NGO to help LGUs manage marine resource

Rocky Sanchez Tirona, head of Rare Philippines, explains how to make fishing in the municipal waters sustainable during the launching of Fish Forever program in Quest Hotel yesterday which aims to change the behavior of local fishermen on fisheries management.
(CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

In an effort to curb overfishing in municipal waters and safeguard food security throughout the country, a non-government organization yesterday launched a program aimed to change the way fisher folk think about marine resources.

Rare Philippines, a US-based conservation organization, kicked off the Fish Forever program at Quest Hotel yesterday.

The program believes that by aligning the social and economic interests of fishermen with conservation, they become agents of long-term change because they reap direct rewards.

Rocky Sanchez Tirona, Rare Philippines head, said the program aims to reform how fisheries management is done in the local government unit (LGU) in order to increase productivity.

“We want to change how fisheries is managed in the LGU,” she told reporters yesterday.

Tirona said that communities need to understand that fishing should be regulated especially in the municipal waters, even if it is legal.

“It’s really the problem of overfishing and managing how we fish (that needs to be addressed),” she said.

Rare has run over 250 Pride Campaigns in almost 60 countries, promoting behaviors as wide ranging as sustainable hunting, watershed protection, and use of non-wood burning stoves, among others.