Conditions for sustainable fishing among small-scale fishers in Zamboanguita, Philippines

Abstract

The continued decline of fish stocks in the Philippines has caused poverty among small-scale fishers and threatens marine ecosystems with degradation beyond recovery. These developments could open the door for a tragedy of the commons and further degrade marine common pool resources such as in Zamboanguita, Negros-Oriental. To prevent a vicious cycle of overfishing, illegal fishing and declining fish stocks it is needed to analyse what the conditions are for small-scale fishers to fish sustainably. This knowledge gap has been addressed in coöperation with the NGO Marine Conservation Philippines and can contribute to a better understanding of the socio-ecological systems in the area of the case-study. This research has looked into how people interact with their marine common pool resources and why. Therefore, it has been assessed to what extent small-scale fishers are already engaged in sustainable fishing and their obstacles and motivations to fish sustainably. As compliance of small-scale fishers is important to fishing sustainably, factors that affect compliance have been taken into account. With the use of the 'socio-ecological framework' and 'compliance framework’ eight conditions have been found that affect engagement in sustainable fishing in Zamboanguita. Conditions that stimulate engagement are monitoring and sanctioning systems, past experiences with declined fish stocks, knowledge of the resource importance for livelihoods, dependence on resource for livelihood and unity in morals and norms. This study also found that the biggest constraints are the economic value of the marine CPRs and inequitable distribution of property rights and resource access