Securing the Rights of Small-Scale Fishers and Their Communities in the Context of Fisheries Management Areas in the Philippines

The chapter focuses on assessing how the rights of small-scale fishers and their communities can be secured in the context of fisheries management areas (FMAs) in the Philippines. The FMA is a new fisheries management system enabled by the amended Fisheries Code (Republic Act 10654) that aims to apply the precautionary principle and ecosystem-based approach to fisheries management. This assessment shows how the eight small-scale fisheries issues outlined in the rapid appraisal study of Nakamura et al. (2021) are addressed under the FMA. The 1987 Philippines Constitution and existing national laws and policy, including the Fisheries Administrative Order 263 that established and delineated 12 FMAs in Philippine territorial waters, recognize municipal fishers’ tenure and preferential rights over the use of municipal waters, ensure their participation in fisheries management, and promote their representation in institutional arrangements. However, these laws have not yet been fully implemented, which needs to be strengthened. Stronger law enforcement to prevent commercial fishers from encroaching into municipal waters, a clear stance from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources on the presence of commercial fishers in municipal waters, adequate implementation funds, use of clear implementation guidelines in establishing institutional arrangements, and adequate representation of small-scale fishers can help protect fishers’ rights.