People and the Sea (PepSea)

👩🎓 People and the Sea's educational approach ✍ Every year, we organize activities, environmental classes and games for hundreds of children on the island. Our aim is to help them grow up by giving them the keys they need to protect their environment and resources. Our educational approach is structured around 3 pillars: - Knowledge: Knowledge of this environment and the dangers it faces is the first step towards their willingness to protect marine spaces. We offer 16 courses to several classes on plastic pollution, marine mammals, seagrass beds... Our aim is to create informed citizens, so that they can protect their marine resources for the good of the community. - Fun : every year we organize a summer camp and film evenings on the marine environment throughout the year. We believe that children, especially young ones, learn best by having fun, by drawing, singing and playing. We want them to see the optimism in subjects that are sometimes complex and worrying. - Experimentation: to protect the ocean, their wealth and their culture, we believe that we must first know how to love it, look at it and contemplate it. We organize snorkeling activities so they can admire the beauty and richness of their reefs.

🤓 Conclusions of the 2023 coral reef survey at Dakit-Dakit, Malapascua 📖 This year, scuba diving activities resumed at People and the Sea, with the aim to restart the reef survey data collection program. Data collected includes benthic cover, hard coral growth forms, coral impacts and stressors, coral recruitment, density and diversity of reef-associated and commercially important fish species, and diversity and abundance of reef health indicator invertebrate species. We have identified a prevailing trend across coral abundance, invertebrate and fish abundance / diversity data sets. This entails an increase in diversity throughout 2015 – 2019, explained by the capacity for reef recover provided by MPAs, followed by a decrease in diversity found in 2023. The COT outbreak, which is thought to have developed during lockdown, can be considered the main contributor to this decline. It’s also suggested that destructive boating activities through unregulated fishing or tourism, associated with lack of MPA enforcement during lockdown, could have played a role in decreasing diversity values also. Despite the observed decreases not being significant, its vital to identify, acknowledge and address before they are. Continued manual removals and the introduction of injection dives are required to reduce COT numbers and prevent future outbreaks. This should be in conjunction with protection enforcement at the site, as this has been an evident effective method to increase diversity. Combinations of these techniques can ensure the future of Dakit Dakit and could promote / resume the observed increases in diversity.

📈 Economic resilience of coastal communities : a lever to protect the ocean 👌 The economic system of small Filipino islands like Malapascua is particularly fragile. Most of the population relies on the exploitation of marine resources through artisanal fishing and tourism. While the local community showed courageous and exemplary resilience during the Covid crisis, it is a reminder that economic resilience must be built up to cope with any climatic or geopolitical disasters that may occur. 1) This type of disaster leads to a deterioration in health, food security and social conditions in these communities, due to forced unemployment and lack of social protection. As an example, during the Covid crisis, schools closed for 26 months in the Philippines. 2) Damage immediately extends to the ocean. In times of emergency, in order to maintain their activities or simply to feed themselves, these periods are conducive to the use of destructive techniques in the exploitation of marine resources. Fishing in sanctuary areas or on protected species (shellfish, invertebrates, juvenile fish...) increases drastically. By building this economic resilience, we improve the long-term living conditions of local coastal communities, while preserving the marine resources that are vital to them. 

☢ What are the constraints on small islands when it comes to waste management? 🏝 Last Saturday, we were delighted to welcome two journalists from #TF1, channel 1 in France, to take part in a documentary on plastic pollution in the Philippines. Today, Malapascua is representative of the difficulties faced by the 7000 Filipino small islands in managing their waste. 1) Small islands are difficult to access, and shipping waste to the main islands is costly. 2) Infrastructure for waste collection and recycling is lacking. 3) Waste sorting, reuse and reduction practices are not always passed on to younger generations. 4) The populations of these islands are economically fragile, and their consumption patterns are often submissive. Today, Malapascua is setting an example in the Philippines with its innovative and efficient waste management system, which involves all local community stakeholders. 

⚖ How can tourism revenues be shared equitably within the community? 🏡 Since 2015, People and the Sea has set up an independent association: the Inato Homestays, whose aim is to improve the economic resilience of coastal communities by sharing the benefits of tourism more equitably. How does it work? Eighteen homestays offer rooms for rent to the tourists. The objective is a cultural exchange and a complete immersion in Filipino life. What's more, part of the money raised is invested in a community seed fund to cover any work, improvements and repairs in the house. What are the results? Households participating in Inato Homestays have seen their income rise by an average of 600 euros per year. This corresponds to an income increase of 30%. Why ? We need to strengthen the economic resilience of costal communities - to empower them with the ability to better manage their own fate, and to better defend themselves against future shocks. https://lnkd.in/gkUf5cpa

🎯 CORAL RESTORATION : WHAT ARE THE LONG TERM BENEFITS ? 🐠 Most coral species take several years to reach sexual maturity. That's why it's so important to protect existing coral reefs. However, we believe it's also important to start restoring them. 1) Involving the community in a restoration project enables them to witness nature's capacity for regeneration in a small, collectively studied area. This regeneration of the coral reef leads to an increase in biodiversity and fish populations, with a direct impact on fishermen's incomes. In this way, the local population will be trained and motivated to replicate and accelerate the reef recovery. 2) This restoration project aims to improve habitat condition and ecosystem resilience following strong typhoons in the last years, associated with years of exploitative/destructive fishing activities and poor habitat management. The proposed structures will serve as a coral nursery that can increase the biodiversity and composition of the reef and serve as a restoration and gardening area in the future. The structures will be implemented in the north of Malapascua, creating a reserve with the local community and fisherfolks associations.