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A Fisherman’s dream

By IW:LEARN

October 14^th, 2024

The mid-day sun was shining over a small banca passing through the Pasac-Guagua Watershed. In the surroundings, one could hear the engine slowly fading as it stopped in the riverbanks. An old man secured his banca and his catch of the day in a small fishing box before disembarking at a station. The signage says “DELTAnim.” His name is Edgardo Tungcab, 62, one of the local fishers who work at the DELTAnim, a mangrove nursery along the Pasac-Guagua Watershed in the Municipality of Sasmuan in Pampanga Province, Philippines.

The Pasac-Guagua Watershed is a biodiversity haven for migratory birds and mangrove forest, and a critical source of water and livelihood that supports at least 10 municipalities in the Pampanga Province including Sasmuan. It is one of the major river systems that drain to Manila Bay, which is connected to a larger marine ecosystem, that is the South China Sea.

“DELTAnim is a mangrove nursery project that the Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office (PGENRO) of Pampanga started during the pandemic. It intends to help local fishers who have been displaced from their livelihood during community lockdowns,” said Ms. Irene Marie Villar, Assistant Department Head of PGENRO

Starting in 2021, the Provincial Government entered into an agreement with a local federation of fisherfolks to establish and maintain a mangrove nursery, and used its local development and the disaster risk reduction and management funds to jumpstart the initiative. Starting with 5,000 propagules, a total of 30,000 mangrove propagules of various species are now being raised in the nursery. This initiative has paved the way for regular mangrove planting efforts of the province along the riverbanks of Pasac-Guagua Watershed down to the Manila Bay outlet. They engage other national government agencies, law enforcements, and even the private sector in their mangrove reforestation projects. While the mangrove nursery is housed in Sasmuan, they also distribute propagules to other local governments in Pampanga.

The cash for work program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development complements the existing agreement between the Provincial Government and the fishermen's association by allowing 70 fishermen from seven coastal villages to work on a rotational basis so that they can earn an extra PhP 430 per day (USD 7.63 using September 10, 2024 exchange rate (USD 1=PhP 56.36)) when they perform duties at the nursery.

That day, it was Edgardo’s duty, along with three others. He needs to earn extra money to support his daughter’s college education. On a typical day with a good harvest, he can earn 400 to 500 pesos. His wife will sell the fish to the market, and the earnings will be divided to buy food, school expenses, and a half gallon of fuel to go fishing the following day. By nighttime, it will leave him and his wife with empty pockets again.

“Kapag may bagyo, walang huli. Sa paglipas ng panahon, mas nababawasan na rin ang nahuhuli naming isda. Kapag walang huli, wala ring pambiling pagkain para sa pamilya. Walang pambili ng krudo kaya nangungutang na lang".

Whenever there is typhoon, we can’t fish. As the years passed by, our harvest decreased. If we don’t have any harvest, we can’t buy food for our family. We can’t buy fuel, and so, we just borrow money, he said.

Edgardo said the river was more profound and broader a few decades ago, before the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. Today, it is shallower and narrower, potentially affecting not only the volume of their harvest but also the kind of fish they can catch from the river. He said that high commercial valued fish such as groupers, rabbitfish (samaral), and silver perch (ayungin) are abundant in the area, particularly downstream near Manila Bay. Today, the common harvests are only milkfish and bidbid (lady fish).

There are days when Edgardo will catch not fish but trash floating on the watershed or trapped along the riverbanks and mangroves. He will recover the trash and carefully inspect it to see if it is something he can sell to the junk shop. He will save what little money he would earn from it, and by the month's end, he will use it to pay for their utilities.

Asked about his dream as a local fisher who has lived with his boat and fishing nets for more than half of his life, Edgardo had only one answer: to see his daughter get a college diploma. He will fish every day, no matter the weather, and work at the nursery every call of duty to fulfill this dream for his family.

About the project

The Reducing Pollution and Preserving Environmental Flows in the East Asian Seas through the Implementation of Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) in the ASEAN Countries project aims to set-up functional management mechanisms in priority river basins of six ASEAN countries to reduce pollution and sustain freshwater environmental flows as well as adapt to climate change vulnerabilities. IRBM Project is supported by the GEF, implemented by UNDP in Asia and the Pacific and executed by PEMSEA, in collaboration with ASEAN.