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Support for the Development of Social Enterprises for Fishing Communities in Verde Island Passage (VIP) MKBA

I. Introduction

Overfishing has been identified as one of the main causes of biodiversity loss, which in turn has been brought about by the lack of livelihood alternatives. As the vicious cycle has shown, desperation and overcrowding have driven marginal fishers into using destructive exploitation methods, further aggravating the survival of the country’s remaining biodiversity in the marine sector. A reduction in overfishing can be achieved by providing alternative economic activities to those directly participating in the sector, which in turn will reduce the threats to biodiversity.

Social enterprise development is now emerging as a biodiversity conservation tool, although initially designed as a poverty reduction strategy, primarily because of its triple bottom line approach by its creation of wealth, social equity in the ownership of enterprise, and the very least harm to the natural ecosystem thereby serving conservation objectives even further.

The project intends to complement current ECOFISH deliverables and activities by enhancing the sustainable financing strategy of the project. A reduction in overfishing by providing alternative economic activities will thus reduce the costs of fisheries management, thereby reducing the need to allocate more public funds for the sector. It focuses on VIP because of the presence of opportunities that have been identified and arisen during the course of project implementation in the past 2 years.

The area covers the Batangas coastal municipalities in VIP Marine Key Biodiversity Area (MKBA) where the problem of overfishing still occurs. Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) is still on the decline, and recent surveys show fishing families complain of smaller fish sizes and lower abundance in fish catch. Poverty is still prevalent in fishing communities, despite the growth of the tourism industry in some areas such as Mabini. Threats to coastal resources still exist as fishers continue to use illegal and destructive methods to compensate for the worsening situation of lower catch, smaller sizes, and lower incomes. There is thus a need to directly target fishing communities by providing them with alternative and sustainable sources of income.

II. Project Phases

In close coordination with ECOFISH, Pusod, Inc will undertake the following activities:

Phase 3: Training and Capacity Building

A series of training and capacity building activities will be conducted within each MKBA, involving the following topics:

Phase 4: Production/ Actual Operations

This phase will begin upon satisfactory evaluation of the planning, training and capacity building phases. Prototype products or services will be produced towards the second year. Constant monitoring and evaluation will be undertaken for consistent improvement of the product or service.

Initial scoping work of ECOFISH reveals that the following enterprises can possibly be set up in some of the coastal municipalities of Batangas:

Phase 4: Production/ Actual Operations

This phase will be conducted parallel to the development of prototype products or services. Linkages will be established not just with markets of the products themselves, but also with potential financing partners (lending I nstitutions, credit lending facilities, private sector partners, etc.) that may be interested in either co- owning or comanaging the enterprise, or simply financing its operations.

Potentials for scaling up will be assessed towards the last year, and recommendations will be formulated for MKBA authorities and POs to take the enterprises further.

III. Project Objectives/ECOFISH Benefits

The proposal is aligned with the overall objective of the ECOFISH project:

“To improve the management of important coastal and marine resources and ecosystems that support livelihoods and local economies, designed to (1) conserve biological bio-diversity, (2) enhance ecosystem productivity, (3) restore the profitability of fisheries, in select Marine Key Biodiversity Areas (MKBA) using the eco-systems approach to fisheries management”

The project seeks to complement the ECOFISH project through its own set of objectives:

Most importantly, the establishment of social enterprises in the VIP MKBA will significantly contribute to the achievement of one of two project outcomes, i.e. increase in the number of people gaining employment or better employment from sustainable fisheries management from a baseline established at the start of the project.