|
02/05/2010 - Successful biodiversity conservation is about changing behavior. This week, on 2-5 February 2010, over fifty people gathered at a social marketing workshop in Cebu City to advance the RARE Conservation PRIDE English Program (PEP). RARE is a US-based international non-government organization (NGO) which has supported about 140 social marketing campaigns in over 50 countries. Sixty four expressions of interest from Philippine-based organizations were submitted to RARE, representing almost 50% of those received worldwide. On this basis, RARE decided to invest in bringing the PRIDE Program to the country “to build on the technical knowledge base and momentum set by such projects as EcoGov”, said Steve Watkins, RARE Vice-President. After a series of community consultations and orientation sessions in various regions, RARE has proposed a program for “Sustainable Fishing in the Philippines: Strengthening MPA Management through Local Communities”.
Watkins said that the proposed program aims to enable LGUs, local service providers (LSPs) and NGOs to research, design and implement social marketing campaigns and specific conservation actions needed to strengthen local MPAs. The workshop was organized in two phases. The first phase provided an orientation to participants on the EcoGov ridge-to-reef approach to integrated ecosystem management, and in particular the emerging knowledge management strategy, of which social marketing comprises an important element. It also included sessions on the EcoGov experience with management of marine protected areas (MPAs), a glimpse at “What Good Looks Like” through the EcoGov-supported case study of the Pilar Municipal Marine Park, insights into coastal and marine law enforcement and exposure to the methodologies embedded in the RARE Conservation “Theory of Change.”
They will be chosen to participate in the program according to enabling conditions in their distinct sites, the success of the MPA, the demonstrable support of the LGU and the capability of the campaign manager to undertake the work plan. Watkins said that RARE also organized the workshop to allow stakeholders to strengthen each other. "Each community has to learn from each other as much as they can learn from RARE and EcoGov," Former RARE Pride Campaign Manager Melania Dirain of the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape in Cagayan, also inspired the participants to take part in the campaign. “You may not reap the benefits of conservation immediately but it is better to start now than wait for something bad to happen to your loved ones due to environmental problems,” she said. Aside from the building the capacity of LGUs, LSPs and NGOs, RARE aims to improve the management of MPAs to increase marine ecosystem health and the sustainability of fish catches with emphasis on food security and livelihoods. The two-year program aims to provide community leaders a chance to receive a Masters Degree in Communications for Conservation, a program accredited by the University of Texas El Paso and delivered through Georgetown University in Washington DC. RARE has developed a unique suite of tools and instruments for social marketing — a “blended learning system” — that combines classroom instruction, computer based learning, regular peer interaction and on-the-ground community development. For EcoGov, the cooperation with RARE provides an opportunity for coastal communities to adopt and internalize the range of knowledge products in CRM developed by the project. Such tools as the MPA rating system and a soon to be published guidebook on coral reef monitoring and management (2 nd edition) can be scaled up and put into practice by a wider set of stakeholders.
|
The meeting was attended by over 50 participants, of which 16 represented LGUs. LSPs and NGOs from candidate sites in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao. Among these were EcoGov linked groups including Save Davao Gulf Foundation, Samal Island LGU, Bohol PLGU and Provincial Agricultural Office, Maribojoc Bay Resource Management Board, Negros Oriental ENRD, Coastal Conservation Education Foundation (CCEF), and the Public Affairs Office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Also in attendance were representatives from ten other LGUs and NGOs, officers from the Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest (FISH) project, EcoGov, and specialists from RARE Conservation. 
The second phase consisted of “one-on-one” interviews with 16 applicants for the program, in order to refine their proposals and make final selections. There are likely to be 12 successful candidate sites (referred to as a “cohort”) for the two-year program. 
