A ‘Smart’ way to protect our marine resources

Barangay Batasan is a tiny speck of land off the western coast of Bohol island. It is an elongated piece of land no more than a kilometer in length and something like a fourth of a kilometer in width.

But except for its being a small fishing village, Bgy. Batasan is unlike most other island barangays. The houses on both sides of a narrow concrete road that runs from one end of the island to the other have been built with sturdy materials, some even with concrete. We saw none of the classic barong barong or nipa hut type. The children who frolick at the beach appear to be well-fed and well clothed.

What’s more, of the 50 or so households on the island, four or five are into selling cellphone loads, which speaks highly of the economic status of the people there. They generate their own electricity and are in fact planning to share the excess power with a nearby island, if only they can set up the transmission lines.

Bgy. Batasan has not always been this way. Like most other fishing villages all over the country, the islanders had known hard times. Batasan island was not without its share of sad stories involving fishermen who had an eye or arm blown away by dynamite. Not a few of them were engaged in cyanide fishing or some other method that is destructive of the coral formation leading to a vicious cycle of declining catch and trying to cover the loss by engaging all the more in destructive fishing methods.

That was until they learned the value of preserving and protecting the marine ecosystem to allow fish and other marine food products to grow and reproduce freely. With encouragement and help from the government, the people of Batasan island formed themselves into a fishing association and built a fish sanctuary that is off limits to all kinds of fishing activities. The villagers also needed a lot of convincing before they agreed to plant mangroves on a 50-hectare area where they used to gather shells. Even little children in Batasan could earn some money by gathering shells for food and selling them to a trader who brings the stocks to Cebu. A schoolchild could very well earn enough for his allowance by simply picking up shells.

"Where will our children gather shells?" the village elders asked. Grudgingly they agreed to plant mangroves and were pleasantly surprised when, after a few short years, the shells were not only back but were back in abundance.

To protect the fish sanctuary, the Batasan Fishing Association has set aside a budget for the salary of a sentry who will be on the lookout for poachers during the night. Guard duty, which they rotate among themselves, comes with a salary of P1,000 a month, not bad for people who have few choices of things to do or places to go at night.

The experience of Batasan fishermen is duplicated in 121 other fisherfolk communities which have banded together into a nationwide group called Pambansang Alyansa ng Maliliit na Mangingisda at Komunidad na Nangangalaga ng Karagatan sa Sanktwaryo sa Pilipinas or PAMANA KA sa Pilipinas for short.

Headed by Fernando Tiburcio as president, PAMANA KA sa Pilipinas held recently a council meeting in Cebu City.

These fishing associations have a common goal of preserving the marine environment to make sure that the reproductive cycle of marine products will not be disturbed. At the same, these associations face a common problem of enforcement. These groups guard not only the immediate vicinity of the fish sanctuaries, they also monitor fishing activities in their respective areas and report any and all forms of illegal fishing activities.

Since these fishermen-guards are not armed, they can only report what they see and hope that a law enforcement unit will come along. More often than not, the perpetrators of the illegal fishing activity have long gone before the law comes to the rescue.

This problem is what Smart Communications, Inc. hopes to solve by designing and packaging a communication system tailored after the needs of PAMANA.

In a simple ceremony held recently at the Victo Seminar House in Beverly Hills, Lahug, Cebu City, Smart turned over a total of 246 mobile phones to PAMANA. The cellphone units will be deployed in 122 coastal barangays found in 69 municipalities and 25 provinces all over the country.

"We share the goals of PAMANA which is to create a more positive policy environment for enforcement and growth of our marine protected areas," said Ramon Isberto, Smart public affairs head.

"These goals have strategic impact to the development and protection of our fishing grounds as well as the livelihood of PAMANA’s 6,280-fisherfolk members," he said.

Aside from providing communications assistance through the donation of mobile phone units, Smart also developed a special text-based service for the fisherfolk alliance, made possible through a partnership with i-Con, a wholly owned contact center subsidiary of Smart.

The SMS service will be made available for use by the alliance officers, members, partners and is designed to gather, send, receive and move different forms of information to and from differcent entities using the Internet and mobile phones. This results in a much broader reach and enhanced data management.

For Smart, the giving away of cellphone units is more than just an expression of the telecommunications giant’s corporate social responsibility. It actually helps build the company’s client base and fosters loyalty to its products.

It certainly is a smart way of helping protect our marine resources.