A ‘Blue Economy’ for an ‘Ocean State’

THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) recently held the country’s first National Galunggong Summit. This was in the wake of last year’s controversies about dwindling stocks of round scad or galunggong and the government’s subsequent moves to allow importation to stabilize prices.

The aim was to rally stakeholders around efforts to conserve the country’s fish stocks, such as the establishment of “closed seasons,” and to collect inputs from major stakeholders for a National Management Plan.

Then news broke out about the “Tawilis” of Taal Lake being on the endangered species list. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) noted that harvests of the world’s only freshwater sardine have been steadily declining since 1998 due to overfishing, illegal use of certain fishing gear and fish cages, and deteriorating water quality. The BFAR said they will investigate to find Taal Lake’s Tawilis spawning areas to hopefully enact conservation measures.

These are two recent examples of how reactionary our policies are when it comes to conserving our fish resources. But beyond that, they are indicative of a more profound gap — even blind spot — in our governance paradigms.

That is, we continue to disregard our rivers, lakes, coastlines, bays, and oceans. In fact, several experts have already sounded off about the imperative for the Philippines to start developing its “blue economy” — referring to sectors dependent on coastal and marine resources.

For instance, former NEDA chief and columnist Cielito Habito wrote about the need for the country to take a more “archipelagic view of overall development planning” as compared to the traditional emphasis on land-based planning.

Habito emphasized that a fragmented geography, such as our archipelago, poses huge challenges in crucial areas like energy, infrastructure, communication networks, and even nationhood. But it also brings immense benefits, such as abundant natural resources— provided of course, they are conserved and utilized sustainably.

In fact, the immense value of the country’s coastal and marine resources was estimated in a 2017 joint article from the University of the Philippines, the Ateneo de Manila University, and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The authors — which include present Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia; Dr. Rhodora Azanza, President of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST); and Dr. Ronald Mendoza, Dean of the Ateneo School of Government — found that the total annual monetary value associated with the country’s marine ecosystems (corals reefs, mangroves, seagrass areas, and continental shelf) can amount to at most trillion (or roughly US$581 billion in 2007 prices). That amount is more than double the proposed

national budget for 2019. Our apparent disregard for our seas and coasts underpins why we miss out on their potential to underpin our longterm prosperity. It also underscores why the country was found to be the world’s third biggest source of plastic pollution in the world (according to a 2015 report by Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment) and how our fisherfolk remain among the poorest sectors in the country.

However, it’s not that nothing is being done to build our blue economy and protect our oceans. In fact, several policies are in place covering our seas, such as the 1994 National Marine Policy created under the Ramos Administration, the National Coast Watch System (NCWS) established in 2011, or the Fisheries Code amended in 2014, under RA 10654.

What’s needed is for these policies to be woven more tightly into each other, especially since institutional fragmentation, redundancy, and overlap of agency mandates have resulted in piecemeal and hence limited interventions in sustainable marine resource management and conservation.

Hence, I filed Senate Resolution 1017 calling on the Senate to conduct an inquiry and an inventory of the country’s policies and projects related to the country’s maritime and ocean affairs with the end-goal of crafting a comprehensive and holistic “blue economy” development plan.

The Philippines has 7,500 islands, making it the world’s 2nd largest archipelagic country. With at least 36,000 kilometers of beaches and seaside lands, it has the world’s 5th longest coastline. In 2017, the World Economic Forum (WEF) dubbed the Philippines among world’s “ocean states” considering that our total sovereign area is more than 80 percent underwater. Indeed, it’s time we start acting like one.

Email:

sensonnyangara@yahoo. com| Facebook, Twitter & Instagram: @sonnyangara

Senator Sonny Angara was elected in 2013, and now chairs the Senate committees on local government, and ways and means.