Islets in the Bay of Mahebourg. As well as a substantial restoration program run as part of a Darwin Initiative, the Foundation will be running a Rare pride Campaign to try and mitigate the threats caused to the reptiles by recreational activities.

The flagship species will be a charismatic ornate day gecko belonging to the Phelsuma family, a group that is incidentally also a favourite prey of the Mauritius Kestrel. Having had the pleasure to visit Mauritius and work with many of the MWF staff, including the charismatic Campaign Manager Cathleen Cybele, I am looking forward to this campaign’s progress.

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