Project update - Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project (Philippines) - May 2004
Added to website: 01 May 2004
Project Brief
Aim
The Southern Leyte Coral Reef Conservation Project is a three-year collaborative project (2002-2005), to survey the coral reefs of Sogod Bay. The programme provides training and conservation education opportunities for local Filipinos, as part of an integrated programme to develop local capacity and ensure the long-term protection and sustainable use of marine resources throughout the region.
Location
Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte, South-Eastern Philippines.
CCC Partners
CCC is working at the invitation of and in partnership with the Provincial Government of Southern Leyte and the Philippine Reef & Rainforest Conservation Foundation Inc (PRRCFI).
Marine Science Programme
Baseline Surveys
Number and location of Surveys
Owing to the loss of our dive boat (which was destroyed by Typhoon Dindo), there were no baseline surveys conducted this month. Instead, we completed a series of 42 Rapid Reef Assessment surveys in Sector 5 (our ‘home’ sector) to create a picture of the extent of the reef system and to gather qualitative data for the planning of the surveying effort.
Number of transects completed
n/a
Reef Check
As above
Interesting / Unusual Sightings
Banded sea kraits, green and hawksbill turtles, malabar groupers, humphead (Napolean) wrasse, and the beautiful solitary coral polyp, cynarina lacrymalis.
Environmental Awareness
Capacity Building/Training of Local Counterparts
For the periods of the 19th-21st May and the 26th-28th May, 35 teachers from all around Southern Leyte attended the tailor-made Foundation Conservation Biology Workshop at our new project site in Tangkaan. The workshop was designed to increase awareness and knowledge of marine resource issues amongst the educators of the Province. Using lectures and practical demonstrations, the teachers learned about such diverse topics as shark biology, fisheries management, coral reef ecology, threats to reefs and the socio-economic impacts of coral reef degradation. On the final day, the teachers were presented with a role-playing ‘scenario’ that was designed to test all of their new-found knowledge.
The ‘scenario’ involves a fictional Visayan island whose fishing community has been presented with a proposal from a group of international developers. The developers wish to build a deep-water port on the island, cutting a channel through the island’s reefs in the process. This will obviously have a profound effect on the ecosystem of the island, but will bring an influx of much needed income to the subsistence-level community. The teachers were split into three groups; the first playing the developers, the second playing the environmental lobby and the third playing the fisherfolk of the Barangay. The three groups are then given the opportunity to make plans and consider all of the issues involved, before holding a ‘Barangay meeting’ to attempt to reach a resolution. It is an excellent exercise, forcing the participants to consider many development issues from many sides, and ultimately to work together to find solutions.
Whilst talking to the teachers over the duration of the workshops, we discovered that access to marine teaching resources is difficult and expensive for most of the schools participating. To address this issue, we are compiling a Teachers’ Marine Resource Pack CD-ROM, which will include the lecture notes from the workshop programme plus many other lectures from CCC’s Staff Science Manual. The CD format also allows us to include many useful underwater photographs of individual species found within Sogod Bay and The Philippine Archipelago. This CD will be distributed free of charge to each of the schools who participated in the workshop and whose hard work made it such a success. We hope this will be of benefit to all involved.
