Community Projects

Why we start with communities

If you stand at the water’s edge and wonder what you can do to help save the reefs and fishing grounds in front of you, just turn around. Look at the village behind you.

The people living there depend on the sea more than anyone, for food and for income, and they are the first to feel it when reefs and fish stocks decline.

They also have the most to gain when those resources are well managed, and in the end they are the ones who will look after them. That’s why our community work reaches every age group, from school children to fisherfolk, senior citizens and local government.

Youth education

The children in today’s classrooms will one day be the fishers, teachers, mayors and parents deciding the future of this coast. Our two full-time teachers, both professional educators from the area, teach them about their own reefs and mangroves in Bisaya, the language they speak at home.

The lessons run in public schools under an MOU with DepEd Negros Oriental, in partnership with the German non-profit Pro Ocean. Each year we also run Sea Camps, where local teenagers spend a few days with our science team, and many see a coral reef for the first time.

Youth education

Government capacity building

Reef management can’t depend on one NGO. In the Philippines, each municipality manages its own coastal waters, so we train municipal dive teams and DENR staff to the same standard as our own survey teams, from their first dive to writing up survey results.

Through an agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we support its Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Management Program (CMEMP), and so far we have trained more than 120 government divers.

Capacity building

Alternative livelihoods

In 2018, an assessment by IPBES, the intergovernmental science panel on biodiversity, warned that the Asia-Pacific could run out of commercially exploitable fish stocks by 2048 if current fishing practices continue. Coastal fishing in the Philippines is largely indiscriminate, and one of the best ways to ease the pressure on fish is to give fishing families other ways to earn a living.

We are testing approaches such as beekeeping and hydroponics, aiming to diversify the local economy while improving both ecological sustainability and community health.

Alternative livelihoods

Communities, food and sustainability

Healthy oceans and healthy coastal communities can’t be separated. Millions of Filipinos rely on fisheries for food and income, and the way communities handle food, population and livelihoods shapes the pressure on the sea.

We look at conservation through this wider lens, including through Veggioke, our initiative encouraging more plant-based eating in a way that fits local food culture rather than working against it.

Food and sustainability

Local outreach

Children in school are a captive audience, but reaching the wider community takes more work. On Saturdays our teachers take their lessons out to the barangays, with workshops on everything from mangrove planting to sorting plastic waste.

We also bring the same message to senior citizens’ associations and other community groups, through activities ranging from scuba diving to mangrove tours and quizzes. A healthy coast is one the whole community looks after, so we try not to leave anyone out.

More about MCP

Our community work sits alongside our reef science, coastal resource management and conservation projects, all along the coast of Negros Oriental.