Negros, Guimaras Small Fishers Hold Advocacy Training vs Illegal Fishing

August 13, 2025

Small fisher leaders from various coastal areas of Negros Occidental and Guimaras provinces continue to build their capacities to advocate against Illegal fishing and to promote for good fisheries governance.

A small fisher leader reporting during the SWOT workshop of the advocacy training held at Business Inn, Bacolod City.*

The second batch training in advocacy and communication was sponsored by the NGOs for Fisheries Reforms (NFR) and its local partner NGO – the Negros Office of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) in collaboration with the Panay- Guimaras – Crab Fishers Alliance ( PANEG-CA), the largest small fishers network in the Visayas, and held at the Business Inn, Bacolod City on Aug. 13-14, 2025. Funding the activity was the Ocean Community Empowerment and Nature ( OCEAN), a British international fund agency.

The training aims to build/ strengthen the capacity of small fishers leaders in the campaign against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated ( IUU) Fishing towards Ecosystems Approach to Fisheries Management ( EAFM) and Democratic Sustainable Fisheries (DSF). Among the small fisher leaders who attended were from Manapla, Cauayan, Hinigaran, Binalbagan, EB Magalona, and Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental and Sibunag, Guimaras.

PANEG-CA chair Gerry Bedoya said the training gave us the additional information and knowledge in the campaign towards minimizing illegal fishing and in promoting good fisheries governance in the LGUs.

Tay Edwin Espinosa, Bacolod City small fisher leader, said the NFR/ PRRM sponsored training could help small fishers in strengthening their engagement in the Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Councils (FARMCs) and making these structures effective in the drive against Illegal fishing and in alleviating fishers poverty through supplemental and alternative livelihood projects.

An output of the training is the formulation of an initial Anti-IUU Fishing Advocacy Action Plan and the creation of a PANEG-CA Anti- Illegal Fishing Task force later.

Benjie Ganancial, leader of the Guimaras Small Fishers Alliance ( GUISFA), said the training is a big step in building the advocacy strengths of PANEG-CA towards a region-wide campaign against Illegal fishing.* (Hazel Aghon)