When we talk about ocean health, we’re talking about community livelihoods and their reliance marine ecosystems that can meet their needs into the future.
In the Philippines, this connection is profound. As an archipelago country, Philippines is one of the most megadiverse places on Earth, home to an estimated 70-80% of global plant and animal species. With more than 2.5 million registered fisherfolk, the archipelago nation depends on the sea for daily income, food security and cultural identity.
But marine space is not empty space, it is shared space. Fishing, aquaculture, tourism, shipping, offshore wind, conservation and tourism areas provide for diverse uses and must consider each other when planning for the future. When sectors plan in isolation, ecosystems and communities pay the price.
That’s where marine spatial planning (MSP) becomes essential.
Over the next two years, EnviroStrat together with our local partner Marine Science Institute (through the Marine Environment and Resources Foundation MERF) will be supporting the development of a national marine spatial planning framework as part of the FishCoRe Project led by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources under the Department of Agriculture in The Philippines.
The work has two core goals:
- Develop a national framework as a single multi-stakeholder and multi-use guide: the scaffolding that defines principles, participation, categories of use and environmental limits.
- Pilot implementation approaches within Local Government Units (which manage waters out to 12 nautical miles), seeking alignment between MSP and integrated coastal management to building shared knowledge that works across local jurisdictions.
Our team will be contributing technical expertise alongside Filipino partners who understand the local realities best. We’ll explore together with stakeholders current planning practices and institutional arrangements to find entry points and synergies from policy developments like the Blue Economy Bill and National Maritime Policy. Questions include how much pressure can ecosystems absorb? How do we protect food security and increase climate resilience while enabling responsible blue economy growth and ecosystem protection? How do small-scale fishers and large-scale investors coexist fairly in the same waters?
Striking that balance is the heart of marine spatial planning. For ocean nations like the Philippines, getting this right strengthens resilience, protects biodiversity and it safeguards coastal livelihoods. To find out more about the project visit FishCore