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Application of PRA integrated GIS: Tools to Develop Management Arrangement for the Devolution of Mangrove Management in the Municipality of Panay, Capiz, Philippines
Lerio A. Agdalipe
ph, Tel: +63 036 6212-021, 6212-022, Fax: +63 036 6214-792
Email: leriota@yahoo.com, panay@ns.roxas-online.net.
Somsak Boromthanarat
Tel: +66 02 524 5481, Fax: +66 02 524 6200
Email: bsomsak@ait.ac.th
Integrated Tropical Coastal Zone Management, Asian Institute of Technology
P.O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand
1. Introduction
The mangrove resources have been widely used by man for centuries. Man’s activities in the coastal zone however have increasingly made mangrove growth difficult by converting the area into other uses. The Philippines’s mangrove resources have been decreased considerably over the years with aquaculture development acknowledged as the major cause of conversion. The coastal area of the Municipality of Panay is left with only a small fraction of the original forest, which is identified with the corresponding decrease in municipal fish catch.
The lack of information on the study area reflects the ineffectiveness of the local mangrove management. Updated and accurate data is crucial to the monitoring of the resource and the adjoining land use changes, in planning for its utilization and protection, and in managing for the sustainability of the resource. One of the basic problems in planning for the management of mangrove and other natural resources is to correctly evaluate the environmental, economic, legal and social issues existing on the resource. Integrating all these data is usually difficult; therefore there is a need for an approach to speedily identify the types of suitable use of the mangroves in aid of planning. To facilitate such evaluation, the Geographic Information System (GIS) tool was used to manipulate and analyze the different data which have a common geographical or locational base in the mangrove area. Remote Sensing (RS) data on the local mangrove resource however is often unavailable and existing maps usually outdated. Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) data is shown by this paper as an alternative to remote sensing data where integrated information from the local community and key government agencies are combined with GIS to aid in decision-making process in mangrove management in the Municipality of Panay.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1 Study Area
The Philippines is an archipelago in Southeast Asia, which ranks among the top fish producing countries in the world. 75% of its total annual fisheries production is produced by the three major coastal habitats: the mangrove forests, sea grass beds, and coral reefs (Alcala and Vande Vusse, 1994). The country's mangrove forest however has been reduced considerably from 500,000 hectares in 1918 to 74,268 hectares in 1994 (Overseas, 1998). The reduction of mangroves is traced to overexploitation by coastal dwellers, and conversion to settlements, agriculture, salt beds and industry. Aquaculture however was pointed out to be the major cause with about 140,000 has converted into fishponds from 1951 to 1988 (Primavera, 2000).
The study area, the Municipality of Panay, is situated at the center of the aquamarine industry of the country, the Povince of Capiz, which is also reputed as the Seafood Capital of the Philippines. It has one of the richest fishing grounds in the country, and accordingly, fishing is the main livelihood of the people. It is also one of the major rice-producing municipalities of the Province with 3,471.46 hectares cultivated for rice production. The 11 coastal barangays (villages) of the Municipality occupies 56% of the total land area and supports one-third of the total population. The topography is generally flat and contains a broad network of natural waterways that made the area rich and diverse in terms of aquatic resources. The fishery activities involve inland fishery, near shore and inshore or riverine fishery. The total land area devoted to aquaculture, about 6,508 hectares, is the biggest in the Province. It is mostly involved in milkfish and prawn/crab culture, with milkfish production estimated at
3,067.5 metric tons and other marine products at 1,800 metric tons. Prawn culture however has reached its peak in the early1990s and its production has declined due to disease problems. Fish farmers have switched to crab culture in the past few years while the majority have continued in milkfish culture with some intensification. Total supply of fish at 8,157.434 metric tons hugely surpassed total demand for fish by the local population. The Municipality’s proximity to Roxas City, the provincial capital, is very strategic and expectedly would cause the economic activities to spillover to the area.
2.2 PRA data
In this study, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique was used as an investigative and participatory method to generate local knowledge on the status of the resource. The perceptions of the local community and different institutions involved on local mangrove resource utilization and management were gathered.
Based on mangrove distribution and other criteria, the villages of the study area were clustered into four. PRA were conducted in four village-clusters with a central village serving as the host. The people themselves with the researcher acting as a facilitator conducted the investigation and analysis of data.
The PRA tools and techniques used in this study include:
- Semi-structured interviews with key informants,
- Time Line and Change Analysis,
- Village and Resource Mapping,
- Local Analysis of secondary source (use of topographic map and aerial photographs to corroborate the data),
- Brainstorming on Issues, problems and potentials of the mangrove resource, and
- SWOT analysis of lead government agencies.
The data generated using the PRA workshops include the
- local mangrove resource characteristics,
- government and community use and livelihood,
- issues, problems and potential of the mangrove resources,
- land cover and land use changes, and
- needs and objectives of the stakeholders, and
- lead actors, roles and rules on mangrove management.
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