Some questions came my way about the “Big Switch”. I thought it better to go down to a city from the island I was on to write something more about it. A lot of us would look at things in a negative way but for me and the others involve it becomes an added lesson.
As frustrating as it is when things like this happens we have to see things in a broader sense. I reside in a developing country and for now we have to deal with situations like this as part of life hoping that things will change for the better. Honest people in the government sector and us in the private sector are part of those who are forcing things to change. In a way things have improved. Like when you go to a community most villagers are highly aware of the ills that befalls them if they allow illegal fishing in their backyards and most would seriously try to do something to prevent this from happening or continue. It goes even to the extent of asking for a ban that they think is a total solution that just backfires. We have more environmentally conscious people now and though some of them are parrots just mouthing words, some are serious and highly active. Unfortunately others have just some personal vested interest that creates more havoc especially when they occupy sensitive position that can call the shots in the different sectors of our society. BUT we definitely have moved forward. Gone are the days when collectors, village leaders, enforcement people would say to my face to get out and stop introducing some kind of small reform or go even as far saying to my face that they prefer to use cyanide than nets while giving me sinister looks and making me hear veiled threats showing me their bolos or arms. Gone are the days when enforcement people where also trading chemicals forcing collectors to buy and use it. Three yeas back I still encountered this kind of incidents and treatment but now people are more sincerely receptive.
We have the rotten and the good eggs in every nook and cranny of our system. BFAR is not an exception though I know that the present BFAR Director is a person beyond reproach. In our fight against this problem we find him the strongest ally ever. A person easy to talk to, easy to meet and a very good listener. Others might disagree but I know Director Malcolm Sarmiento personally. He has mounted his own campaign against illegal fishing and has gone against our horrible muro-ami fishing methods succeeding against the higher powers that were its protectors. It cost him dearly. Had he known about this “Big Switch” before hand he would not allow this unfortunate incident to have had happen.
The NGO world is not an exception when it comes to rotten eggs. IMA that is being lambasted by my good field friend Steve Robinson has its pitfalls and failures too. But IMA had its successes too. I use to be part of this organization so I know. Only five of us then started and were responsible in reviving the then dormant IMA and turned it into an organization known for its expertise in the community where illegal fishing was a day-to-day life style. In the course of those village forays we found that net training was not the total answer. It needed something else. We created the CREST (Coral Reef Education for Student and Teachers) that hit the government coastal schools of entire Davao hitting thousands of grade five and six students effectively when I was in charge there. Eventually our CREST evolved into having tens of thousands of students all over the Philippines and this was not a show. It was for real with exams, grading and national contests with participants coming in from all over the country. We had our GIS that were responsible for helping out relocating even a sanctuary in Davao that had most part of the land area in their coordinates. IMA helped in the massive information drive against illegal fishing especially in the arena of cyanide. It has made so many people highly aware of the dangers of this fishing method. The CDT lab located all over the Philippines could deliver results in less than 48 hours to any corner of the Philippines especially when it is for enforcement use. We eventually grew to a point that we also had our share of rotten eggs that contributed some failures but the biggest failure when it came to net training was not the training itself it was a component that was not included in our funding tying our hands up. We called it then the system of micro-enterprise, and establishing an important link to the exporters who should received and process fish properly. We lacked this component and even when we showed the way by setting up a successful example it was never funded. It was very disappointing.
That is the reason that brought me to MAC. MAC then had the idea and concept that could help hasten to turn things around. I joined MAC because of this. But somehow the vision of dong this community rooted exercises with proper coordinated link-ups and not just paper trails, that just certified fish that passes through a cesspool of an export facility, and certified by a foreign certifier that has little knowledge of what he is doing became the interpretation and implementation of the MAC standards. Several others and I took exception on the way this standards have been presently interpreted and implemented that would make it a potent force for reform. It would tear the very fabric of the reform movement that we have all been working hard for. We are at the very crucial point where doing things right will make it easier for us to achieve a total success, and infusing the wrong things will make everything slide back to the way it use to be. Nevertheless MAC and I left the door open for each of us to point the right way for I still firmly believe that there must be a way to separate the rotten and the good eggs in this industry if we all want to hurry the change. There have been several dialogues and meetings with the Philippine country director of MAC and whenever I am requested to a meeting I have always made it a point to be present.
Turning things around is now happening and it will happen in other places too. The LGUs’ in the sites I am working in are more aware, highly receptive and highly active. It is still in the infant stages and is still fragile that is why we all have to be careful. It still needs NGOs’ to help infuse, suggest, and improve ideas. It still needs a lot of work and a lot of hammering to make things move the right way. It still needs people who have had the years of experience to help show the way. It can be done and it is being done. More LGUs’ now are listening and implementing the good things that are being suggested to them. This has never happened way back then. In the past it was mostly all dramas (moro-moro) or questions of what money can come their way. If the situation was the same as what it was years ago I will not be in this province I am in right now.
This could not have happened if all those who worked in this industry from the start to the present did not contribute to it bad or good. From the time Steve Robinson exposed the use of cyanide and did net training to the “Netsman Training”, IMA’s own net training and programs, MAC’s certification process and standards, CORL coming into the picture, and concerned people in and out of the industry that are helping by giving comments, opinions, feedbacks whether straight, crooked, constructive, destructive, true, or off beam are all major catalyst.
The rigidity of the structures of NGOs’ involve in this field is what delays things though. Like the myopic view of non-field persons who refuses to or only pretends to listen to feedbacks from people in the field believing them to be beneath their level f competence and intelect is what makes things move at a turtle pace. “We keep reinventing the wheel.” The fear of a desk person being proven their ideas and approaches are skewed makes him force a square peg to fit a round hole creating the very platform for whitewashing.
Taking all these things in to context we still do not look at things negatively. We in the field feel the change coming and happening. The day will come that in this industry the norm for collecting ornamental fish will always be by net with a sense of conservation built into the activities.
I would have like to write more and move on to the other topic but have to rush back to the island. The ferry is leaving. It is a beautiful island and for those who someday can drop by the Philippines you are welcome anytime to come and see what we are doing and have done. I will be your guide.
As frustrating as it is when things like this happens we have to see things in a broader sense. I reside in a developing country and for now we have to deal with situations like this as part of life hoping that things will change for the better. Honest people in the government sector and us in the private sector are part of those who are forcing things to change. In a way things have improved. Like when you go to a community most villagers are highly aware of the ills that befalls them if they allow illegal fishing in their backyards and most would seriously try to do something to prevent this from happening or continue. It goes even to the extent of asking for a ban that they think is a total solution that just backfires. We have more environmentally conscious people now and though some of them are parrots just mouthing words, some are serious and highly active. Unfortunately others have just some personal vested interest that creates more havoc especially when they occupy sensitive position that can call the shots in the different sectors of our society. BUT we definitely have moved forward. Gone are the days when collectors, village leaders, enforcement people would say to my face to get out and stop introducing some kind of small reform or go even as far saying to my face that they prefer to use cyanide than nets while giving me sinister looks and making me hear veiled threats showing me their bolos or arms. Gone are the days when enforcement people where also trading chemicals forcing collectors to buy and use it. Three yeas back I still encountered this kind of incidents and treatment but now people are more sincerely receptive.
We have the rotten and the good eggs in every nook and cranny of our system. BFAR is not an exception though I know that the present BFAR Director is a person beyond reproach. In our fight against this problem we find him the strongest ally ever. A person easy to talk to, easy to meet and a very good listener. Others might disagree but I know Director Malcolm Sarmiento personally. He has mounted his own campaign against illegal fishing and has gone against our horrible muro-ami fishing methods succeeding against the higher powers that were its protectors. It cost him dearly. Had he known about this “Big Switch” before hand he would not allow this unfortunate incident to have had happen.
The NGO world is not an exception when it comes to rotten eggs. IMA that is being lambasted by my good field friend Steve Robinson has its pitfalls and failures too. But IMA had its successes too. I use to be part of this organization so I know. Only five of us then started and were responsible in reviving the then dormant IMA and turned it into an organization known for its expertise in the community where illegal fishing was a day-to-day life style. In the course of those village forays we found that net training was not the total answer. It needed something else. We created the CREST (Coral Reef Education for Student and Teachers) that hit the government coastal schools of entire Davao hitting thousands of grade five and six students effectively when I was in charge there. Eventually our CREST evolved into having tens of thousands of students all over the Philippines and this was not a show. It was for real with exams, grading and national contests with participants coming in from all over the country. We had our GIS that were responsible for helping out relocating even a sanctuary in Davao that had most part of the land area in their coordinates. IMA helped in the massive information drive against illegal fishing especially in the arena of cyanide. It has made so many people highly aware of the dangers of this fishing method. The CDT lab located all over the Philippines could deliver results in less than 48 hours to any corner of the Philippines especially when it is for enforcement use. We eventually grew to a point that we also had our share of rotten eggs that contributed some failures but the biggest failure when it came to net training was not the training itself it was a component that was not included in our funding tying our hands up. We called it then the system of micro-enterprise, and establishing an important link to the exporters who should received and process fish properly. We lacked this component and even when we showed the way by setting up a successful example it was never funded. It was very disappointing.
That is the reason that brought me to MAC. MAC then had the idea and concept that could help hasten to turn things around. I joined MAC because of this. But somehow the vision of dong this community rooted exercises with proper coordinated link-ups and not just paper trails, that just certified fish that passes through a cesspool of an export facility, and certified by a foreign certifier that has little knowledge of what he is doing became the interpretation and implementation of the MAC standards. Several others and I took exception on the way this standards have been presently interpreted and implemented that would make it a potent force for reform. It would tear the very fabric of the reform movement that we have all been working hard for. We are at the very crucial point where doing things right will make it easier for us to achieve a total success, and infusing the wrong things will make everything slide back to the way it use to be. Nevertheless MAC and I left the door open for each of us to point the right way for I still firmly believe that there must be a way to separate the rotten and the good eggs in this industry if we all want to hurry the change. There have been several dialogues and meetings with the Philippine country director of MAC and whenever I am requested to a meeting I have always made it a point to be present.
Turning things around is now happening and it will happen in other places too. The LGUs’ in the sites I am working in are more aware, highly receptive and highly active. It is still in the infant stages and is still fragile that is why we all have to be careful. It still needs NGOs’ to help infuse, suggest, and improve ideas. It still needs a lot of work and a lot of hammering to make things move the right way. It still needs people who have had the years of experience to help show the way. It can be done and it is being done. More LGUs’ now are listening and implementing the good things that are being suggested to them. This has never happened way back then. In the past it was mostly all dramas (moro-moro) or questions of what money can come their way. If the situation was the same as what it was years ago I will not be in this province I am in right now.
This could not have happened if all those who worked in this industry from the start to the present did not contribute to it bad or good. From the time Steve Robinson exposed the use of cyanide and did net training to the “Netsman Training”, IMA’s own net training and programs, MAC’s certification process and standards, CORL coming into the picture, and concerned people in and out of the industry that are helping by giving comments, opinions, feedbacks whether straight, crooked, constructive, destructive, true, or off beam are all major catalyst.
The rigidity of the structures of NGOs’ involve in this field is what delays things though. Like the myopic view of non-field persons who refuses to or only pretends to listen to feedbacks from people in the field believing them to be beneath their level f competence and intelect is what makes things move at a turtle pace. “We keep reinventing the wheel.” The fear of a desk person being proven their ideas and approaches are skewed makes him force a square peg to fit a round hole creating the very platform for whitewashing.
Taking all these things in to context we still do not look at things negatively. We in the field feel the change coming and happening. The day will come that in this industry the norm for collecting ornamental fish will always be by net with a sense of conservation built into the activities.
I would have like to write more and move on to the other topic but have to rush back to the island. The ferry is leaving. It is a beautiful island and for those who someday can drop by the Philippines you are welcome anytime to come and see what we are doing and have done. I will be your guide.
