Inabanga pushes for CRM-2 certif

INABANGA – Like a college graduate pursuing a masteral degree, this town is now complying with the requirements to get a Level 2 Coastal Resource Management (CRM) certification. The first local government unit (LGU) in the country to be CRM-certified, Inabanga under Mayor Josephine Socorro Jumamoy gave all-out efforts not only to sustain what have been achieved, but to attain a higher degree of management to ensure as well that these resources are conserved, reserved and rehabilitated.

“The sailing has been rough,” Jumamoy recalls when, during the start of the project, cause-oriented groups agitated marginalized fishermen to picket against the establishment of marine sanctuaries. They brought kettles and turned them upside down to dramatize their protest against the sanctuaries. The move was supposed to convey the message that the sanctuaries deprived them of fishing grounds, hence livelihood, so that they could not buy rice anymore, she explained. Intensified information and education campaign (IEC) saved the day for the administration, and the rest, so they say, is history.

The Technical Working Group (TWG) the mayor heads has endorsed the Annual Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) report on the town's CRM programs and projects as evidence to support Level 2 certification. The report contains updates and accomplishments in the areas of law enforcement, rehabilitation efforts like establishing marine sanctuaries and mangrove reforestation, organizing and strengthening people's organizations (POs), livelihood enhancement, policy formulation and heightened IECs on the protection of coastal marine areas.

The TWG and the Jumamoy administration pooled human and financial resources to implement a five-year plan in 2001 that earned it the Level 1 certification. To further better the lot of fishermen, the town embarked on another project in 2006, the Marine Aquarium Market Transformation Initiative (MAMTI) implemented with financial and technical assistance from the Marine Aquarium Council (MAC), Reef Check Foundation (RCF) and the Conservation and Community Investment Forum (CCIF). It involved the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) whereby the MAC, RCF and CCIF will assist the LGU in reviewing the 2001 to 2005 CRM plan and formulate a 2006 to 2010 CRM plan.

The report covers benchmarks on annual CRM planning and budgeting, shoreline/foreshore management, local legislation, municipal waters delineation, coastal zoning, fisheries management, coastal law enforcement and establishment of marine protected areas (MPAs) as well as the three organizations implementing the projects. Partnering with the LGU through the CRM-TWG are the Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council (MFARMC) and seven POs. They work closely in mangrove, solid waste and upland/watershed management, support coastal environment-friendly enterprise and revenue generation. Jumamoy said the next level certification will determine if the administration's performance and services delivered have satisfied basic CRM criteria.

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