Negros, Panay Small fishers, crabbers push for blue crabs protection, sustainable development

Various small fisher and crabber formations in the region are now actively campaigning for the protection and sustainable development of the Blue Swimming Crabs (BSC) Industry.

Such effort is quite urgent and important, according to PRRM-Negros, since the BSC industry in Western Visayas, is one of the major crab production centers in the country.

PRRM-Negros Area Manager Edwin Balajadia said the theme of such mass campaign and integral with its Information, Education and Communications (IEC) effort is to save the BSC industry by putting a stop to the continuing taking and selling of BSC gravid crabs and juveniles in crab-producing areas of the country.

According to current Philippine BSC fisheries policies and local legislations, right-sized BSC considered as non-juveniles should have a minimum carapace length of 10.2 cms. although the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the NGOs for Fisheries Reform(NFR) and other scientific and marine protection groups recommend 11cms or higher.

The provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental account for the highest production of BSC in the Philippines, with the economic value of the BSC industry especially in terms of international and domestic trade and commerce amounting to billions of pesos annually.

PRRM-Negros/Iloilo IEC campaign to protect and save the BSC is an essential aspect of its current project under the so-called Investing in Sustainability and Partnership for Inclusive Growth and Regenerative Ecosystem (INSPIRE), which is being managed by the Gerry Roxas Foundation (GRF) and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). PRRM is NFR’s local implementing partner NGO for INSPIRE.

Gerry Bedoya, leader of the Manapla Federation of Small Fisherfolks Associations (MAFSFA), said small fishers and crabbers in north Negros especially people’s organizations, alliances and federations under the newly-formed Panay-Negros- Guimaras Crab Fishers Alliance (PANEG-CA) are now pushing for the protection and survival of the BSC industry.

Among the identified threats to the blue crabs industry are the prevalence of poverty among small fishers, continuing illegal and unsustainable fishing methods, the lack of appropriate BSC plans, policies and ordinances, climatic changes, marine and black sand mining in coastal areas, and the dire lack of crabbers and fishers participation in local fisheries governance especially thru the so-called Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Councils (FARMCs).* (Hazel Aghon, PRRM-Negros Secretariat)