Prospects of community-based co-management of Philippine abalone fishery

Abstract

The Philippine abalone fisheries has been in a continuous decline in the last two decades. From an all-time high of 633 mt in 2004, exports declined to 218 mt in 2008. Reasons cited for the decline are the harvesting of abalone juveniles and broodstock, indiscriminate and destructive methods of harvesting, occurrence of disasters due to anthropogenic and natural causes, and the absence of a management plan for abalone. This paper explores the prospect of community-based co-management (CBCM) approach in addressing the decreasing production of abalone from the wild. The challenges faced by women and men abalone fishers-absence of organized abalone fishers, weak implementation of fishery laws and lack of policy for abalone management, general lack of knowledge on the biology of abalone, and the much needed co-management arrangement with various stakeholders, provide a very fertile ground for community organizing. Community organizing as an over-all strategy in the implementation of the four interrelated components of CBCM provide some prospects for better management of abalone fisheries. The four components of CBCM are: resource management that aims to protect, conserve, regulate and improve the management of abalone fishery resources; community and economic development and livelihood which hopes to widen the socio-economic opportunities to improve people's well-being; capacity building that aims to increase people's knowledge on the biology of abalone and their awareness on the need for its judicious management; and, institutional support, networking and advocacy that hopes to enable the various stakeholders-fishers, LGUs, academe, research institutions to work together and share in the benefits of management. The sharing of responsibilities and authority based on each partner's resources and capacities may be a contentious issue but CBCM has to deal with it. While CBCM is not a one-size-fits-all strategy to address the complex issues of fisheries management, the challenges present in the different study areas call for a CBCM approach that is adaptive and context-specific. The collective learning process innate in CBCM shall provide the best alternatives that will ensure that abalone fisheries will be sustained.