Philippine reefs (fwd)
Coral Health and Monitoring Program
coral at aoml.noaa.gov
Fri Nov 22 08:12:40 EST 1996
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 22 Nov 1996 10:49:38 +0800
From: CEMRINO <cemrino at klink.com.ph>
Subject: Coralist: Philippine reefs
Coralist Subscribers,
The recent message entitled "PHILIPPINES: CORAL REEFS RAVAGED BY
IMPOVERISHED FISHERS" presents a popular, and somewhat oversimplified
picture of the problems with Philippine coral reefs. A similar article
appeared in the June 3, 1996 Asian edition of TIME, entitled "Reef
Killers" (p. 49). They state that "But in the Philippines, which has
33,000 sq km of reef, 90% of the coral is dead or deteriorated,..." The
popular decision among environmental groups that it is better to err on
the side of spreading alarm, may deter scientists and dive tourists from
finding out for themselves the state of the reefs, and thus providing an
economic reason for their presevation (tourism). Yes, blast fishing,
cyanide use for aquarium fishes, cyanide fishing for the live food fish
trade for Taiwan and Hong Kong, and other destructive fishing practices do
go on in parts of the Philippines (See the excellent Nature T.V. program,
"The Coral Triangle"). John McManus has termed the increasingly desperate
fishermen's use of destructive fishing coupled with rapid human population
growth as "Malthusian Overfishing"- see his extensive report on Bolinao,
where blast fishing continues. At the same time, I work in the middle of
the Philippines, in the Province of Negros Oriental, where blast fishing
was sucessfully eliminated 20 years ago, there is no cyanide fishing,
there are currently about 20 marine preserves including the most
successful marine reserve (Apo Island) in the Philippines. Coral cover
ranges up to 60% on some reefs, and fish populations are recovering toward
high densities and sizes in the preserves. In some areas, huge silt loads
from land runoff may be increasing and present the greatest threat to the
reefs. An American company logged the ancient forests of the island I am
on (Negros), reducing virgin forest from 46% to 6% from 1970 to 1990.
Greg Hodgson conviced a logging company on Palawan that the economic
losses to fishing and dive tourism from silt runoff far outweighed the
profits from cutting an area of timber- he wrote an excellent report.
In most aspects of Philippine life there is no enforcement of the
generally excellent and extensive set of laws, because taxes are collected
only from wage earners- only about 5% of the total taxes due are collected
(the wealthy largely escaping, typical of many poor countries), so there
is no tax money for enforcement or all of the infrastructure needed for
development. The money is here, but it stays in the hands of the wealthy
and powerful. There are a wide variety of excellent aid projects here,
including the Haribon Foundation working to eliminate cyanide fishing, a
wide variety of German aid workers in my area funded by the European
Union, Coral Cay Conservation, the Peace Corps, and many others. A strong
and traditional Catholic organization here discourages family planning,
but President Ramos, who is Protestant, has a family planning program, as
does the Province I am in. The average number of children is down to 4
per family- less in urban areas, more to many more among fisherfolk. The
race between food supply and human population is a very close race we are
perilously close to loosing in the rural areas- the Philippines currently
imports rice from Vietnam and India, among others. There was a rice
shortage last fall, and many children could not go to school because they
didn't have enough to eat. The press blamed "hoarders" and there seems to
be no concern among the population that they are close to disaster. The
men in rural areas often spend extra earnings on gambling on cockfights or
on liquor, the wealthy love to drive new cars costing about US$60,000- as
they dodge potholes, diseased dogs, and children in rags. Many common
practices here do not speed development, though there are some very
hopeful developments. The general impression that all the reefs have been
destroyed, though, is not true.
On a general level, the U.S. spends much less per capita on foreign
development aid than many countries (even though the public thinks it is a
large part of the budget, it is not), and frequently ties it to military
sales or the purchase of goods for development from US suppliers. The
biggest chunk of US aid goes to Israel and Egypt. Removing trade barriers
to goods produced in developing countries would provide twice as much
support as aid, and it would support usefull work instead of asking for
handouts.
-personal opinions of Doug Fenner
Centre for the Establishment of Marine Reserves in Negros Oriental
(CEMRINO)
109 San Jose Extension
Dumaguete City 6200
Negros Oriental
Philippines
Tel: (+6 35) 225 3961
Fax: (+6 35) 225 5563
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