Para El Mar: Marine Protected Areas Awards & Recognition Night

Start:	Nov 26, '07 6:00p
End:	Nov 26, '07 11:00p
Location:	Celebrity Sports Plaza, Capitol Hills Drive, Diliman, Quezon City

Nine finalists for the best Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Philippines will be competing for the grand prize, as guests feast on a sumptuous dinner and listen to great music by different performers (Indio I's definitely coming. i've invited Joey Ayala--he said he'll confirm on wednesday. and they're also expecting me to perform. ngeks :P hosts will be the Bb. Pilipinas daw and richard gutierrez. hmm..).

You might want to root for your hometown! Please forward to whomever you think might be interested. Call Ms. Rhia Gonzales (or me :) at 981-8500 loc. 2911 for tickets at P500. Attire: Smart-casual.

To explain further, I'm posting the PR I wrote for the event.

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LGUs Reap Awards for Giving Up Seas

Sacrifice does pay off. For giving up more than 20 hectares of their fishing grounds for a minimum of three years, nine local government units (LGUs) from eight provinces across the country were shortlisted as finalists of the 2007 Outstanding Marine Protected Area (MPA) Awards.

The LGUs of Calapan City and Gloria in Oriental Mindoro, Mabini in Batangas, Sagay City in Negros Occidental, Ayungon in Negros Oriental, Getafe in Bohol, Ipil in Zamboanga Sibugay, Tukuran in Zamboanga del Sur, and Cortes in Surigao del Sur were selected last June from more than a hundred LGUs in the country that have reserved a portion of their municipal waters as MPAs or fish sanctuaries.

Creating an MPA entails limiting the types of fishing and recreational activities, if not totally restricting human activity, within a declared site. This inevitably means reducing the area available to municipal fishers. However, several studies have shown that designating reefs where fish can freely breed and grow to maturity eventually leads to a sustained “spillover” of fish outside the protected area. Fishers in Sagay, for example, reported a 100% increase in average daily fish catch after eight years.

The nine finalists were chosen for their exemplary management strategies that ensure the functioning of their respective MPAs not only on paper but in practice. These include the presence of an active management body, fiscal support for law enforcement activities, and a monitoring system to assess the MPA’s impacts.

Also crucial to the success of the MPAs is LGU support for the alternative livelihoods of fishers whose fishing grounds have been reduced. Many LGUs supplement fishing income through tourism in the form of SCUBA diving-related activities, or ecotours that showcase their protected environment. Others provide soft loans and training for seaweed farming, fish processing, and handicraft weaving.

The 2007 Outstanding MPA Awards are being given by the Marine Protected Areas Support Network (MSN), a group of 20 government agencies, non-government organizations, and academic institutions that provides technical support to any LGU needing assistance in MPA management. An MPA Congress held in Iloilo City last October 27 and 28 led to the group pledging to network with both local and foreign organizations to help LGUs secure funds for their coastal management projects.

On November 26, the top three finalists of this year’s MPA Awards will receive prizes from the United Nations Development Progamme (UNDP), German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and Philippine Airlines. The greater reward, however, is the bigger fish catch and higher income that result from having healthier reefs--a reward that ultimately all LGUs with well-managed MPAs will receive.