Community fishery resources management on Malalison Island, Philippines: R & D framework, interventions, and policy implications

In 1991, the Aquaculture Department of the Southwest Asian Fisheries Development Center launched a community-based fishery resources management project on Malalison Island in central Philippines, to help conserve the countries marine resources and to help the fisherfolk rise above their poverty. The eight-yens project integrated various disciplines in biology, economics, sociology: public administration, and engineering in its study of fishery resources and fishing communities and in evolving intervention strategies for resource conservation and management, and Sos community development. Thr project's most important accomplishment was the inculcation among the fisherfolk of the importance of resource conservation and management. The most important lesson learned was that nn enlightened and empowered fisherfolk could be effective managers and responsible users of fishery resources.