Sustainable Managing of Coral Reefs in the Anthropocene - A study of the local community Bulata, in the Philippines, and how they could

manage nearby reefs

Photographer: Anders Paulsson

Fabian Clinton

Ivana Rodriguez Ewerlöf

Diana Masete

Johanna Villén

NV09A Globala Gymnasiet, Stockholm

February 2012

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Abstract

Today the world’s coral reefs are facing huge threats. Natural and anthropogenic

disturbances are threatening the resilience and future of the coral reefs and all people

that are dependent on them. Without the coral reefs humans and ecosystems in the whole

world would be in danger since the coral reefs give us essential services and goods

and interact with many other ecosystems. This situation requires understanding in an

interdisciplinary way. Therefore this project looks at solutions that are sustainable in

every perspective.

Our focus lies on the local village Bulata, in the Philippines, and we investigate how they

are connected to the surrounding coral reefs, and how sustainable development could be

applied without risking the future of coral reefs. Our study is based on doctoral thesis,

field studies and interviews with both local people and experts. We conclude that local

solutions may not be enough since the threats are mostly global. To solve these complex

problems and maintain coral reefs, management has to be done in local, regional and

global scales together.

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Table of contents

Abstract

Table of contents

Introduction

Scope of thesis

Theoretical framework

Background

The Biology of Coral reefs

Ecological goods and services provided by coral reefs

The coral reef’s situation (global and regional)

The threats and how they affect the coral reefs, local coastal communities and

humankind

Managed marine areas in Philippines

Method

Results

Survey of Philippines and Barangay Bulata

Fishing methods

Interview with fishermen

Interview with school children

Interview with Fredrik Moberg - Ph D in coral reef ecology, Stockholm Resilience

centre

Local actions

Discussion/Conclusion

References

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Introduction

Scope of thesis

The aim of this study is to understand how local, coastal communities near coral reefs could take

the step towards sustainability and create a lifestyle without negative impacts on the reefs. How

is it possible to integrate the local population's right to social and economic development without

risking the future of coral reefs? What has been done so far, and what can we learn from success-

stories? Conserving coral reefs by local management might not be enough, so how can we link

local initiatives together and put conservation in a global context?

Question formulations

● How can residents in Barangay Bulata, in the Philippines, manage the nearby coral reefs

in a sustainable way (taking into account social, ecologic and economic development)?

● How are coral reefs affected by activities, human or natural, around the world? How do

you divide them into global, regional and local factors and how do they differ?

● How does the population of Barangay Bulata in general live today (standard of living,

poverty, institutional presumptions etc.), and which activities may affect the coral reefs?

What could be considered as sustainable? Which obstacles may obstruct sustainable

development in the village?

● How are humans, animals and whole ecosystems around the world affected by the

dissappearance or reduction of coral reefs and their ecosystem services? How is

Philippines or the population of Barangay Bulata in particular affected and how could

they adapt to these changes?

● Which solutions have been made till now, in different levels; global, regional or local,

to sustain the coral reefs? What can we learn from these arrangements and could they be

applied on Barangay Bulata?

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● How could local or regional solutions be linked together to play a global role in

conserving the coral reefs as interconnected ecosystems?

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Theoretical framework

Sustainable Development

The concept of sustainable development was adapted by IUCN, the International Union for

Conservation of Nature in 1969. At first the concept was defined as the possibility of achieving

economic growth and industrial development without damaging the environment. But through

time this explanation has developed and enriched (Adams 2006). The Brundtland Report, written

in 1987 at a meeting of the World Commission on Environment and Development, was a big

step towards sustainable development thinking. In the report the commission says: “The concept

of sustainable development is the overriding and global political concept that this commission

will present and call for. What we have undertaken is to elaborate upon this concept, to analyse

what it should mean and to draw conclusions as to how our behaviour must change so that

development can be sustainable. The need for change is compelling. The will for change must be

created.” Concrete the report suggests that sustainable is the “development that meets the needs

of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”.

Further on, sustainable development began to consist of three dimensions, environmental, social

and economic development and they have to be included and integrated to achieve sustainability.

The environment is considered as the essential basis that has to be taken care of to achieve

development within the other components (Adams 2006). All three components are highly

dependent on each other and without considering one the others will not be able to develop

(Bratt, Larsson, Sandahl 2011). The Brundtland Report also became a framework for the

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climate conference in Rio de Janeiro 1992 (www.ne.se, 2012-01-12a), where several principles

concerning environment and development were adapted by participants from 181 states

(www.ne.se, 2012-01-12b).

Humanity today faces huge challenges due to the climate crisis, wide spread poverty, increasing

world population, loss of biodiversity and impoverished ecosystems. To secure a future for

humanity and all ecosystems, the world has to develop in a sustainable way. While wealthy

countries threaten the environment as a result of their economic and social development, poorer

countries face growing challenges, such as dealing with the consequences of the climate crisis,

which also interrupts the social and economic development of the poorer countries. This is not

sustainable and therefore we have to regulate our way of evolving. About one fifth of the world’s

population today live in what is considered as extreme poverty, less than 1,25 USD per day. How

to integrate the combating of poverty and the aim of annual economical growth while preserving

the environment is a big issue (Bratt, Larsson, Sandahl 2011). Hans Rosling, a professor in

public health says that to solve environmental issues poverty has to be combated first (Rosling

2011-11-22). Wealthier countries need to support poorer countries financially if they are to

reduce their impact on the environment (www.ne.se, 2012-01-12c).

Sustainable development requires a global perspective and a long-term thinking; you can not

achieve it only by local or regional engagement or by focusing on short-time consequences.

As development from an environmental perspective has great importance some emphasizes the

social and economic development as essential as it will provide livelihood for all people. And

that will be necessary to preserve the planet’s ecosystems (www.ne.se, 2012-01-12c).

Evidence shows that human activities nowadays are becoming less sustainable than before,

despite the awareness of the situation (Adams 2006) and despite the impact that the concept

of sustainable development has had on the rhetoric of politics (www.ne.se, 2012-01-12c). Is

there enough time to change the global development to achieve sustainability before an eventual

planetary collapse takes place?

Planetary boundaries

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The planet’s environment has been unusually stable for the past 10,000 years, even though it has

undergone many periods of significant environmental change. This period is called the Holocene

and this stability may now be under threat. Scientist now mean that we are in a new era, the

Antropocene, where man is the biggest influencing factor on Earth (Rockström et al. 2009)

Professor Johan Rockström and colleagues, published 2009 in the highly estimated journal

Nature the article “A safe operating space for humanity” about planetary boundaries. Previously

scientists talked about "limits to growth" and "carrying capacity" but now they have developed

nine planetary boundaries for how much human impact Earth can handle. We have to stay within

these limits to avoid catastrophic environmental changes. The nine values are chemical pollution,

biogeochemical loading: Nitrogen and Phosphorus flow, rate of Biodiversity loss, land system

change, freshwater consumption, climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion and

atmospheric aerosol loading. These limits are designed to find a safe maneuver to humanity and

to prevent people from creating irreversible environmental changes. We have already exceeded

three of these limits, climate change, the Nitrogen and Phosphorus flow and Biodiversity loss.

(Rockström 2009).

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Ecological disturbances

Ecosystems are continuously exposed to disturbance, an event or a stress, occurring as pulses

and changes the structures within the community of the ecosystem. Natural disturbance factors

could be considered as an essential process to contribute the development and the dynamic

of ecosystems (Moberg 2001a). E.g. the Australian trees Eucalyptus regnans and Eucalyptus

marginata, are burnt down after a fire but will need the disturbance to regenerate prolifically

from seeds. Disturbances kept in a natural level will maintain and develop the species diversity

(Attiwill 1993), which provides better resilience within the ecosystem (Moberg 2001a). As

disturbance affect, and could cause abundance of some species (Dayton 1971), the evolution will

provide adaption to the disturbance, not only due to the abundance of some species, also because

of other changes in the ecosystem’s structure after a distraction (http://www.albaeco.se 2012-01-

10).

Studied in an isolated environment, natural disturbance factors are considered as a necessary

step to develop a firm ecosystem but as the planet faces a human dominated environment we

have to include human activities in the concept of disturbance. Ecosystems over the world are

a whole lot affected by human activities and decisions taken widely. E.g. human impact on the

environment causes global warming, which threatens several ecological systems (Folke, Moberg,

Nyström 2000a). It is not always obvious if disturbance is caused by human or nature (Nyström

2001a).

The human emissions of greenhouse gases are caused by activities such as deforestation,

agriculture, industry, waste management, supply of energy, residences and transports (Eklund

2009a). The result is not climate change alone, but also ocean acidification, chemical pollutions,

biodiversity loss, and more, which will also influence various cycles of substances for instance

nitrogen. The activities together will have a huge impact on the earth and its ecosystems

(Rockström 2009). The activities does not only alter the frequency and duration of natural

disturbances, they also introduce new stresses and remove traditional natural disturbing factors.

As the natural distraction alone strengthens the resilience of ecosystems, the addition of human

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disturbance might obstruct the ability of recovering after the event, as ecosystems could be

exposed to chronic stress or persistent disturbance due to human activities and therefore there

is little time for the ecosystem to recover (Folke, Moberg, Nyström 2000a). But even natural

disturbance could be chronic and appear in a more persistent manner (Nyström 2001a). As a

consequence the system’s capacity of delivering goods and services are often reduced (Folke,

Moberg 1999a).

As may be understood, ecological disturbances have different characters and effect ecosystems

and biodiversity in various ways. There are quite a few definitions regarding ecological

disturbance but the main and concrete definition declares that the distraction has to remove or

kill organisms within a community to be considered as an ecological disturbance. There exists

a hypothesis called the Intermediate Disturbance that according to the hypothesis is the ultimate

scenario due to the stable level of species that is produced by an adequate level of disturbance.

An extended disturbance could threaten to remove almost every species within the community

while without any disturbance at all, the community might be dominated by one single species

through species elimination caused by rivalry. The loss or reduction of some species could

make way for other non-dominant or new species to establish in the area, which will improve

the diversity and resilience of the ecosystem. What is considered as an intermediate disturbance

could depend on how fast the species in the community grow, but also the strength of rivalry

between species (Svensson 2010).

Disturbances takes place in different levels, local, regional and global (Folke, Moberg, Nyström

2000a). But the border between different kinds of disturbances might not be that clear. Local

disturbances could be widely distributed and generate regional or global issues (Nyström 2001a).

Global disturbances such as global warming have a big impact on coral reefs as it could cause

bleaching events by disturbing the delicate balance between the coral and the zooxanthelle algae

living inside the coral. Coastal deforestation, by local or regional scale, causes soil erosion that

will increase the water nutrition level and threatens coral reefs. (Folke, Moberg, Nyström 2000a)

There are both physical and biological kinds of disturbance, natural and human altered, e.g.

storms or forest fires as physical and grazing or diseases as biological (Svensson 2010).

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Resilience

Resilience is a concept that is used in the sustainable development-science to describe a system’s

resistance and its ability to absorb disturbances. The concept was first introduced as a describing

ecological term (Holling, 1973), but is now used by different scientific areas as an approach to

analyse not only ecosystems but also social-ecological systems (Folke 2006). We will be using a

definition of resilience which sometimes is referred to ecological resilience; ”The capacity of a

system to absorb disturbances (both human and natural) and reorganise while undergoing change

so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity and feedbacks” (Walker et al.

2004).

This ability to buffer disturbances is important since all ecosystems has an uncertainty embedded

in them. This uncertainty may be the hardest thing for humanity to understand in terms of nature

and how it works. Usually, within many circumstances, humanity aims to be in control. But you

can not always control an ecosystem or understand e.g. how much fish that will be produced next

year. We can not even say exactly what kind of weather there will be tomorrow. This uncertainty

is not because of lack of data, or information. No, the ecosystem’s integrated features makes it

difficult to predict how future ecosystem will look like (Holling 1996).

By preserving ecosystems’ capacity to cope with disturbances we also preserve the ability of

ecosystems to provide us with the goods and services that we depend on. Resilient ecosystems

give us thus the ability to build a life or a society adapted to a particular type of environment.

Resilient ecosystems also reduce uncertainty and make it easier for us to "do the right thing" and

use nature in a long-term and sustainable manner (albaeco.se 2012-01-12).

When a coral reef is exposed to a natural disturbance, such as a storm, toxic emissions or other

disruptions caused by man, corals can break or die. After the disturbance the reef can develop in

several ways.

If the coral reef has a high biodiversity of plants and animals that perform different functions,

the buffer capacity is usually good. When the interference comes and certain species temporarily

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are knocked out, other species can take over and replace their functions. The corals will then

be able to slowly but surely, return to a stable state after the disturbance. If the reef has a good

ability to adapt and organise it self, both within the disturbance and during the reconstruction

phase, the reef is considered resilient.

If instead the reef is already stressed by overfishing or eutrophication, fish populations might

be reduced, and that will reduce the buffer capacity of the reef. The reef can easily end up in a

new equilibrium dominated by algae instead of corals and may get completely new features. The

coral reef was in other words not resilient.

To accurately measure the resilience of coral reefs is difficult, or perhaps even impossible,

according to Professors Carl Folke and Nils Kautsky, who lead resilience and coral reef research

at Stockholm University. They argue that you instead could examine the biodiversity of the coral

reef. Species with similar habits of eating and mode of reproduction could have similar functions

in the ecosystem, related to the same “functional group”, and could replace each other when one

of the species is reduced or absent due to a disturbance. It is also important to examine where

species live and if they can spread from one area to another. Good opportunities for species to

spread both within the coral reef, but also between different coral reefs are important to the reef,

to stay in the coral-dominated equilibrium position after a disturbance. A coral reef with many

species, working in a similar way or spread easily, can then be a sign of resilience (albaeco.se

2012-01-11).

But note! It is not always positive that an ecosystem is resilient. This argue Resilience Alliance,

an interdisciplinary forum created by prominent researchers from around the world. Resilience

Alliance has as its primary mission to support and conduct research with a focus on resilience

and links between man and nature. Their definition of resilience emphasises that people do not

always appreciate an ecosystem’s capacity of dealing with disturbances. In a marine ecosystem

where fish stocks have collapsed, such as in the Baltic sea, we try to change for the better. But

the Baltic Sea is now eutrophic and over-fished concerning salmon and cod stocks and appears

to be difficult to change and can therefore be described as resilient. If resilience is good or bad

differ depending on the situation, and it is up to the viewer to decide (albaeco.se 2012-01-10).

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The definition of resilience is based on the assumption that ecosystems are complex and adaptive

systems (Levin 1998) with non-linear dynamics and alternative stable states (Norström et al.

2009). If you accept that coral reefs show these features, it becomes hard to infer to resilience

as a measurable variable. A more rewarding approach is to interpret the concept as a framework

that presents a perspective to guide and organise thoughts (Folke 2006). It is with this broader

sense that the concept gives a rewarding context to analyse ecological systems such as coral reefs

(Lokrantz 2009).

Tipping points

The tipping point is the critical point in an evolving situation that leads to a new and irreversible

development (Grodzins 1957). ”The Tipping point” written by Malcolm Gladwell was published

year 2000 who described the term as ”time of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point”. In

the book Michael has his focus on tipping points in businesses, social policy, advertising and

other non-medical areas. The term is said to have originated in epidemology but the concept has

been discussed and applied in many fields, from economics to human ecology and sociology. It

can also be compared with the phase transition in physics. A critical point is often considered

a turning point. The Butterfly Effect is a property of chaotic systems and can be considered a

tipping point, to a marginal impact on the system can have significant and unpredictable effects

elsewhere. (http://ecotippingpoints.org/, 2011-01-13)

There are negative and positive tipping points, if the ecosystem surpasses the tipping point it

will flip into another state, due to the loss of resilience it may cause unexpected and non-linear

cascading effects as well as ‘flips’, a change that can be essentially irresversible (Holling et al.,

1995). During recent decades scientists have observed that shifts that have gone from one stable

state to another might have become more frequent and less reversible and that these shifts are

influenced anthropogenic disturbances. Human alteration and use of the marine environment

trigger these kinds of system flips (Eakin 1993: Paulay, 1997; Connel, 1997).

One classic example of an ecosystem flip from coral to macroalgae-dominance are the reefs

in Jamaica, in the Caribbean (e.g. Hay, 1984; Lessios et al., 1984; Carpenter, 1990; Hughes,

1994). Humans alter the natural disturbance regime of coral reefs, which might lead to coral

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reef degradation and can lead to invasion of non-reef building organisms such as soft corals

or zoanthids, more often ecosystems have flipped from coral reefs to macroalgae dominance

(Done, 1992; Jennings and Polunin, 1996). The coral reefs around Jamaica have transitioned

from hard coral to fleshy algae dominance, the factors behind this tranisiton has been discussed

by scientist that have understood that it is a combination of natural (hurricane and disease)

and anthropogenic (overfishing and nutrient increase) disturbances. Overharvesting of fish

that predate on sea urchins led to increased abundance of the keystone grazer, the sea urchin

Diadema antillarum. By the late 1960s fish biomass had been heavily reduced, ten years later

these reefs were extensively damaged as a result from overfishing. Because large predatory fish

were continuously overfished, herbivores increase in abundance. 1981 hurricane Allen struck

the area, damaging and killing branching coral species, which led to an increased colonization

of algae in the areas of old coral colonies that were outcompeted. 1982 and 1983, the sea urchin

suffered from a species-specific pathogen that reduced the population by 99% in some areas.

This classic example demonstrates how reduced resilience and loss of important species within a

functional group has led to a flip (Folke, Moberg, Nyström et al. 2000b).

Methods to detect loss of resilience are needed and are very important as coral reefs and most

other ecosystem do not respond lineary to stress caused by human use (Buddemeier and Smith,

1999; Scheffer et al., 2000).

Biodiversity

It is necessary for plants and animals to adapt to the surroundings and it has through evolution

also created the biodiversity. This means that there is an incredible variety of all kinds of living

organisms, and these have an important role in the ecosystems. Different species have different

functions and roles in the ecosystems, different species may also have the same function. If a

functional group (species with the same functions) disappear, the ecosystem is adversely affected

by this (Söderqvist et al. 2004). Different life forms in nature are needed for e.g. pollination,

dissemination of seeds, insecticides and cycling of nutrients. An increase extinction of species,

weakens ecosystems and can lead to irreversible changes. One of the worst threats is loss of

tropical rainforests (Brown, 2008). Due to soil erosion the soil ends up in rivers and oceans

where it causes turbidity, which among other things can destroy aquatic ecosystems e.g coral

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reefs and hence destroy fisheries (www.raddaregnskog.se, 2012-01-16).

Biodiveristy is an important keystone for ecological (or ecosystem) services meaning ”the

conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems, and the species that make them up,

sustain and fulfill human life” (Daily, 1997). This is essential for the well being of humans but

there is no market for ecological services and therefore they are rarely considered when decisions

on e.g. logging are made (www.raddaregnskog.se, 2012-01-16).

Seascape

Coral reefs are open ecosystems, surrounded by many other ecosystems such as mangroves and

seagrass beds. Together these ecosystems are collectively known as seascape. But the seascape it

self is not an isolated entity, it is influenced by terrestrial as well as open ocean activities (Casipe

2011-12-02). These different ecosystems are dependent on each other, e.g. mangrove and

seagrass bind loose sediments, which promote coral reefs in sediment-rich waters (korallrev.se

2012-01-12). The coastal water is then stabilized, clear and nutrition poor, which is essential

to reduce the risk of coral reefs becomeing overgrown by algae (Moberg 2001b). Too much

sediment deposits on the corals can ''stifle'' it. In return, coral reefs protect the mangrove forests

and seagrass beds against typhoons and waves that can destroy and remove the sediment which

they grow on (korallrev.se 2012-01-12).

Lagoons, over geological time scales created by coral reefs and their ability to reduce the

strength of currents and waves, are a perfect place for seagrass beds and mangroves. These three

ecosystems are also linked together by essential “mobile link-species” (Moberg 2001b).

Mobile link-species are connecting one area to another and provide essential functions. Larvae

transported by currents are passive link species and essential for the reproduction of corals, fish

and plants and contribute to genetic variation. There are also active linking species that pollinate

and disperse terrestrial plants. As active mobile link species move themselves between habitats

they increase the connectivity between the ecosystems or habitats and strengthen the resilience.

Essential for the coral reefs are predatory and herbivorous fishes that transport the zooxanthellae

algae (necessary for the life of corals) between reef zones. Herbivorous species provide the

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recolonization of corals and prevent the reef of becoming overgrown by algae. Important

minerals are brought to reef areas by some fish species (Nyström 2001b) and many fish species

use seagrass beds and mangroves as nursery grounds. Plant communities surrounding coral reefs

are also affected by the herbivorous fish and sea urchins that migrate outside the reef (Moberg

2001b).

Tropical seascapes provide many ecological goods and services, essential for the livelihood

and well-being of many people and contain the richest repositories of marine biodiversity.

A report from the World Resources Institute from 1996-97 declared that more than 50% of

the mangroves worldwide have been removed. Growing population, coastal exploitation and

changing in lifestyles are big threats to the seascapes (Moberg 2001b). New research shows that

these seascapes have a large influence on the abundance of fish, sometimes even larger influence

than MPAs (marine protected areas) have, and because of that it is very important to preserve

the seascapes to reduce the risks of overfishing (European Commission). Several fish stocks in

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Caribbean coral reefs more than doubled if the coral reef was linked to a rich mangrove resource

(Mumby 2005).

If an ecosystem such as a coral reef would flip into a unwanted system such as a algal-dominated

reef it would not only affect the fish that live in the reef, it will also affect other ecosystems,

both indirectly and directly, for instance would mangroves, seagrass beds and the open ocean

be affected. The same goes if for example mangroves were cleared for cultivation of prawns.

Therefore you have to see coral reefs as a complex network and not only as a single system and

you have to realise that everything is connected (Rockström 2011-10-14).

(Kershaw, Silvestri 2010)

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Development theories

Development theories started to take shape after the second world war and through the

decolonisation, when the principles of each mans equal right started to evolve around the world.

By the same time the United Nations were established and people in USA and Europe became

aware of the situation of the people in the so called “third world”. The middle class in USA and

Europe were flourishing and their own economical situations had improved after the war, and in

the Western world national economists started to formulate economical theories of development

strategies for the “third world”. It became a matter of course that everybody should get the

possibility of economical and social development, and less developed countries should evolve

from agriculture-based communities to modern and technological developed societies. These

theories would be a part of the cold war, and the different ways of fighting poverty became a tool

for the two superpowers, USA and Sovjet to compete with each other (de Vylder 2002).

During the 80s the Philippines began with a structural reform to achieve economic prosperity and

growth with help of the Tariff Reform Program. At the same time as it started the development

and growth changed to deteriorate. Philippines, together with Bolivia, Turkey and Kenya,

became test subject for the new structural reform mechanism that the World Bank announced at

the end of the 70s. The structural adjustment purpose was to make the economy more "efficient"

by exposing it to international competitive forces. Dollars which could be used to pay off the

national debt would stream in through investments in export-oriented production, and by opening

up the economy to international trade and foreign investment. This weakened the economy

of Philippines; the private sector collapsed in the early 80s because of the combination of

trade liberalization, monetary and fiscal tightening in the context of an international economic

downturn. The manufacturing sector decreased from 44 % to 20 %, which caused many

bankruptcies and major job losses, simply de-industrialisation (Walden 2010).

Social capital

Social capital is a term that in the passed years has developed and plays an improtant role in

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different contexts. The political scientist Robert Putnam has influenced the science of social

capital. The term could be explained through the quote ”It’s not what you know, it’s who you

know” and speaking of social capital it is important to understand the importance of social

networks and understand how people could act in collectives (Eriksson 2003).

Community planning, economics and public health is connected to the term of social capital,

which have been important in circumstances concerning regional development. To be engaged

and take action in social networks is of great value to the individuals and society. The worldbank

applied this theory of an important factor of combating poverty and social capital could also

improve people’s health (Eriksson 2003). Social capital includes important substances in many

people’s lives, for instance feeling that you are part of a community, compassion and inter-

coursing with people (Putnam 2000).

Democracy seems to improve with increasing social capital and social engagement could also be

seen as a duty for citizens. Reciprocation will lead to trust among people and creates common

rules or norms, getting people to work to improve the community (Putnam 2000). But social

capital could also contain trustworthiness to political institutions, and welfare will lead to

increased social capital. A “good” welfare state should through regime and authorities support

people and treat them like a part of the welfare. It could also prevent people from cheating on

each other. The symptoms of this kind of society, could easily show increased participation in

organizations (Rothstein 2001).

Global governance

The threat of crossing the planetary boundaries, mentioned earlier, are truly global issues that

also have local impact. To manage more global problems, governance at international scales is

required and operating needs to be done at multiple levels. Planetary boundaries, global issues,

need to be discussed as complex integrated problems, but many examples today show how they

play out at local, regional and transnational role. Local examples also indicate emerging global

concerns. Networked governance should be a strategy to cope with complexity or uncertainty in

natural resource management. Managing global issues at multiple levels of social organization

could create stable agreements, strengthening national regulatory improving ecosystem

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management and the livelihoods of vulnerable groups.

Local solutions are important, but global management is essential when dealing with global

problems, so linking management in different levels is required. International organizations and

non-governmental organizations act on different levels with different focus and could facilitate

for local management to have a impact in bigger contexts like UN-meetings. Some problems

could also be to complex to manage only on an international level. International organisations or

countries should not be seen as isolated actors, it is important to expand network patterns.

Integrating management on different levels is an important but difficult task (Galaz et al. 2009).

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Background

The Biology of Coral reefs

A Coral reef is a good example of the variety of life on our planet. Many different types of fish

share this habitat with shrimps, clams, sea slugs, sea weeds, as well as corals that form the basis

of the reefs. Due to its high biodiversity it is also called the rainforest of the sea. (Moberg, 2001)

Corals are marine animals that live in colonies and are the building stones of coral reefs. They

are related to sea anemones and jelly fish and are found in warm sea water that is shallow enough

to let plenty of sunlight reach them (www.korallrev.se, 2012-02-03). The tentacles have different

important functions as catching prey (small fish, zooplankton)(Sheppard et al. 2009).

Ahermatypic corals (lacking zooxanthallae) have a very dense skeleton and do not have

photosynthetic requirements and can live in great deep depths and create rich diverse habitats

of hard substrate in deep waters (Sheppard et al. 2000). The corals that live in shallow water

obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular algae called

zooxanthellae. The zooxanthellae live in the tissue of the corals and they provide the corals with

oxygen, glucose, glycerol and aminoacids. As the coral polyp provides carbon dioxide for the

zooxanthallae, this symbiotic relation is mutual as both benefit from the arrangement.

Coral reefs are also called the ”oasis in a marine desert” (www.albaeco.com, 2012-02-

02) because they prefer to live in oligotrophic environments because of the limited amount

of inorganic nutrients that the zooxanthallae reuse to create organic nutrients that are

essential for the coral reefs to flourish and grow (www.korallrev.se, 2012-02-03 ). The

zooxanthallae are needed for reef building corals and therefore grow best in shallow water.

Coral Bleaching occurs when the coral polyps stressed by changes in temperature or UV

radiation expel the zooxanthellar which are necessary for their survival. Corals then turn white

(www.reefsearch.org, 2012-02-02). In 1999 there was a mass coral bleaching event in places all

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over the world, due to the weather phenomenon El Niño.

Hard corals are reef-building and when they die the skeleton endures and creates a base for

other corals to grow on. This creates huge structures of coral reefs and they are considered as

the most important part of a reef because of the long-lasting structures they build and the habitat

that these structures provide for countless reef organisms. Hard corals have a hard external

limestone skeleton and make their skeleton by using calcium carbonate from the surrounding

water. Hard corals grow in three basic forms: branching, massive, and plate. (www.korallrev.se,

www.reefresearch.org, 2012-02-02).

Soft Corals do not significantly contribute to the building of coral reefs and do not produce

calcium carbonate skeletons, instead they are more tree like and flexible and take branching

or fan-like shapes that bend and sway with the movement of the water (www.reefresearch.org,

2012-02-02). Soft and hard corals compete with each other for space, soft corals grow faster and

can kill other corals if they come to close.

There are many different types of herbivores in the coral reef ecosystem. These herbivores are

different but share one functionality and are all in the same functional group which control and

remove algae and are also essential when a natural disturbance has taken place. The different

types of herbivores in the coral reef ecosystem can be divided into six big groups: fish, sea

urchins, turtles, molluscs, amphipods and crabs.

Sea urchins are invertebrates that belong to the class of Echinoideas, they can be either

herbivores or omnivores, and increase rapidly in response of predator removal. That leads to that

grazing pressure will reduce the algal biomass and can shift an algae dominated community into

a crustose coralline and turf algae dominated state.

”Overharvesting of fish that predate on sea urchins led to increased abundance of the key- stone

grazer, the sea urchin Diadema antillarum. After being damaged by Hurricane Allen in 1980 the

corals did first recover, as the urchins could suppress algal growth which had been stimulated by

increased amounts of nutrients from land use change. However, Diadema then suffered from a

22

pathogen which caused mass mortality. Coupled with overfishing of herbivorous fishes, the mass

mortality removed virtually all the grazers and the flip, or slide, to a community dominated by

fleshy, unpalatable algae was a fact.” (Folke and Moberg, 1999).

These herbivores use their teeth to remove macroalgae, epilithic algae seagreass from

substratum without scraping or scaring the corals. Sea Urchins are very important because they

affect the reef dynamics and processes as they share different functional groups as predators,

herbivores and bioeroders. Parrot fish are considered to be herbivores but play a significant

role in bioerosions and have a unique function as they conusume structural reef carbonates, and

are hard to replace. If they would increase in number parts of reefs could be lost due to their

powerfull jaws rasping algae from corals and other rocky substrates.

Algae are eukaryotic organisms that get their energy through photosyntesis, they compete with

the corals for space and sunlight. There are different types of algae, micro algae and macroalgae

are the primary producers. When there are not enough herbivores the concentration of algae

increases which can make an ecosystem flip to a macroalgae dominated ecosystem, this causes

that other species are driven out (www.korallrev.se,2012-02-02b). An increase of inorganic

nutrients can also trigger algae growth. When an aggressive coral has attacked another coral

causing loss of coral polyps, algae can replace that space on the limestone skeleton which is not

desired for the attacked coral. Algae are fast at reusing the nutrients in the waste of herbivores.

Corals can also get inorganic nutrients in this way when fish are hiding in the corals and

excreting phosphor, nitrogen and other nutrients with their waste (www.korallrev.se, 2012-02-

02b).

Ecological goods and services provided by coral reefs

Coral reefs provide humans and surrounding ecosystems with ecological goods and services

and they are important life-supporting systems (Moberg 2001c). Goods, services or functions

from the coral reefs could have different meanings and they differ due to the habitat, location

and surrounding circumstances. Human communities get benefits from coral reefs due to these

goods and services (Costanza et al. 1997) and they are essential to hundreds of millions of people

23

(Cesar 2000a). Folke and Moberg (1999) have defined the most important services and goods

of the coral reefs and the services have been divided into five categories; Physical structure

services, biotic services (within and between ecosystems), biochemical services and social and

cultural services. Table 1 (adapted from Folke and Moberg 1999) shows goods and services

within the different categories from the coral reefs.

Table 1

As human impact could reduce the coral reefs’ ability of recovering after disturbances, the

delivery of goods and services will be affected (Folke, Moberg 1999). To keep this structure it is

important to manage the reefs and understand the complexity of the ecosystems and their goods

and services (Moberg 2001c). To create a sustainable use of the coral reefs long-term thinking is

essential.

There are various possible uses of the coral reefs. They provide goods such as seafood products,

such as fish, and discoveries have also shown their potential of delivering different medicines.

24

Corals are also used for lime production (www.madegood.org 2012-01-23) and the lime

from corals is also used as pH-regulator in agriculture. They, the corals, could also be used as

fertilizer. A very unsustainable use of corals is to use the fossil fuels made by old biomass from

the reefs as they have been converted to oil and gas (Folke, Moberg 1999).

Coral reefs and their structure will buffer shorelines from waves, storms and currents. This

preserves the coastal communities, both human societies and ecosystems. The energy from

storms or waves are absorbed by the reefs (≈90 %) as they also help to maintain mangroves and

seagrass beds which makes the coastline more stable (http://coralreef.noaa.gov 2012-01-24).

Reefs also generate the characteristic white beach sand that often attract tourists.

Nitrogen fixation by coral reefs occurs at a high rate compared to other marine ecosystems

(Folke, Moberg 1999). Photosynthesizing organisms, like corals, macroalgae and seagrasses,

need both nitrogen and phosphorus for the production of organic matter. To sustain the

ecosystem regular inputs of nutritient are essential, but on a sustainable level. Free living

microbes fixate the atmospheric nitrogen. (Sheppard et.al. 2009a) They also function as sinks for

carbon dioxide and bind the calcium in the sea.

Human waste could also be transformed, detoxified and sequestered by the cleansing service

provided by the reefs. Petroleum is detoxified, as microbes turn hydrocarbons into carbon

dioxide and water (Folke, Moberg 1999).

As often forgotten reefs support cultural and spiritual values and that have been a key to

traditional management of coral reefs. Cultural traditions have some times developed from

the reefs. They also hold great aesthetic values. The income from tourism due to coral reefs is

enormous. If done properly the tourism could generate better conservation of reefs. The reefs are

essential providing livelihood of many local communities (Folke, Moberg 1999). “For example,

it has been estimated that damages to reefs in Philippines caused by overfishing and pollution

have led to the loss of at least 100 000 fishermen’s jobs” (McAllister 1988).

A tendency of overexploitation makes it hard to use the services sustainable (Folke, Moberg

25

1999).

The coral reef’s situation (global and regional)

Coral reefs barely cover 0.1-0.5 % of the ocean floor (Folke, Moberg 1999a), about 600 000

km2, (Ecological Society of America 2000) yet they contain almost one third of all marine

fish species in the world (Folke, Moberg 1999a). They are also considered as one of the most

complex ecosystems on Earth as they provide livelihood for many people and are essential to the

life in the sea (Ecological Society of America 2000). These ecosystems have evolved to become

the most diverse communities on the planet, with huge amounts of different animal species with

all colours (WWF Australia 2009a). It is possible that the world’s coral reefs are built up by

about 900 000 different species of animals and plants (Green, Ravilious, Spalding 2001). As they

are one of the oldest ecosystems now existing on Earth most of them have been growing during

the past 5000 years or even longer (Ecological Society of America 2000) and some coral reefs

can live for as long as 50 million years (Illustrerad Vetenskap 2011).

So how come, that human activities of different kinds, e.g. coastal development or overfishing

mostly occurring during the past hundred years, today threaten nearly 60 % of all the coral reefs

in the world? (Moberg 2001b). About 25 % of all coral reefs have already disappeared today,

and in Southeast Asia, which has the most species rich reefs on earth, about 88 % of the reefs

are declared as threatened. Human activities together with natural disturbance factors are big

threats to these complex ecosystems (www.pcrf.org 2012-01-17). Coral reefs play an essential

role to the tropical communities and countries with reefs within their coastline. The reefs support

millions of people with food; fish from reefs are an important protein source, coastal protection,

income from tourism and many other services and goods (WWF 2009; Folke, Moberg 1999) and

many islands in the Indo-Pacific are built up by old coral reefs. Also commercial fishing in many

cases relies on healthy reefs (www.korallrev.se 2012-01-17) - about 10 % of all fish consumed

by humans are from reef areas (Folke, Moberg 1999).

More specific, the Philippines is a part of the so-called “Coral Triangle”, an area in the Southeast

of Asia that includes six countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands,

Timor Leste and Philippines. In terms of biodiversity this area is considered as the richest place

26

on earth. Here, over 30 % of the world’s coral reefs exist. More than 100 million people are

directly depending on healthy reefs (WWF 2009), not to mention everybody who is indirectly

depending on reefs and that they continuously provide humankind with ecological goods and

services (Folke, Moberg 1999). As mentioned earlier human disturbance at different scales

affect the coral reefs a lot and the reefs are losing their resilience, their ability to recover after

disturbances (Folke, Moberg, Nyström 2000).

Deforestation, agriculture and development of coastal areas are big threats as they provide

the growth of macroalgae within coral communities, while polluting coastal water (Mascia

2000a). As human activities reduce the resilience of the reefs, activities such as these might

lead the coral reef to a threshold or a tipping point (Folke, Moberg, Nyström 2000). Destructive

fishing methods and overfishing are also big local or regional threats (Mascia 2000a). Global

warming could increase mass bleaching of coral reefs (Folke, Moberg, Nyström 2000) and

global overexploitation of the seas is a problem in the whole world. Industrial fishing started in

the middle of the 20th century and since then it has reduced the world’s fish stocks with 70-90 %

(Lövin 2007) which of course also affects the coral reefs and the surrounding communities.

Climate change causes change in weather patterns which causes floods, landslides, severe

storms, drought and rising sea levels and temperature. If the average temperature on the planet

rises with more than 2°C or the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere rises above 450 ppm, all

coral reefs will be under severe threat (WWF 2009).

Distribution of the coral reefs in the world

27

© Hugo Ahlenius, UNEP/GRID-Arendal

The threats and how they affect the coral reefs, local coastal communities and humankind

Water temperature/Coral bleaching

One of the most visually dramatic effects of climate change on corals is bleaching. Bleaching

is a stress response and occurs when the ocean gets warmer, the oxygen content reduces, and

the white calcium carbonate skeleton becomes visible. The photosynthesising microalgae

zooxanthellae supply most of the corals food (Folke et al. 2000 c). The tiny algae live

symbiotically within the corals transparent tissue and when a stress occurs it is ejected and/or

lose its photosynthetic pigment. The heat stress damages the algae and in consequence leads

to coral death (korallrev.se 2012-01-23). However coral bleaching is not something that only

occurs when the water temperature changes. For example, light intensity, sediment, fresh water

and toxic substances can all induce coral bleaching, although it usually only takes place locally

(korallrev.se 2012-01-23)

Global warming could now mean a death sentence for many coral reefs. If the present rate of

destruction continues, most of the world's coral reefs could be killed within our lifetime (Panda

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2012-01-23). Unless global warming is arrested the elevated water temperatures will have more

and more severe effects on the corals due to other human-altered disturbances that presumably

will increase. Bleaching can also result in loss of resilence, owing to loss of species diversity in

functional groups (Folke et al. 2000 c).

Rising sea levels

Due to melting of glaciers and polar ices, and thermal expansion of warmer water the sea level is

rising (wwf.panda.org 2012-01-23).

Coral reefs thrive as we know, in shallow waters where their zooxanthellae can absorb sunlight

and perform photosynthesis. An elevated sea level could therefore result in that the corals in

deeper water may have more difficulties to grow, and eventually they would no longer be able

to stay alive due to the low solar radiation. At the same time more surface area is released for

coral growth on the most superficial parts of a coral reef, and it is therefore possible that these

parts of the reef benefit from a rising sea level. As pollution and sediment could be washed down

from nearby coastal areas when the sea level rises, an elevated sea levels also means that other

disorders are created (korallrev.se 2012-01-23). For instance may rapid sea levels rise likely

be the greatest climate change challenge to mangrove ecosystems, since they require stable sea

levels for long-term survival (wwf.panda.org 2012-01-23).

However, it is difficult to predict whether an elevated sea level can actually drown corals and

coral reefs, as growth of both different species of coral and coral reefs are so varied. Fast-

growing branching corals, which have a vertical growth of up to 10 inches in one year, will have

no trouble coping with these changes, but the problem becomes more evident when one takes

into account the more massive and slow-growing corals, and the whole coral reefs (korallrev.se

2012-02-23).

Carbon dioxide emissions

Carbon dioxide released by humans is not only warming the planet’s atmosphere it is also

changing the chemistry of the ocean. 30 % of the released CO2 is absorbed by the oceans,

making them more acidic, this is bad for all sea creatures (youtube.com 2012-01-20). The effect

could be that fish, squid, and other gilled marine animals may find it harder to "breathe", as the

29

dissolved oxygen essential for their life becomes difficult to extract as water becomes more

acidic. And shellfish, crabs, lobsters, and corals may find it more difficult to build their calcium

carbonate shells. In some areas, calcium carbonate shells may even start to dissolve. This makes

the corals more fragile against natural disturbances such as typhoons. But if it were not for the

oceans, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would be much higher (Panda.org 2012-

01-20).

New research shows that conditions for coral reefs can soon reach a tipping point. The amount

of CO2 in the atmosphere is rising. The corals are stable at 350 ppm but CO2 levels are already at

385 ppm and rising quickly, if the concentration rises to more than 450 ppm we can pretty much

say good buy to coral reefs. Experts say that there is still time, about a decade, to slow and then

reverse the rising green house gases but it will take a major shift in how things get done above

the ocean surface to save the coral reefs (youtube.com 2012-01-20).

Sedimentation

Sedimentation can affect coral reefs in various ways. When it is in the form of free particles in

the water column above the reef, it may foreclose the corals from the sunlight, inhibiting their

growth or perhaps even kill them. This is especially a problem for corals in deeper waters where

light intensity already is low. But the sediment can also lay directly on the corals and clog the

polyps, which impairs their ability to eat and practically suffocates them. Corals may secrete

a mucus that collect excess sediment, and both the mucus and the sediment falls of the corals.

This process requires however energy and inorganic nutrients, and affected corals receive a

reduced growth and a reduced reproductive potential, which weakens them and makes them less

competitive on coral reefs (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

The increasing amount of sediment in coastal areas can be linked to human activities such as

development of the coastal zone, dredging, but also activities landward as deforestation and

poorly managed agriculture. Without some sort of vegetation the soil can not be held in place

and the soil erodes faster, and eventually the released sediment reaches the coast. Mangrove

forests and seagrass beds near the estuaries may tie up sediment (and inorganic nutrients), but

that also means that the problems of sedimentation on coral reefs deteriorate in the areas where

30

these ecosystems have disappeared (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

Today many coral reefs are affected by both the pollutants and sediments. At several places in

Indonesia scientist have, for instance, found that species diversity among corals have dropped by

30-60 percent as a result of pollution and sedimentation. Emissions of both sediments, inorganic

nutrients and toxic substances from mining operations in Papua New Guinea has destroyed

several coral reefs in areas around the island of Bougainville (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

Deforestation, agriculture and coastal development

Deforestation is a major problem all over the world and causes worse flash floods, soil

erosion, loss of biodiversity, decreasing capacity of binding carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,

vulnerability to floods and storms. The soil erosion is also reducing the harvest from agriculture.

Deforestation happens of various reasons, e.g. wood processing industry, urbanization and

agriculture (Brown 2008). Deforestation, coastal development, agriculture and dam construction

alter natural watersheds that bring pollutants, sewage, chemical fertilizer and sedimentation,

from agriculture and other human activities, to the seas. This increases the amount of nutrient

and dangerous substances in the sea, which threatens the coral reefs and people depending on

them (www.coral.org 2012-01-24).

In agriculture phosphorous and nitrogen fertilizers are used to improve the harvests but as they

are released into the water they will destroy the natural cycles of nitrogen and phosphorous

(Jalandoni 2011-12-02). Sewage treatment plants, air pollution and agriculture are the major

causes of nitrogen and phosphorous pollution (www.cbf.org 2012-01-24). This pollution might

reduce the coral growth and increases the risks of algae growth on the reefs.

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Also surrounding ecosystems, essential for the coral reefs are destroyed due to deforestation,

agriculture and coastal development. A combination of urbanisation, collection of fuel wood,

agriculture and mariculture have, the past two decades, caused the loss of at least 35% of all

mangroves and around 30% of the seagrass areas (Kershaw, Silvestri 2010). As the coastal

population increases the coastal activities and development will be growing threats to the

coral reefs. Building dikes, piers and channels is directly threatening the habitat of coral reefs

(www.coral.org 2012-01-24).

Overfishing:

Coral reefs are very productive ecosystems and has provided food for humans for hundreds of

years. But the reefs can not always withstand the quantity of fishing, and if the fishing would

exceed a certain critical limit, the fish stocks would be reduced and the catches would then

become smaller. Fishery biologists often speak of "maximum sustainable yield" (MSY), an

expression that describes the fishing-effort that results in the largest catch. Should the fishing-

effort be smaller the fishing would be ineffective, and if it would be bigger the result would be

overfishing. However, it is difficult to give exact figures on the most effective fishing, and in

terms of fishing on coral reefs, it is probably more appropriate to be more careful and to use

a different model instead that describes the fishing-effort that results in the greatest economic

32

return. In this way, the total catch would lessen since the economic windfall from the decrease

of the fishing-effort in connection to when the fish starts to be affected, which occurs before the

MSY is reached (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

The population has increased in virtually all areas with coral reefs, and with the help of cheap

fishing gear, fishing has become more efficient. The opportunities for getting out to the reef to

fish has also increased considerably thanks to more modern boats with engines, and since you

now can freeze the fish, fishing has spread to more remote reefs and it also makes it possible to

transport the catch farther distances (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

The unsustainable fishing is today widespread over the world. There are different kinds of

overfishing e.g ecosystem-overfishing, which occurs when the fishing is affecting the entire

ecosystem. The concept of fishing down the food chain is relatively common when fishing on

coral reefs, when stocks of the popular species has reduced, the fishing is simply transferred

to the herbivorous and plankton-eating species that can be found further down the food chain.

Herbivorous fish graze on algae and inhibit their growth, but if they would disappear the algae

would be permitted to grow unhindered and would outcompete the corals, and that could lead to

that the biodiversity and productivity in the ecosystem would lessen. Another type of overfishing

occurs in areas where the number of fishermen are simply too large to allow some form of

sustainable fisheries to take place. Fishing continues nonetheless, often due to poverty, and it

may eventually lead to that the entire ecosystem is disturbed and collapses. To conserve the coral

reefs we have to exploit this production in such a way that the balance in the ecosystem is not

disrupted (korallrev.se 2012-01-20).

Unsustainable tourism

Coral reefs attract a lot of tourists and divers every year (www.korallrev.se 2012-01-25).

Tourism could offer environmental, social and economic benefits for the future if it is done

sustainable (Edgell 2006). Also the tourism provides job opportunities for many people in

different lines of business (www.korallrev.se 2012-01-25). But careless tourism is a big threat

against coral reefs. It contributes to pollution and waste releases, and the exploitation due to

tourism puts habitats, ecosystems and local infrastructure under big pressure. This is also a

33

growing problem as the tourism is the fastest growing economic sector in the entire world.

Airports and resorts are only some things put up due to tourism and often located near the marine

ecosystems, a part of coastal development bad for the coral reefs and surrounding ecosystems

such as forests, mangrove forests and seagrass beds. Tourists will also need food, contributing

to e.g. overfishing, and the sewage waste could be bad managed. Also careless activities like

fishing, boating, dropping anchors and people touching the reefs have an impact on the marine

life (wwf.panda.org 2012-01-25).

Weather – hurricanes waves or storms

Due to climate change, typhoons, hurricanes and other tropical storms may increase and

therefore would the consequent physical damage to coral reefs, other coastal ecosystems, and

coastal communities increase. But since storms are a natural disturbance to coral reef ecosystems

they rarely kill all corals and coral species should be adapted to this type of disturbance and be

able to recover following storms. (wwf.panda.org 2012-01-24).

“We have found clear evidence that coral recruitment – the regrowth of young corals – drops

sharply in the wake of a major bleaching event or a hurricane,” says lead author Dr Jennie

Mallela of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and Australian National

University. “Maintaining coral reef populations in the face of large-scale degradation depends

critically on recruitment – the ability of the corals to breed successfully and settle on the reef to

form new colonies. Our research suggests this process is severely disrupted after one of these

major events.” (Mallela 2009)

However such storms impact coral reefs in many ways, and not only bad. We know that the

shoreline benefit from the reef during storms. The reef helps to reduce the strength of waves

that accompany the storms, and decrease the impact on the shoreline. But some believe that

tropical storms benefit the actual reef ecosystem, that the hurricanes and tropical storms spread

the reef by clearing dead organisms and spreading the broken branches of coral that break off.

These pieces scatter and reproduce to start new colonies in different parts of the ocean. Other

people believe that hurricanes are much more destructive, rather than helpful. Sponges and sea

34

fans are ripped from their bases and appear on shores. Waves shatter entire communities of

coral. Sediments in the water decrease the visibility through the water and reduce the amount of

sunlight able to reach the coral; that stops the coral from growing. Storms, therefore, impact the

coral reefs in good and bad ways (www.eoearth.org 2012-01-24)

Managed marine areas in Philippines

MPAs in the Philippines

There are various marine protected areas in the Philippines, more or less similar to Apo Island

Marine Reserv and Danjugan Island Marine Reserves and Sanctuaries.

A marine protected area (MPA) is basically a zone in the ocean where human activities are

more strictly regulated than the surrounding waters. These zones get special protection from

the natives, locals, states, or the national authorities because of the natural or historic marine

resources (http://wwf.panda.org/, 2012-01-20).

Here is two understandable definitions that describes MPAs clearly –

“A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or

other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem

services and cultural values.” (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

“An area designated to protect marine ecosystems, processes, habitats, and species, which can

contribute to the restoration and replenishment of resources for social, economic, and cultural

enrichment.” (WWF)

There are many kinds of MPAs with different levels of protection. Some of them are

more strictly then others. For example, the ’’no-take’’ MPA, which also is called marine

reserves. These areas are fully protected from activities that disturb the animals and plants,

or that alters the habitat. Other MPAs only exclude some extractive activities (http://

www.protectplanetocean.org/, 2012-01-20).

35

MPAs offers a lot of benefits, both to the nature and humans. These benefits includes:

· Maintaining biodiversity and providing refuges for marine species

· Maintenance and recovery of ecological systems

· To preserve habitats considered critical for the survival and life-cycles of species,

including economically important species

· Providing areas where fish increase and are allowed to grow to their adult size

· Building resilience to protect against damaging external impacts, such as climate

changes

· Providng a means for sustainable income for local communities, trough tourism

and recreation

· Increasing the fish catches in surrounding fishing areas (because of the movement

of species from inside the MPA to outside)

· To provide for research and education, and for monitoring the environmental

effect of human activities, including the direct and indirect effects of

development. Etc.

(http://wwf.panda.org/, 2012-01-20) (http://www.protectplanetocean.org/

2012-01-20)

Less then 1% of the ocean is protected in any kind of form, and only 0,08% is marine reserves

(Fully protected).

36

Apo island

Apo Island is a volcanic island located in the Mindano Sea in the southeastern tip of Negros

Oriental in the Philippines. The total area of the island is 0,74 km2 with approximately 750

inhabitants and is surrounded almost entirely by coral reefs (Philippine Coral Reefs through

Time, 2003). After World War II the inquiry of fish grew as human population increased which

led to fishing pressure. Fishermen had to catch more fish and needed methods that would bring

them a lot of fish, this caused unsustainable dangerous fishing. The negative tip came with

introduction of four destructive fishing methods to the Philippines; Dynamite fishing, Muro-

ami fishing, Cyanide fishing and fishing with Small-mesh nets (www.ecotippingpoints.org,

2012-01-17) and the future of the fishing ground was not taken into consideration. During the

37

1970s fishermen had experienced the decline of the fishstocks on the Apo Island, they spent

longer hours and had to travel further away as far as 10 km away from the island in searching

for places that still had enough fish. In 1979 Dr. Angel Alcala and some of his colleagues at

Silliman University visited Apo Island to explain how a marine sanctuary could help to reverse

the decline of their fishery. It took three years to establish a no-fishing marine sanctuary and was

on 10 % of the fishing grounds with 450 m of the shoreline and extending 500 m from the shore

to the sanctuary site (www.ecotippingpoints.org, 2012-01-18).

It required only one person watching the sanctuary to see that no boats or ships entered the

marine protected area, this guarding task rotated among families who lived on the island.

1985 the sanctuary was overflowing with fish, fishing near the periphery of the sanctuary

was far better than before. As the change became obvious, all island families decided to

support the sanctuary and make it legally binding through the local municipal government

(www.ecotippingpoints.org, 2012-01-18). The community set up the Marine Management

Committee (MMC), no one was allowed to fish within the marine sanctuary, the fishing there

was limited to only Apo residents meaning that the community had prohibited fishing by non-

Apo residents and the use of destructive fishing gear (Russ and Alcala 1999, Alcala 2001). The

main traditional fishing methods that are allowed are hook and line, gill nets, and bamboo fish

traps.

The local fishermen of Apo Island benefited in the way that they could spend less time fishing

and still catch the same amount of fish due to the incresing number of fish and size of fish. Less

effort of getting the same amount of fish, keeping them near the island and less working hours

made it possible for the fishermen to have more leisure time, which could be spent in other

income generating activities. This money could go to funding higher education for their children

(www.ecotippingpoints.org, 2012-01-18).

There are two resorts and through turism it gives a big income source for the island. Apo Island

have a big diversity of marine animals and fish which attracts tourists. Attracting tourists

with the abilitiy of diving with snorkeling fees, boat tours and t-shirts as souvenirs are just

some of the income generating activities. The money has been put into good use; electricity

38

for the residents at night, garbage collection to main land and improvements in water supply.

One of the hotel owners has made a "scholarship" that makes it possible for more than half

of the islands's children go to high school, this scholarship is financed by the turism activities

(www.ecotippingpoints.org, 2012-01-18). This is an important success story which show the

possibilities of change through local management and can be adapted to Barangay Bulata.

39

MethodWe intend to answer our study by combining document studies, observations and interviews.

The formula of our quantitative observation was to investigate how people in Bulata lived, which

factors that had biggest impact on coral reefs, how dependent the population was on the reefs

and which alternatives there were to reduce bad impact on coral reefs. We choose to do our study

in Bulata, one of all places with coral reefs threatened by local and global activities. As we had

good contact with the organization Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation

(PRRCFI), they helped us with our study, and we could talk to expert in the organization to

increase our knowledge and improve our study. As they owned the island and marine reserv

Danjugan, next to Bulata, we emanated from there.

We tried to get a good view of the situation in the village by talking to different people, young

and old and by observing all factors we needed, to discuss the sustainable development in

Bulata with focus on coral reefs. As fishing is a major source of income in the village we

decided to interview nine fishermen, to find out which threats were the most important, how

they affected the reefs and how much they knew about the situation of the reefs. We also talked

to thirty children in a local school to investigate what they knew about the coral reefs and if

their education was good enough for them to understand what could be done to diminish the

threats to coral reefs. Many of the women in Bulata are housewives so we talked to three of

them to understand what they knew about the situation and how they thought the situation could

improve. In all interviews with the local residents we used an interpreter to get more contracted

answers.

The organization PRRCFI had some experts on the subject working for them, so we interviewed

the vice president and the island manager. They had a broad knowledge about the situation,

especially the local threats, and talked about possible solutions. Fredrik Moberg is Ph D in coral

reef ecology so we interviewed him, here in Sweden, mostly about the global perspective of

threats against coral reefs.

40

We used structured interviews since we think that the answers will have a higher validity

than answers from an unstructured. To the experts we had quantitative questions whereas the

questions for the residents were qualitative and open questions.

We saw coastal development, bad developed infrastructure and many local fishing boats as some

examples. The observation enabled us to get a better understanding of our theories and see them

in a context. To complement our study and increase our knowledge about the situation of coral

reefs we read many reports in different contexts, that in some way could be connected to our

subject.

To answer our main question formulation we mostly used our observation and local interviews.

But to be able to discuss the question and some possible interventions we had to broaden our

knowledge by reading reports, often by proficient scientists. The smaller questions we also

answered by a mix of methods to achieve as trustworthy information as possible.

41

Results (based on the field study and additional literature studies)

Here we present our results of our observation and interviews, most of the results are from our

field study combined with literature studies and here we show the mapping of Barangay Bulata

and Philippines, to get a clearer image of the situation. Then we present our interviews with

people from Bulata, school children, fishermen and housewives, and Fredrik Moberg - PhD in

coral reef ecology.

Survey of Philippines and Barangay Bulata

Geographical

Barangay Bulata is a village 150 km south of the city Bacolod in Philippines, located on the

Island Negros Occidental which is the third largest island on the Philippines. On Negros 5%

of the surface is forest and only 3 % of the original forest remains. What was once the original

forest is now agriculture (Jalandoni 2012-12-02). The village Bulata has a long coastline by the

Sulu Sea and typhoons are very common. The climate is tropical, hot and humid (globalis.se

2012-01-13 a), but the weather is changing and the rain seasons are more unstable than before

which is affecting both the farmers and the fishermen (Jalandoni 2012-12-02).

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Demographical

The official language is Filipino and English and in Bulata the dialect Hiligaynon is spoken.

Both Filipino and English is used in education, government, media etc (globalis.se 2012-01-13a).

The Philippines in general suffers from great overpopulation (DIMRS 2008). The barangay (the

village) has a total land area of 2,337 hectares including two islands, Danjugan and Agutayan

Islands. In 2000, the total population of the barangay was 4,900 and had 817 households (Marine

Science Institute, 2003). The life expectancy is 72 years (Globalis.se 2012-01-13 b).

Political

The Philippines is governed by a president who is head of state, govern, and commander of the

armed forces (globalis.se 2012-01-13 a). Every village has a own leader who is also selected

democratically and controls local decisions (Jalandoni 2012-10-02).

Economical

Many workers in Bulata live in a poverty level at 50 pesos (10 SEK) a day.

Due to the long coastline, fishing is a major livelihood here, the nearby coral reefs provide

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valuable resources to the majority of the residents. Farming is another primary source of income,

the mostly produced crops are rice, cassava, coconut and corn (Sherwood 2003). The crops are

then mostly exported to for instance Bacolod (Lontes 2004).

Barangay Bulata has a mining industry which emits harmful metals such as copper and mercury

into the water (DIMRS, 2008). The village does not have a long time facility for non-degradable

waste but organic waste mostly becomes food for pigs. The unorganic waste gets burned or

buried (DIMRS, 2008). The houses are made out of cement or bamboo with palm leafs as roof

(DIMRS, 2008). Fish is an important source of protein and the food is based on seafood. More

than 10 percent of the population in Philippines live and work abroad and the money they send

home is a tenth of gross domestic product (GDP) (globalis.se 2012-01-13 a).

Barangay Bulata also has the most developed resort in the area, partly due to the marine life.

The coastline in Bulata is surrounded by coral reefs, they have suffered great damage through

siltation, overfishing and port construction, etc. Mangroves along the shore have also been

harmed due to port construction etc. (Sherwood 2003). The village has two elementary schools,

no hospitals, doctors or dentists, only medical clinics with health care workers and midwives.

(Sherwood 2003). “Residents in Bulata have access to portable water sources and electricity,

but the majority of households rely on kerosene as lighting fuel.” (Sherwood 2003). People here

usually do not have cars but get around with tricycles.

Historical

The gold and copper mines east of Sipalay began in the mid-1980s, to spiral deeper into financial

difficulties. As a result, many of the miners who had been made redundant were forced to

change their job and become fishermen. However, in their desperate struggle to make a living,

the thoughtless use of dynamite and cyanide in their fishing caused enormous damage to the

underwater world round the coast. Danjugan Island was especially badly hit by this wanton

destruction (travelphil.com 2012-01-16).

Cultural

More than 90 % of the philippine population are christians (globalis.se 2012-01-13 a), birth

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control is forbidden. We did not see a single working woman, all the women we spoke to in the

village were housewife's.

Fishing methods

The fishing is in small scale, and the local fishermen do not have big boats enough for deeper

water and the bigger commercial fishing forces them to fish in the reefs. ”They got no means

to protecting their own fishing grounds from invasive trawlers who use light to lure fish away

from the coastal zone. A fishermen here can spend a day fishing and only return with 3-4 fishes.”

(Philippine Reef and Rainforest project, 1996.) The majority of the fishermen do not have

motorized boats, and a typical fishing boat would carry around 2-4 persons. The Fishing starts at

dawn and continues until night time. Fishing grounds are located in front of the village less than

2 km, from Danjugan Island (on the reserve fishing is not permitted). The year round catch is

mostly reef fishes and pelagic fishes such as tunas and jacks and occasionally octopus and squid.

The most common fishing techniques are gill nets (63%), hook and line (28%), spearfishing

(8%) and fish traps (1%). The average catch per fisherman is around 1-3 kilos per day. When

they are not fishing, most of them have no other source of income while others would resort to

farming, construction work, working as hired labor and retail stores (Marine Science Institute,

2003).

Gillnet is a fishing method where fishes try to swim through deliberately sized mesh openings

in a net but are unable to squeeze through swimming forward. Once in this position, they are

prevented from backing out due to the tendency for their gills to become caught. This effectively

captures them until they are removed by the fishermen (http://www.allatsea.net/ 2012-01-19)

Hook and line fishing can be used both from the shore and from small boats. Often the the

fishing is done with a handline, but some bigger boats has a rod and wheel.

One problem of illegal fishing methods in Bulata is compressor fishing. The fishermen has

a compressor on their boat, which enables them to breath under water for a long time. This

technique is not only very dangerous it is illegal. This method makes it possible for fishermen to

fish in MPAs (marine protected areas) without being noticed since they have long hoses attached

45

to the compressor on the boat. The boat can be tied outside the MPA while the fishermen

swim to MPA. From the surface you can’t see that the fishermen is actually fishing in the

protected area. They often fish at night when the fish sleep and since they have the hoses and the

compressor they can be under water for a very long time without being forced to get up to the

surface for air, which enables them to fish unlimited (Jalandoni 2012-12-02).

Interview with fishermen

We interviewed nine fishermen individually, on Danjugan Island and in Barangay Bulata, and

also three of their wives (a group interview).

1. Renoli Ville – fisherman and employee on DIMRS (Danjugan Island Marine Reserve and

Sanctuaries)

2. Joene Fardillo – fisherman and employee on DIMRS

3. Simeon Barcenas – fisherman and employee on DIMRS

4. Pablito Casagan – boatman on DIMRS, used to be a fisherman

5. Federico Flores – fisherman in Bulata

6. Romeo Cabuguas – fisherman in Bulata

7. Andrew Cabuguas – fisherman in Bulata

8. Alberto Gautaloo – fisherman in Bulata

9. Larry Mahusay – fisherman in Bulata

10. Anna Maria Legaje – housewife

11. Marlyn Gantalao – housewife

12. Virgie Cañiete – housewife

When did you start fishing?

At the age of: 10, 20, 10, 8, 10, 10, 10, 12 and 30

What do you know about coral reefs?

Corals are living stones or animals and the reefs are important habitat for fish (1, 5, 6, 7, 8,

9). Joene Pardills, a fisherman who started fishing at the age of 10, says that the reefs provide

him with food and protect the coast against typhoons. He is aware of that coral reefs are linked

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with other ecosystems. The three wives of the fishermen said that the water gives oxygen to the

organisms.

How are you affected by the reefs?

Without the coral reefs there will be no fish for us to catch (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). The wives

say that they only would be beggars if there were no reefs. The corals also attract tourists,

which is good and a source of income. As long as the tourists do not “pull out the reefs” all kind

of tourism is good say the wives. (When we asked them if big hotels and exploitation due to

tourism were bad they said that they didn’t think so. It would give them income.) We are proud

of our community and to show it to tourists.

How do you think you affect the reefs?

Fishing of different kinds affects the reefs in various ways. Simeon Bakclenas stopped fishing

for a while because he felt bad (about) fishing too much. Two fishermen say they avoid fishing

in MPAs (1, 3). We asked Renoli if MPAs didn’t make it harder for him to fish and if it affects

him personally in a bad way. He answered that he would get less fish today but tomorrow he

would get more. MPAs are a good long-term solution and laws are important.

What is threatening the coral reefs?

Overfishing (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9), big industrial fishing (1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) and destructive

fishing methods (1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) are the main threats according to the fishermen. Big

industrial boats can’t come too close to the shore, but instead they lure out the fish to deeper

water with lamps at night. The catch an industrial boat gets in one day could take about a

month for the local fishermen to catch. Compressor (1), cyanide (1) and using driftnets (1, 4)

are methods of fishing with bad impact on the reefs. Other threats mentioned in the interviews:

Crown of thorns (a starfish) (5, 8, 10, 12), trash (6, 8, 9), anchoring (3, 4, 7, 9, 11) bad weather

(10, 11, 12), overpopulation (2), agriculture (2), bad education (3) and toxic poisons (1). Some

of them have seen coral bleaching, they think it may be because of lack of sunlight and salt in

the water (1, 5, 6, 8, 9). “Small scale fishing does not contribute to overfishing (5, 6, 7, 8, 9).” If

somebody would be fishing illegally, usually no other fishermen would report that (3).

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How is your waste managed?

We just elected a new major who has a passion for the environment and we are learning how to

manage our waste better. This is also due to a governmental implementation and we can compost

and segregate most of our waste now.

How do you fish?

We use driftnets, spear fishing and hooking lines (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). “Before I used cyanide

from a root crop and put it directly on the reefs to catch the fish. We don’t do it anymore; we

stopped because it is illegal and I was afraid of being caught and to poison myself” says Simeon

Bakclenas. Others also used illegal fishing methods before but stopped doing it (1,3). We sell

the fish in the mainland, local, to private persons or to stores. We also eat some of the catch

ourselves (2,3). It could be hard to see how the fish are caught, and the price would be the same

(2,10,11) The wives talk about the tail of the fish; if it is soft the fish has been caught illegal, but

we did not understand how that worked.

The situation nowadays compared to before?

There were more fish before, due to developed industrial fishing (1). Before the fishing was

more sustainable and there were also more corals with more colours. Now the coral reefs are

more damaged and some species you earlier could buy in the local market have been reduced or

have disappeared (2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12).

Interview with school children

We went to a local school in Barangay Bulata, Bulata National High School, where we met 30

children aged 13-16. We divided them into six groups with five children in each group and gave

them four questions about coral reefs to answer. We have here resumed the answers they wrote

down.

What do you know about coral reefs?

Coral reefs serve as the habitat for some fish and marine life, where they get protection from

predators and can develop their spawns. One group also mentioned that corals are animals.

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What do you get to learn about them in school?

We need to protect and conserve the coral reefs. Almost every group meant that it is important

mainly to maintain the fish and only one group talked about the reefs’ importance to all living

things and that we all get benefits from them. Another group said that the reefs support the

balance within marine ecosystems.

What is threatening the coral reefs?

The main threats are destructive fishing methods like dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and

muro-ami fishing. Also throwing waste and garbage in the ocean. Human improper activities

were mentioned as a threat by one group, and another group talked about abusing the reefs with

the purpose to earn money.

Why is it important to conserve the coral reefs?

They are important to the marine creatures and provide livelihood to many people. They also

have an esthetical value.

Interview with Fredrik Moberg - Ph D in coral reef ecology, Stockholm Resilience centre

What and how would a successful management contain?

To create a successful management you have to take into consideration the people living in the

area and not only the biology. Local people also have more knowledge about the specific area

and important information. They will need to have their livelihood secured and also alternative

livelihood if the management should be successful and sustainable. You could conserve many

small areas to make it easier for fishermen to accept conservation. The fishes will emerge from

the protected reef anyway and improve the habitat in unprotected areas. It is also important

to understand the threats from land activities that also have a large impact on the marine life.

Industrial fishing contributes to a big part of the overfishing and it is unfortunately rather

common. An example of that problem is that the European Union has subsidized fishing fleets

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that destroy the possibilities of local management as they trawl and fish outside the shore.

How could we link together local solutions to give them a global role?

Many local initiatives feel that what they do does not matter in a global context. There are

still global threats that are not caused by local communities. It is good to link together local

organizations and initiatives to have a greater influence on global scale, like in climate

negotiations. The initiatives should show that what they are doing to spread their ideas and learn

from each other. Coral guardians, the Swedish initiative by scientists from Stockholm Resilience

Centre and a Swedish musician, highlights local initiatives and try to make sure that they meet

each other.

What should global governance contain to play a significant role in conserving the coral reefs?

Global threats like global warming, ocean acidification and maybe overfishing must be solved in

a global or national level, like institutions and rules that have local impact and is applied local.

Other problems and threats could be solved more local. If we don’t solve global problems local

management is kind of done in vain. In an individual level you could vote on political leaders

that care for the environment and join local NGOs (none governmental organizations). The

management activities could start at a local level to develop to a regional level and then to a

global. It is easier to take action in something near you.

If most of the reefs are lost, are there new solutions, like growing new reefs or what can be done

in worst-case scenario?

There are possibilities to restore destroyed reefs and reconstruct them in an artificial way. Also

helping corals with the calcifying process are discussed as they could have problems with

starting to grow. There have also been discussed to transplant reefs, e.g. species adapted to

warmer water could be moved to other reefs to strengthen their resilience and resistance to rising

sea temperatures. This can influence the balance in local ecosystems but you should bring in

similar species and do it in a sensible manner. Doing things outside the box may seem quite

radical but could be a good solution in worst-case scenarios. But before you restore reefs you

have to improve the conditions for the reefs. If other threats like for instance ocean acidification

and deforestation are still there, new reefs could still be destroyed. Improving livelihood for local

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people is also important.

Can you tell us something about coral guardians?

The purpose is to combine science and music and doing concerts and science seminars around

the world. This is to bring together local solutions and help them interact with each other.

What could people in other countries do to prevent the loss of the reefs?

We could influence global threats, and richer countries are the ones, most responsible for carbon

dioxide emissions. Individual action could be to vote on other leaders, eat ecological or labelled

fish and take part in local organizations. Responsible tourism is also important. It could be

difficult to know how and what to consume and therefore apps on smartphones or facebook

functions could be part of the solutions as we need help as consumers. This could have influence

on international levels.

Local actions

Danjugan sanctuary

Danjugan is a small island located just 3 km outside the village Barangay Bulata, and is

surrounded by a fringing coral reef. The island is a now a sanctuary and part of it’s coral reefs

are MPAs (marine protected areas) and SMAs (special management areas) thanks to PRRCFI

(the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation Incorporation) and Coral Cay

Conseravtion Ltd. (CCC). PRRCFI is a local organisation that was founded 1994 by Gerardo

Ledesma, a local diver who wanted to conserve the seven different ecosystems that the island

offered: Limestone, forest, beach, mangrove, seagrass beds, coral reefs and the ocean (prrcf.org

2012-01-16b).

The island offer tourists to come and visit, one can dive among the coral reefs, take hikes to e.g a

bat cave, go bird watching and much more. Education camp for children and teachers also takes

place here. Danjugan has received the award Best Managed Reef for 2002 by PhilReefs, DA and

DENR.

PRRCFI is a non-stock, nonprofit corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange

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Commission in the Philippines (prrcf.org 2012-01-16a). Gerardo Ledesma and Jay Jalandoni are

in charge of the PRRCFI organisation. There are also smaller projects within this organisation

e.g DINTP and DEEP. PRRCFIs mission is “to ensure the long-term conservation of the marine

and terrestrial environment in the Philippines through education and poverty alleviation”

(prrcf.org 2012-01-16a). Hence the DEEP project, whose main purpose is to educate students

about environmental issues. According to Jay Jalondani a big problem in preserving the reefs is

the lack of education among local citizens. Fishermen have to fish for their livelihood and may

not understand that it will influence the future fish stocks if they overfish today. The education

project brings students from many different schools around Negros Island to special camps on

Danjugan Island where they are taught about the complexity of ecosystems such as coral reefs.

Recently they have also started a teachers’ camp on the island, with the vision that the teachers

will spread their knowledge to the students and schools. Studies have shown that the support for

the MPA increased with the increasing levels of education in Barangay Bulata (Lizares 2011-12-

02).

Another project of PRRCFI is a tourism project, where they take in guests to the island. They

have a limited amount of tourists there at the same time and they get to live in small mudhouses

next to the shore. It is forbidden to bring corals as souveniers, throw waste in the nature or break

the reefs.

Discussion/ConclusionToday 88 percent of Southeast Asia's coral reefs are threatened (korallrev.se 2012-01-30), and

nearly half of these endangered coral reefs are under serious threat from human activities. How

can we curb the threats that are destroying the world's most magnificent seas? Or more specific,

how can residents in Barangay Bulata manage the nearby reefs in a sustainable way? To

fully answer this we have to take both economical and social as well as ecological aspects into

account but also discuss it in different levels, local, regional and global. As for the development

of the coastal zone you can apply a series of measures to minimize impacts on the marine

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environment. Through careful planning you can prevent to dredge or build around precious coral

reefs.

Our theoretical framework shows significant theories in our study. Taking them into account

we could get a deeper understanding of what needs to be done to conserve coral reefs. To begin

we have the ecological theories. Coral reefs are really complex systems and they have always

been exposed to natural disturbances that also have been an improving factor as coral reefs

evolve and adapt to changes. But the past years they have been exposed to human disturbances

which threaten the survival of these marine ecosystems. Their resilience is being reduced,

mostly because of increasing disturbances and reduced resilience might lead to reaching a

tipping point. Imagine pushing a button many times without consequences but then pushing it

one more time could lead to devastating the ecosystem.

Also the connection between coral reefs and other ecosystems, such as seascapes, is important so

disturbances affecting surrounding ecosystems also need to be reduced. This is important in the

resident of Bulata, and therefore we will also discuss for instance agriculture.

If coral reefs reach a tipping point their ability of delivering services or goods to humans could

be severely reduced, and coastal communities surrounded by coral reefs are in many cases

dependent on their goods and services. And this is how social theories are integrated to our

study. As we use development theories as an important pillar in our study we discuss factors that

can improve the livelihood of poor people living in Barangay Bulata, and we investigate what

can be done to give them the possibility of economical and social development.

Our focus lies on how local communities can preserve their coral reefs. The conservation of

coral reefs is also benefiting the entire ocean ecosystem, and then in turn almost every other

ecosystem. Since all ecosystems on earth are related and interdependent on each other, not only

on small scale but also in a global context.

As written in the theoretical framework, management could take place in different levels as

well as the threats. Climate change has an impact on marine ecosystems which do not only

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effect ecological system, but also social, economical and political implications. Global issues

concerning coral reefs cause loss of marine biodiversity and effects livelihoods on a local

scale (Galaz et al. 2009). We discuss initiatives from all levels. Local actions need to be done

by the local population of Bulata itself, to decrease the risk of abusing the population and

overexploitating the village, but also international actions will be essential to secure the future of

all coral reefs.

We believe that it is important to prevent reefs from being destroyed, before they reach a

tipping point, as dealing with the consequences of destroyed coral reefs it could be much more

difficult. When the focus is laid on the causes we can prevent the costs of restoring it, even

though it may not go back to its former balance. A damaged reef will affect the local residents

socially and economically but also ecologically as there is a loss of ecosystem services. In a long

term perspective dealing with the consequences will be more expensive.

What causes deterioration of reefs is not only local impacts but regional and global which is

problematic and will be discussed later. Fredrik Moberg, PhD in coral reef ecology, points out

the importance of dealing with big threats such as global warming. If external conditions are not

improving, local management or restoring coral reefs would be done in vain. To finance projects

that would try to replant coral reefs in the sea, which is unbalanced, suffering from increasing

temperature or low resilience due to lack of biodiversity, is a waste of money. Local people are

dependent on coral reefs and there must be more focus on what can be done to prevent the loss of

coral reefs.

All of our theories; ecological, social or economic, are connected to sustainable development.

The concept of sustainable development is to secure future generations possibility to satisfy

their needs and the humankind is central. Per Olsson a scientist at Stockholm resilience center

means that a reef does not care if it is algae dominated or not, but to humans it will be important

to maintain the original functions of the reef. To secure an economical stable society we need to

maintain ecological balance. But does the coral reefs exist only to benefit humans or does it have

an intrinsic value? To investigate how to create a sustainable development in Bulata we discuss

the problem in different levels. How can local, regional and global scales be linked together?

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Sustainable development is dependent on not exceeding the planetary boundaries, however since

humans now are the biggest influencing factor on earth it becomes harder to stay within these

limits.

UN has developed 8 millennium goals to improve the lives of poor people. One of the goals is

to secure a sustainable development. A key role to fulfill this goal is to secure a healthy ocean

as well as a balanced agriculture. Another goal is to decrease the poverty and hunger. In our

discussion we expire from the significant millennium goals. (http://www.millenniemalen.nu/

2012-02-13).

Globalization has increased trade, imports and exports of food and raw materials, the number of

trading partners and the distance between production and consumption has increased. But global

trade is not a problem in itself, the problem is that we (consumers, policy makers and producers)

are not aware of how our choices affect ecosystems both nationally and internationally. One of

the planetary boundaries that we have already exceeded is the biodiversity loss, partly due to the

decrease of important ecosystems, deforestation or unsustainable agriculture.

Starting a discussion of local arrangements to improve the situation of the coral reefs surrounding Bulata

The Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry sector is accounted for the 20 % of the total GDP of

Philippines. (www.philippineswto.org 2012-02-18)

As mentioned in the results, agriculture and farming are also major sources of income to

the population in Barangay Bulata (except fishing). We have also seen the threats with e.g.

deforestation and emission of toxic substances due to agriculture and therefore it is important

to investigate how sustainable agriculture could be done. A recently published report from UN

shows that using ecological farming can double the food production within ten years for small-

scale farmers (De Shutter 2010).

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Jay Jalandoni, the vice president of PRRCFI (Philippines Reef and Rainforest Conservation

Foundation Incorporated) has an organic farm (in the city Bacolod on Negros Island) where

worms decompose soil to make it nutrient rich, so the soil becomes organically fertilized. This

could be applied in the village of Bulata, as the conditions of farming there are probably similar

to Jay’s farm, because they are quite near each other (158 kilometres).

Adding trees to the agriculture could contribute to erosion control and keep nutrients in the

soil, and there will be reduced nutrient in the coral reefs ecosystems (De Shutter 2010). Using

compost and animal slop could also improve the farming in an organic way, and people will also

get rid of some waste (Bowden 2003).

More sustainable farming could also give an alternative livelihood for the population,

instead of contribute to overfishing of the coastal zone. By using these methods of farming,

their situation could hopefully improve, as they probably would get more food, the cultivated

land could last longer and they would not need to use expensive fertilizers. Exporting some of

the crops could be done but it is important that the population could get advantage from their

own farming. The mentioned alternative ways of farming would reduce the eutrophication of the

seas, improving the situation of coral reefs. Another planetary boundary that we already have

exceeded is the emission of nitrogen and phosphorous, by practising more sustainable farming

and use less chemical fertilizers the emissions could decrease.

Deforestation will also contribute to reduced resilience in societies to cope with storms or

floods. 2004 the president of Philippines, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, commanded the police and

military to stop illegal deforestation as it kills a lot of people due to floodgates and landslides

(Brown 2008). Last year, in december 2011, a typhoon killed hundreds of people in Philippines,

and the consequences were exacerbated by deforestation and increased sedimentation

(www.bbc.co.uk 2012-02-14).

Barangay Bulata has a mining industry which emits harmful metals such as mercury and

copper into the water. Sipalay City (near Bulata) has been the copper belt of Southern Phillipines

for more than five decade, the mining of copper transformed Sipalay to a city. The mining

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production of copper in Philippines has increased by 240 % from 2006 to 2010, year 2010 they

produced 58 412 tonnes of copper (World Mineral Production, 2012) as a result of increasing

demands of copper and nickel. Water treatment systems can reduce emissions of inorganic

nutrients in the sea but still abandoned and inactive mines (AIMs) pollute water. Copper is often

found in river sediment and is toxic to fish and most aquatic plants. As copper easily dissolves

in water it is more available for uptake by living organisms this could eventually lead to tipping

points and change the coral reefs into algae-dominated reefs. Both mangroves and corals can

bind some of the metals, but it is not good for them and their resilience is reduced. Many people

depend on the livelihood of working in the mine, and if shutting it down they would have to do

get their income elsewhere. Even though copper has damaging effects on corals none of the

people that we interviewed pointed out copper emission as a big threat.

Pollution in the sea can also be regulated. The regulation can be managed by monitoring the

concentration of hydrocarbon in the water and thus detect the emission. These emissions into the

sea are a global threat, so how can we solve these global problems locally?

Something that is increasing today, due to the modern development of industry is the emission

of waste and sewage. This is a local threat (which becomes global) to corals and other marine

environments where the infrastructure is built along the coast and nearby the reefs. Tourism is

a great opportunity for local incomes, and can contribute to increased protection of the coral

reefs, but there are downsides. Some tourist resorts empty their waste and sewage directly into

water surrounding coral reefs. This can lead to an overgrowth of algae since the level of nitrogen

increases. Algae that grow on top of the corals can block the sunlight, which is vital for the

corals survival.

We interviewed people in Barangay Bulata about the waste and how it is managed, and we

also wondered if the people could influence the politicians. They told us that the newly elected

major had a great passion for the environment, which has lead to a better managed of the waste

since a new governmental implementation. They now compost mostly of their waste in an

organic way and segregate it.

This action is a very simple solution which ensure that one part of the human impact on the

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nature decreases.

According to a hotel owner in Xcalak, Mexico, that one of us interviewed, the hard part is not

to live sustainable, but to change from an unsustainable living to a sustainable living. People

rather prefer comfort then to think in a long-term perspective, even though their well being

lifestyle would not be harmed significantly. It is easy to install some nature friendly ways of

living, but it is hard to change the attitude of the people. For example, if people are traveling,

they want a fresh toilet that they can flush in their hotel rooms, instead of a composting toilet.

The Hotel used septic tank systems to contain their waste and sewage, which they emptied every

one or two year. They were aware of that some left over water was leaching in to the ground and

eventually out to the ocean, which makes a small impact, but barely notable. But if there’s and

over exploited beach with loads of hotels, the impact surely will be notable after some time.

In the results of the observation in Bulata we mentioned that many workers in the village live in

a poverty level at 50 pesos a day. To create a sustainable situation in the village, poor people

should be able to improve their livelihood. As discussed under the headline Development

Theories, everybody has the right to an economic and social development. The supply of energy

and electricity will be necessary to reduce poverty, improve the global health and minimize the

consequences of climate change, says Ban Ki-moon, the general secretary of UN (www.fn.se

2012-02-05). Energy supply could help people cook, improve sanity and information-flow and

much more. But at the same time, the emissions of greenhouse gases are in many cases caused

by energy supply (together with other factors such as deforestation or agriculture), mentioned

under the headline Ecological Disturbances. These emissions contribute to the climate change,

and the poorer countries are affected a lot by the consequences of climate change, discussed

earlier in the report. So, how could the energy supply avoid contributing to the climate change

that will worsen the situation of the poor?

Energy from biomass, like using wood to cook, is a problem as it contributes to deforestation

and using fossil fuel is not a sustainable alternative either as both of the sources cause carbon

dioxide emissions. There is also hydroelectric power, using the energy of waves and making

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it into electrical energy. This does not contribute to emissions of greenhouse gases (only when

built) but it disturbs a lot of the marine life (Eklund 2009b).

To meet the increasing need of energy supply in Bulata (and the rest of the world), renewable

energy sources have to be used if sustainable development is to be achieved. In our observation

on Danjugan Island we were told that all the electricity used on the island came from its own

solar cells. As the weather seemed enough sunny to use solar power we thought it might be

possible for people in Barangay Bulata to use it. Danjugan has used solar energy for ten years,

but it is expensive to install, too expensive for households in Bulata, and it only powers a few

light bulbs and nothing else. Today people in Bulata get their power from a local grid, but mostly

from kerosene fuel. They are supposed to use cheap geothermal energy but national laws make

it more expensive (Jalandoni 2011-12-02). Many parts of the Philippines have good potential for

using wind and solar energy, but one big problem is the costs. Maybe the government or public

can see profit in that kind of business and it could create job opportunities (www.mb.com.ph

2012-02-05). But unfortunately it could also be a threat that contributes to exploitation, and

workers from outside the society of Bulata could do the jobs, not taking into account the need of

the population.

Building new sources of renewable energy would be best if the initiative came from the people

living in the area of interest and if they could find not too expensive alternatives. To keep it

sustainable and avoiding overexploitation it would probably be good to do it on a small-scale

level.

Another example of a measurement is the introduction of small fish sanctuaries and to get local

people to support themselves in other economy generating activities than fishing. As in the

example of Apo Islands the local people had one guard watching the marine protected area, this

task rotated among the families. Rules were eventually established by the fishermen as they saw

the benefit of having a MPA. Noticing improvements in a short term period encourages their

involvement in mangament which is necessary for ongoing local sustainable development. Elinor

Ostrom, a professor in political science has in her studies summed up that most common grounds

are best managed by rules that local-people have agreed on, that also have punishment for those

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who trespass them. Local people must be involved and it will be more effective, cheaper as rules

are better adapted to local socio-economic conditions. A common interest within the local-people

must exist so that the optimal solution can be achieved.

Ostrom means that the assumption that all fishermen are unreliable due to “tragedy of the

commons” is completely wrong (Ostrom 2006). The concept means that the ocean and the

fish belongs to everyone and therefore at the same time no one. This is a linchpin in all fishing

cultures It was Garret Hardin, professor in human Ecology at the university UCLA in California,

who coined the expression in the magazine Science. His arguments was in the beginning

focused on e.g the problem surrounding the population explosion but have been highlighted

as a illustration to why fishermen, who are in fact completely dependent on fish resources, yet

again and again fish down stocks to - and past the limit of - collapse and regularly far beneath the

most economically advantageous size of the "spawning stock biomass" (the number of sexually

mature fish), that is that would give the greatest possible return for everyone. 2003 there was a

debate within the EU commision whether they should prohibit silver eel fishing or not. Sweden

argued that there was not any point in stopping the fishing unless all other countries did so too.

Most fish do not respect nation boundaries so there is a point in the argument, and it can be heard

everywhere “if I do not do this then somebody else will”. The result of this is that the countries

with the lowest ambition to take care of the stocks and who thinks the least of the future, it is

also them that sets the level while they who voluntarily refrain from fishing seldom get any other

profit than to see someone else make profit (Lövin 2007).

The concept of tragedy of the commons does not only apply on fishing but also emissions of eg

green house gases. If industries in a country emits pollutants that destroys the environment and

that has devastating affects on the climate it will affect all other countries. Climate change is a

transnational problem and does not take into account nations borders.

Ostrom's theory of how common grounds should be governed, argues that trust is the key

concept. She is skeptical to both government control and private initiatives, she emphasizes

instead that the change must come from within the business. Clear rules and clear responsibilities

are effective conflict resolution mechanisms, also interim points are positive, while too many

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users, heterogeneous groups and poverty can hinder collaboration (Ostrom 2006).

Many biologist over the world say that at least 30-40 % of the sea should be marine protected

areas (Lövin 2008), the no-fishing MPAs have a high number of individuals/biodiversity

among the flora and fauna/biomass/fish density even though more of these no-fishing MPAs are

constructed where there is no guarantee that the ecosystem will recover. Per Olsson lifts up the

importance of sharing and spreading success stories as it can trigger initiatives in other villages.

In the interview with Jay Jalandoni he suggested fishing seasons as a solution to prevent

overfishing. Either forbidding fishing a month or specific days of the month or limiting fishing

for certain hours of the day. This would not have a big effect if it is done locally because the

industrial fishing boats would still catch the same amount of fish that a local fisherman gets in

one month in one day. Fishing seasons might need to be applied in a larger scale, so it does not

effect only local people and their livelihood. Industrial fishing boats are better equipped, e.g do

they have advanced technology for finding right spots and for maximizing the outcome.

What has to be discussed is how rules are applied in a global context. As the sea and the fish

are not private but common, countries have to negotiate and agree on rules and we have learned

from the Kyotoprotocoll that these solutions/laws take a lot of time to be agreed on and there are

many stakeholders that affect the final result that have become so compromised that there will

not be any positive biological effect. The fishing must be regulated and some governments have

decided to incorporate IFQs, individual fishing quotas, functioning in the way that a specific

quantity of fish is allowed to be caught. What should then be taken into consideration?

Often fish is being caught in different stages of their life which can affect the reproduction if the

fish in a mature state is being overfished, or even fished in the breeding season, fish in the wrong

size. Species or fish that already have a filled quota gets dumped in the sea and does not survive

the harsh handling of the captured fish. When the fishing quotas are greater than the actual

biomass in the ocean it creates a big fishing pressure that can get some fish species extincted,

therefore we do not see fishing quotas as a sustainable solution. Today there is a debate whether

it is a good idea to sell and buy quotas, as a way for countries to earn money on maintaining the

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environment. Ellen Bruno does not see that the fish stocks would benefit from this. She means

that the fish stocks does not care whether it is caught by a philippino company or a European

company, and the only thing that the selling of quotas does is to redistribute the fishing, the

amount of fishing is still the same.

If rules are made by local people the coral reefs can still be abused by industrial fishing boats

that among other methods practise the compressing fishing method.

Also “fish-farming” or aquaculture could be discussed, but would it be a sustainable solution?

Much fish in a narrow space could easily spread diseases or pests among the fish and will also

affect the savage fish stocks. Farming large predator fishes may require smaller fish to feed them

with, that could be used as food directly instead. Isabella Lövin, a cultural journalist, writes in

her book “Tyst hav” (2007a) that aquaculture can be a severe threat to savage fish stocks.

Aquaculture could imply harvesting of mangroves to cultivate e.g. giant tiger prawns which

is a big threat to coral reefs and surrounding ecosystems. Seaweed is the major cultivated

aquaculture species in Philippines and might be a better alternative as it is lower down in the

food chain (www.fao.org 2012-02-14). But if aquaculture would be used in Bulata it has to be

done carefully and you would have to reduce the risk of over-exploitation or disturbance to the

marine environment as much as possible.

Fishing methods also need to be sustainable, and of course illegal methods, like compressor

or cyanide fishing, need to be diminished to conserve coral reefs. Later we are going to discuss

how to control or make sure that no illegal methods are used, but now: which method of fishing

could be used in Bulata to sustain the catches? According to our interviews with fishermen and

experts from the organizations, hook and line fishing or using nets with not to small holes (so

fish that are not yet sexually mature and younger are not catched) are sustainable methods, also

spearfishing is a legal method that might be sustainable.

Tourism, a threat or an opportunity? Careless tourism could, as we wrote earlier, be a big

threat to the coral reefs. The risk of coastal exploitation could be a major threat when it destroys

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natural habitats. The women in Bulata said that they did not think that big hotels or resorts would

be a problem, it would only give them income. Perhaps they did not know how exploitation due

to tourism could effect the coral reefs. Coral reefs could attract a lot of tourists but not if they are

destroyed, so sustainable tourism could in fact bring in more income, long-term thinking.

Tourism is one of the fastest growing economic sector in the world and is a primary source

of income in many developing countries. Introduction of MPAs (marine protected areas)

would surely attract a lot of people, whether they are divers that look forward to see a massive

biodiversity, or people that are in to sport fishing that would like to catch a full-grown grouper

fish. The establishment of marine protected areas is a great opportunity to broaden the local

economic options. In addition to the increasing local income, the country itself will get an

increased income due to the visitors from abroad. If the economy increases in a country, one can

also expand the infrastructure and improve health care, which leads to a more well being society.

However, you have to make sure that the MPA is managed correctly and that it actually is

working properly and does not affect the ecosystem in an adverse manner. If so, the tourism will

decrease. It is also important to keep the development in a sustainable level. An inappropriate

development could in worst case destroy the corals and other marine systems, since they

are very vulnerable to rapid changes. Also it is not cheap to have a marine protected area.

PRRCFI who organized the MPA, had to buy Danjugan Island with the help of CCC (Coral Cay

Conservation).

Successful ecotourism should balance the number of visitors with the environment’s capacity

argues Sr. PhD David Edgell in his book Managing Sustainable Tourism (2006b). He also means

that tourism done in a sustainable way could effectively enrich and enhance the environment.

The relationship between all parts (the host community, tourists, business, attractions and

evironment) should be balanced as it is complex and symbiotic (Edgell 2006c).

On Danjugan Island we saw them host tourists in a sustainable way (see results). Also in

Bulata small tourism projects could be done, similar to Danjugan Island. They could build small

mudhouses for the tourists to live in, limit the amount of visitors and have rules to maintain the

reefs. To make this “profitable” for the population they should develop it themselves, so that

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they could get the jobs that give them alternative livelihoods. One problem might be that they do

not have education good enough to run a business like this. Many of the older people living in

the area could not speak English.

There already is a tourist resort in Bulata, called Punta Bulata that is not very big. Maybe more

tourists could be brought to the village but only if done carefully!

We also have to reduce the local threats trough educating local people and get them e.g. to

use other fishing methods. A broader education would not only get the children to understand

that e.g destructive fishing methods is only going to make it harder for them in the future but

a good education could also make them passionate about the reefs and making the children a

part of the solution. In our observation and interviews with the school children we discovered

that they had a broad knowledge about coral reefs, the problem was not lack of education, but

lack of engagement and the will to take action to secure the future of the reefs. We think that

the problem with lack of engagement does not only apply on children here, on the contrary we

think this problem is globally. Even tough people know about global warming and the increasing

speed of biodiversity loss, the development is still going the same way and little is changing. A

good education is the foundation for change but how can we get people to act?

DEEP, a local organisation in the Philippines has developed an education program with the

intention to spread knowledge to teachers and school children on Negros Island. This is a great

initiative and a big step in preserving the coral reefs but one problem is that it mostly includes

the future generations and that could take too long time. However the teachers in DEEP thinks

that the children naturally will spread their knowledge to their friends and family. DEEP has a

learning center on Danjugan Island were children is allowed to snorkel, and learn about the reefs

in a fun way, this will hopefully get the children passionate and engaged about the development

of them. Some of the older children who attended the camp are now engaged in PRRCFI, for

instance Nikki Lizares, who is the spokeswomen of DEEP.

It seemed like the children in Bulata National High School only knew simple facts about the

reefs. The children were in the ages between 13 and 16, and we noticed that they were not used

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to discussions in groups. We think that if they were older they could have talked more freely

and not just line up the facts. An interdisciplinary education with focus on solutions were the

children can become a part of the solution where they can feel important and not only learn about

tedeius facts about corals would be great.

Nikki Lizares wanted to make preventive actions instead of just attacking the consequence of

the problem. For instance: instead of only establishing survaillance and laws that only focus on

the consequence you can prevent the cause, and try to understand e.g why people feel that they

need to fish with destructive fishing methods. Of course is survaillance and laws are necessary

today but it should not be the only, and primary solution. The increasing population growth in

the Phililippines is putting extra pressure on the education system. Only 2,8 % of the GDP is

spent on education (Sweden is spendig approx. 7 % to comapare)(globalis.se 2012-02-03). Jay

Jalondani, vice president of PRRCFI thinks that the problem lies in the politic. A politician, can

if he/she is selected sit as president for, at most 9 years. And to spend much money on education

is not attractive, since it usually takes longer than that to see the results. In Bulata there were two

elementary/high schools but the opportunity to get a higher education does not exist.

The swedish musician Anders Paulsson and Mathias Walin initiated Coral Guardians as a

project where the intention was to combine cultural activities and scientific exchange to support

organizations and educational centers that are committed to the conservation of the world’s coral

reefs. Per Olsson and Fredrik Moberg from Stockholm Resilience Centre and Albaeco are two

scientists who helped organize a fundraiser gala for Danjugan island. The aim was not just to

raise money for the organisation but also to engage people and teach them about coral reefs, the

threats and what can be done. Per Moberg and Anders Paulsson also visited Danjugan Island this

winter with us. We believe that this kind of project is a great initative were different groups of

people are connected and that this also can inspire mutual commitments to better stewardship of

coral reefs.

If the local population is expected to take action and make ecological interventions, the

development theory also has to be taken into consideration. It is commonly known and

accepted around the world, hence it follows that if the local community show consideration

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for the environment the population should also have the possibility to develop in a social and

economical context. This shows the importance of integrating different perspectives in this

discussion, ecological as well as social and economical, which could be referred to sustainable

development.

Talking about social capital in a sustainable context could be important, to understand how

people could be more engaged and active in local organizations and how social capital can make

people act for the community’s best. Both local, in Bulata, but also globally around the world.

Can improved social capital lead to more engagement in environmental organizations around

the world? In the matter of the local context, in Barangay Bulata, the observation study showed

us a population filled with compassion to each other and a great tendency of corporation and

collaboration. But as written in the background, social capital also includes the trustworthiness of

political institutions.

The political institutions in Philippines are weak and the private sector is oligarchic.

(www.eastasiaforum.org 2012-02-13). Corruption is a problem in the country, (www.globalis.se

2012-02-13) which also deteriorates the population’s possibility to influence the political system

on a regional scale, and makes it harder to conserve coral reefs in a bigger context. This is a big

problem, as we also know that global and regional activities affect coral reefs a lot. Corruption

and unstable institutions could also make it harder for local populations to influence management

on a local scale (and also global), as social capital might be necessary to create sustainable local

management of coral reefs, but requires faith in political institutions.

The development of the infrastructure is important for the wellbeing of the people in a

country. Infrastructure is the necessary supporting structures and mechanisms in a society, such

as transport systems, water networks and seweage, energy/electricity, and the social institutions

(laws and regulations). It is the government and the local authorities that are responsible

for the expansion and maintenance of the infrastructure. To improve the infrastructure you

need economic incomes. For many developing countries, tourism is the biggest source of

income. Thailand is a great example were tourism has lead to a major improvement of the

infrastructure, mostly thanks to the beautiful nature with its rich variety. But it is also a threat of

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overexploitation.

This could probably be a way for the Philippines to reduce its extreme poverty. 20% of the

people is below the “poverty-limit”. If tourism increases, so will the economy, and eventually the

infrastructure will as well.

But how does the increasing of the infrastructure affect the nature and the coral reefs?

When cities are developing, carbon dioxide emissions increases. Increased carbon dioxide

emissions leads to an increasing greenhouse effect, since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. The

greenhouse effect contributes to the global warming, which affect the coral reefs, because of the

rising sea levels and heating of the ocean water. It also leads to ocean acidification.

So in some way, you may say that the increased well-being for humans is bad for the nature

(especially for the marine nature) but on the other hand, development of infrastructure can lead

to more environmentally friendly solutions.

According to our results and observations it seemed like the biggest local threat was the

overfishing. Jay Jalandoni said that the root of the problem could probably be lack of education,

poverty, people do not have other alternatives of livelihood and the population is too dependent

on fish, but this is overfishing put in the local context. Our interviews with the local fishermen

showed that big industrial fishing fleets was an even bigger threat as the daily catch of an

industrial fishing boat could take a local fisherman one month to catch. The big industrial fishing

outside the shore does not only contribute to overfishing, it also threatens the income of many

workers and also their social situation.

Overfishing affects the coral reefs; their resilience and possibility of deliver essential goods

and services to the coastal communities will dissapear or be severely reduced, which the local

fishermen also told us. Fishing also tends to concentrate on top predators, primary producers

in the food chain, which grow slower and produce less spawns, so their populations are more

affected by fishing. This decline of predators also allow outbreaks of other species, lower down

in the food chain (Sheppard 2009b), and we heard the fishermen talk about the outbreak of

starfish crown of thorns, a threat and a result of less predator fishes.

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The fishcatches have been reduced during the past ten years, according to our inteviews.

Fredrik Moberg also mentioned industrial fishing as a big threat that obstructs possibilities

of local management. A study from 2003 shows that the total amount of fish catched by

municipal marine fisheries in Philippines was 921 851 tons while the commercial fisheries in

the country caught 1 109 636 tons (www.fao.org 2012-02-10). There are also foreign fishing

fleets active outside the shores (www.landguiden.se 2012-02-10). Ellen Bruno from Svenska

Naturskyddsföreningen implies that most of the industrial fishing here is unregulated. This

means that even tough laws and the means to prevent this exists other solutions are necessary.

She also implied that EU should have better “third-country” agreements, where industrial

countries can fish sustainable in exchange for money. Today, according to Bruno, there is

unregulated agreements with possibly Gambia, she believes that if EU can sign better contracts

with countries such as the Philippines, then the unregulated fishery will decrease. You will have

better control and the ocean system will benefit (Bruno 2012-02-17).

Since so many stocks are overfished, we, in the western world, are always searching for new

resources to exploit. Today parrotfish is sold fresh at markets in England and Asia. In front of the

computer, you can order fish from any ocean and have it fresh in the store the next day. Policy

framework is generally alarmingly bad at taking the biosphere’s work into account. Demands

tend to devour- rather than to use - the ecosystem services and goods in a sustainable way. We

increasingly drain the natural capital, rather than to live on the return. By consuming more of the

world's resources than the living systems can recreate, we live on borrowed time as Carl Folke

puts it (Påhlman 2005).

Turning into a global context

As the commercial fisheries catch more than all municipal fisheries together in the Philippines,

you can really understand how big impact commercial fishing has on the overfishing. But in

that case, would local regulations or action to reduce impact on overfishing matter at all? If

local management is spread and linked, it might have a regional impact on fishstocks. However

if nothing is done to reduce the commercial fishing it will continue to be a problem and the

population will have decreased possibilities to improve their livelihood. This problem really

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needs to be delt with on all levels, local, regional and global. If the population in Bulata

increase the pressure on local politicians to take action in regional contexts they could actually

make a bigger difference, but that requires more education among the population and their

passion to make a change. They might have to improve their livelihood through other local

factors, so local management will still be important, to have bigger influence on overfishing

in bigger contexts. WWF means that the subsidies to big fishing fleets are a major threat,

contributing to the crisis in the world’s fish-stocks and a reduction of the fishing subsidies

could be a part in a solution to reduce overexploitation of marine environments (www.wto.org

2012-02-10). Ellen Bruno suggested that you could transfer the subsides to for instance MPAs.

Overfishing can be regulated by local authorities, and this is especially important in areas where

the population is large.

An important underlying cause to why many marine environments have collapsed, is too

widespread sectoral thinking of the organizations that manage our oceans, that therefore tend to

focus on one species or one stock without seeing the whole picture. Existing decision-making

and governance is therefore ill-suited to deal with the ecosystem complexity (including non-

linear, threshold effects and scale interactions) and to build capacity, that can manage uncertainty

and change. They are often challenged by international economical forces, this makes the global

ocean crisis harder to solved in the traditional manner without requiring new, more flexible

forms of state control and management.

One example of big commercial fishing that affects local fishing and population is the fishing

fleets of EU. During the past years EU has signed fishery agreements with 25 countries, and

among them 16 countries classified as “less developed countries”. 1990 EU signed their first

agreement with Cap Verde and the European fishing fleets contributed to the overfishing in the

sea outside Cap Verde and the country now import 90% of all their food, and EU get to fish for

an insignifical small amount of money. Isabella Lövin argues that the acting by EU could lead

to emaciation of poor people and an ecological disaster. The situation in Philippines, with the

industrial fishing, could be similar to this case.

There is no doubts that marine protected areas contribute to a lot of benefits to nature and human

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wellbeing. Infact, MPAs are clearly one of the main solutions and answer to our issue of

this project, how people in Barangay Bulata can manage nearby coral reefs from a sustainable

development perspective. The problem does not only exist in the local context, and MPAs could

be an arrangement, having a more global impact.

MPAs respond to most of our theories and could be a broad solution, for all coral reefs. Linking

MPAs together could possibly reestablish a less destroyed marine ecosystem. As we were told,

both by Jay Jalandoni and Fredrik Moberg, the fish from the marine protected area will migrate

outside and improve reefs in areas that are not protected. Using MPAs could also stop bigger

commercial fishing from contributing to overfishing, showing that solutions can not only stay

local.

MPAs allow whole reef societies to recover after disturbances, as they are less exposed within

protected zones. This could also provide a more secure future for the reefs and surrounding

communities and there would be healthy reefs left if some are destroyed. We thought there might

be a risk of stunting the development in the village by establish more MPAs if they could catch

less fish, so we asked one fisherman, Renoli Ville, if it affected him personally in a bad way. He

answered that he would get less fish today but tomorrow he would get more. MPAs are good

long-term solutions.

Local solutions are with no doubt important, as well as regional and global. Olle Torpman, who

has a PhD in Philosophy at Stockholm University with focus on environmental ethics, says that

the best solution to solve climate change is through global democracy where issues with global

consequences such as how the use of oil is handled, can be discussed (2011-09-06). We find this

problematic and are sceptical to this and we think that it can be seen as a Utopian system since

different nations tend to care for their own profits.

Furthermore it would assume that everyone is omniscient and fully objective to in a fair way

compare practical as well as ethical consequences of a decision, and also apply them in spite

of that local interests could get in the way. We think therefore that also regional and local

decisions are necessary since people have more interest in local issues, which directly concerns

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them. However if actions are not taken globally it will effect the people in Barnagay Bulata in

a negative way, destroyed coral reefs will lead them to a deeper poverty as they have lost the

ecosystem services.

Other threats to the coral reefs and population of Bulata have similar structure as the

overfishing problem. Rising sea levels and temperatures and ocean acidification are problems

that are really global. This says Fredrik Moberg, who also means that you could link local

actions, such as MPAs together to give them a global role. If the average temperature on earth

rises with 2 degrees, which is the limit goal of the Kyoto-protocol, most of the world’s coral

reefs will be threatened of extinction. It is also uncertain if the goal of minimum an increase of

2°C could be reached, so this global problem has to be regulated from a global level. Global

warming or other global issues (ocean acidification, rising sea levels and temperature) do not

take into consideration frontiers.

All countries or national/international actors are complex, have different histories, resources and

conditions and negotiating is problematic as countries have difficulties in compromising.

Firstly countries have to adapt to the ongoing climate change effects and at the same time they

have to make changes to emit less carbon dioxide e.g. changing industries. Secondly money is

needed for these adapting changes. “Less developed countries” blames the Industrial countries

due to of their historical impacts on the global environment, that has caused increased CO2 in

the atmosphere (Bodin 2011-09-22). Forcing less developed countries to decrease their carbon

dioxide emissions are debated as it could inhibit their social and economical development,

every man’s right, discussed under “development theories”. But at the same time the ecological

perspective has to be integrated to create a sustainable development.

Hans Rosling, a highly esteemed professor in public health science and head of the department

of International health at Karolinska Institutet means that if the environmental impact only was

local and temporary, the problem would not be as great as it is today. Then we could simply

say: stop arguing about the environment and just let everyone have the same material wealth

as you have. However, the material welfare is today fueled with coal, providing a permanent

climate change. Water and soil resources are in a destructive manner exploided and we are

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losing species at an alarming rate. There is no doubt that man's better life, with fewer young

people who die, is at the cost of a devastating impact on the environment. But here scientists

disagree. Some, eg Carl Folke, Professor at the Department of System Ecology and Ellen Bruno,

Svenska Naturskyddsföreningen, means that the environment have to be favoured over the socio-

economy. They argue that the socio-economy is based on a stable environment. And we agree

with that, the residents in Bulata are extremely dependent on their fishing. If the coral reefs are

destroyed it would affect most people in the village in a tremendous way. With this perspective

you can say that if the people in Bulata are to escape the poverty they must first have a healthy

ocean i.e environment. However Rosling means the opposite. That most people, as soon as

possible need to have the same living standards to sustain the environment. As long as children

are dying and people are starving the environment will not be prioritized. Elinor Ostrom also

mentioned that poverty can hinder collaborations. We understand and agree with this argument

too. Because how can you say to fisherman who only fish for his daily needs that he have to

stop? When we, here in the west, are eating fish from all over the world. We have to make sure

that everyone in the world has access to electricity if we want to have a healthy environment.

And of course this electricity should be generated in a efficient and sustainable way. But today

poor people are being hindered to have electricity and that is not sustainable. Rosling implies that

we have to plan for a equal world that is governed wisely. A world where the unifying force is

the climate.

A summation and concluding comments

We introduced the discussion by talking about our theoretical framework and different scale

management. Now, when we have discussed our study we could make some conclusions. These

are based on our study and the conclusions are only thoughts of how the situation might improve,

not exact answers of what should be the best solutions. As the problem is extremely complex

solutions need to be discussed in bigger contexts to have a higher credibility and our study is

only one step on the way.

We consider it to be of great importance to keep the coral reefs in a healthy state, both local in

Bulata, but also as a part of the global marine life. Coral reefs are essential to secure a future for

72

many local communities, but also people in the whole world and surrounding environment. What

is concluded is that preserving the ecosystem resilience is important so that the reefs will be able

to meet natural and anthropogenic disturbances also in the future. To answer our main question

formulation we begin with discussing how the local community Bulata can maintain their coral

reefs.

Our first thought of local management would be through administer small, local interventions.

An example of this is education-projects such as DEEP, establish own marine protected areas

or no-take zones, using fishing seasons, using more sustainable farming methods, using eco-

tourism, use a sustainable waste management and other solutions already discussed. This might

preserve the local reefs. During our study we realised that global impacts were as important if

not even more important than local.

Global initiatives can have greater impact on coral reefs than local actions owing to the fact

that local people can affect the corals in a more direct way and are affected by the coral reefs in

the reversed way. If good conditions are created for coral reefs, global and regional/local, they

might recover, as the many disturbances will be reduced. To step towards sustainability one

must understand the complexity of the problem. Collaborations must extend to create global

solutions. We consider that Marine Protected Areas are one of the best solutions, of course

every solution has both positive and negative impacts. Considering the ecological effect marine

protected areas give, such as increased biomass and higher biodiversity in these areas, which

have been documented by many scientist, we believe it would be a sustainable solution for

the local people in Barangay Bulata. It would also give them the possibility of sustaining their

livelihood and improve their current situation. As most industrial fishing is done illegally we see

the problematics with constituting new laws and regulations as these fishing boats already ignore

the laws.

To create a sustainable development in the village we conclude that one important factor is

to find alternative jobs, not only fishing. If fish within the coastline are reduced, due to many

different factors, fishermen need to find jobs providing a more secure income.

73

One thing that we repeatedly encountered was that initiatives must come from within. If

local management should succeed, and also be done from a sustainable perspective we think

that the local population need to create the solutions themselves. They are the ones who are

directly dependent on the surrounding coral reefs. Therefore we also believe in better education

programmes, not only in the village, but as a regional initiative. However since the Philippines

could be seen as a corrupted country on some levels there are many difficulties with affecting

politicians.

One way to sustain coral reefs world wide might be to create a more global network, with local

solutions linked together like a web. As Fredrik Moberg told us small-scale initiatives should

learn from eachother and cooperate.

The world still lacks a focused, systematic policy for poverty reduction and for environmental

issues. To sustain the environment and also the coral reefs, policy makers have to agree on: if we

must have economic growth before we can afford to take care of the environment or if it is the

opposite. How do we combine it and make it sustainable? One thing is that certain is that we can

not continue in this direction, something has to be done. But in which end do you start?

Discussing sources

What affects the reliability in our interviews is that we only interviewed fishermen, some

housewives and school children. These are by no means representative for the entire coastal

population. Overall our research was more qualitative than quantitative since we did not have

any polls or questionnaires. Observations combined with literature studies of how people live

in Bulata have a high validity, however due to the short stay it may not have as high reliability.

The fact that we talked to people working for the organization PRRCFI (Philippine Reef and

Rainforest Conservation Foundation) gave us quite a good view of what local management could

possible include, which was a big part of our study and question formulation.

However since we used many published doctoral theses, that all have similar conclusion, we

74

think that the parts of our study based on the doctoral theses have relatively high reliability.

In order to have a doctoral theses published it must be approved by several highly established

scientists.

In the discussion we have concluded that the local threats were not as important as the global

threats and thus our research question becomes answered in a different way than we intended.

75

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