Ecogov releases book on reef management

Ecogov releases book on reef management


By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez

TO enable fisherfolk to see value in coastal resource management, a project has published a guidebook on community reef monitoring.

The second edition of the “Coral Reef Monitoring for Management” was launched recently by the Philippine Environmental Governance Project (EcoGov2), the Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest Project (Fish) and the authors, represented by Dr. Porfirio Aliño, a professor of the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines.

“We hope to launch a thousand miracles of MPAs (marine protected areas),” Aliño said during the launch of the guidebook at the Parklane International Hotel.

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The other authors are Andre Uychiaoco, Stuart Green, Margarita dela Cruz, Paulyn Gaite, Hazel Arceo and Alan White.

William Jatulan, deputy chief of party of Fish, said the second edition was released due to the clamor for an improved management of coral reefs and marine protected areas MPAs in general.

“(I hope) this will be useful to other partners in establishing MPAs,” Jatulan said.

Arunkumar Abraham, EcoGov2 chief of party, said copies of the guidebook will be distributed to local government units.

Jatulan said a copy can also be downloaded from www.oneocean.org.ph.

Abraham said the guidebook aims to promote a participatory or community-level approach in coral reef management by simplifying highly technical information.

It is also a practical tool to use since it advocates a step-by-step process in management.

The publication is also supported by a range of articles and position papers and is produced by the “best and the brightest” in the Philippines.

It is also significant since the country is the leader in the Coral Triangle.

According to the World Wildlife Fund website, the Coral Triangle covers nearly 2.3 million square miles of ocean across all, or parts of, the seas of six countries in the Indo-Pacific—Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

“This vast area of the Indo-Pacific region harbors 75 percent of all known coral species, more than half of the world’s reefs, 40 percent of the world's coral reef fish species, and six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle,” it added.

Anabelle Trinidad, Conservation International’s representative to the Coral Triangle Support Program, said the guidebook is “relevant and timely.”

The publication is supported by The United States Agency for International Development, EcoGov2, Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and Department of Environment and Natural Resources through the Fish Project and the Coastal Resource Management Project-Philippines.


Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 4, 2010.