The Apo Island marine preserve is starting to change the way people fish in the Philippines.

by Linda B. Bolido

(Manila, Philippines, October 2003) Apo may seem typical of the thousands of small islands scattered throughout the Philippine Archipelago. Less than an hour away from Dumaguete City, capital of the province of Negros Oriental, the island has few of the trappings of an urban community. Apo's two "resorts" are not the fancy playgrounds one finds in Boracay or Palawan, and most of the residents still earn their living from fishing.

But in the past 20 years, the island has become a popular "field trip" destination for people from other island communities around the country.

Apo is neat and trim with concrete pathways and well-kept homes, none more than two stories tall. The shores are clean and the waters are clear. An elementary school provides basic education to younger kids, while older children are ferried to a high school on the mainland. With a generator purchased from money the community has earned from tourism, the island has electricity for 6 to 11 hours each day, allowing even the operation of a handful of television sets with video compact disc player attachments.

By no stretch of the imagination is life luxurious and easy on Apo, but it is now a model for other fishing villages in the Philippines that can no longer eke out even a simple living.

Apo did not come upon its celebrity overnight. About 25 years ago fish harvests began to drop. Eager for a good harvest in the shortest time possible, fishermen were resorting to destructive methods like the use of dynamite. With catches declining, people had to go farther and farther out to sea to catch fewer fish.

At about that time, a group from Silliman University across the strait in Dumaguete, decided to make Apo an off-campus laboratory. Dr. Angel Alcala, a marine biologist at Silliman, had become alarmed by the steady deterioration of the country's coral reefs.

With 20,000 square kilometers of reef, the third largest expanse of coral in the world, the Philippines had the potential to harvest some 350,000 tons of fish per year. But the reefs were only yielding about half of their potential -- about 150,000 to 175,000 tons.

So Alcala launched a no-take marine reserve concept on Apo Island in the 1970s. "It is very simple," he said. "An area is divided into fishing and no-take zones. A 70:30 ratio -- 70 for the fishing section -- is believed sufficient for sustainability." By only banning fish harvesting in a relatively small area, said Alcala, people were not deprived of their livelihoods. And at the same time the marine sanctuary helped stabilize fish populations and assure sufficient fish catch.

"On land, we've set up parks and preserves to protect areas that provide us with crucial services, like forested watersheds and species-rich habitats," said Lauretta Burke, a coral reef expert at the World Resources Institute. "It's crucial that we provide similar protection for marine areas as well."

Fish and other resources were able to recover and rebuild their populations in the marine reserve. And as the numbers of fish grew, the extra population spilled over into the fishing zones. The experiment has worked. "People are spending less time catching fish," said Alcala, "while the harvest … is rising."

Alcala stressed that the Apo experiment succeeded because the university worked closely with the community. The locals had a personal stake in the success of the program. They managed, monitored, and maintained what the university set up.

With the return of a wide variety of species, diving and snorkeling aficionados have found Apo one of the most rewarding destinations. Even close to the shores, with only a mask, the casual beachcomber will find a delightful array of marine species. It is estimated that the island earns some US$200,000 a year from tourism.

Other fishing villages, faced with dwindling fish harvests, degraded marine ecosystems, and increasingly difficult lives, have looked upon Apo as the prototype of what can be accomplished by managing fisheries more sustainably. And a number of experts are looking at this type of marine reserve as an important model for the Philippines and elsewhere.

Almost 98 percent of all Philippine reefs are threatened by human activities, according to an analysis of threats to coral reefs across Southeast Asia by the World Resources Institute (WRI). The "Reefs at Risk" report found that Apo Island is one of the few areas in the Philippines where the level of human pressure is low and coral ecosystems are doing well. "It is rightly one of the great success stories for marine protected areas," said Burke, a coauthor of the report.