Philippines Take Steps to Improve Fish Catch Statistics

The WorldFish Center and the ADB Knowledge Management (KM)  for the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) projectconvened 26 participants to a workshop aimed at improving fish catch statistics collection in the Philippines with focus on subsistence fisheries.  It was held in Makati City on February 20-21, 2012.
During the workshop, the participants took the first step to improve the fisheries data collection protocols by agreeing on a common definition of subsistence fisheries based on Philippine context. The participants agreed that missing parameters were needed in existing forms to capture valuable subsistence fisheries data. 

Subsistence fisheries play an important role in the Coral Triangle region because of the large number of fishermen who practice it, however, the impact of the sector to food security is often underestimated. This was echoed during the workshop by Dr. Maripaz L. Perez, Regional Director for Asia of the WorldFish Center. She stressed the importance of subsistence fisheries sector which is often under reported, undervalued, difficult to manage because of its dynamic, diverse, and complex nature, hence it is frequently left out in policy dialogues. “It practically has no voice,” she said. “Nobody thinks that the reason for the high prices is because of the massive underinvestment in the [subsistence fisheries] sector and problems in the production level.”
 
The ADB KM for CTI project committed to prepare the templates that will be used capture the needed data. Once these parameters are approved by the group, it will be forward to the Philippines’ Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource and then endorsed to the Department of Interior and Local Government for implementation. To find out moe about this activity, follow this link.

Photo: Participants at  the subsistence fisheries workshop
Credit: ADM KM for CTI Project