Phl seeks $200-M WB loan for fisheries

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is seeking a $200-million loan from the World Bank to help boost the local fisheries sector.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar said the $200-million Fisheries and Coastal Resiliency project would directly contribute to achieving key outcomes in the country’s food security framework.

The project is also integral to the national goals of recovery and resiliency as the sector survives, reboots and grows amid the pandemic.

The loan, equivalent to P10 billion, would support the scaling-up and modernization of Philippine capture fisheries and aquaculture through the provision of technical support, capital, and enabling environment.

The FishCore project also aims to address structural weaknesses in the value chain to improve sustainability and resiliency of fishery resources, increase incomes of fisherfolk, and uplift the socio-economic condition of coastal communities amid the pandemic.

The proposed project will be implemented in selected sites among the 12 fisheries management areas (FMAs) established nationwide in 2019 to sustainably manage the country’s fishery resources through a science-based and participatory governance framework.

The FMAs include the country’s major fishing grounds, lakes, bays, gulfs and other areas that may be delineated for fishery resource management purposes, approximate stock boundaries, range, distribution and structure.