This book is an analysis of how local coastal communities in the Calamianes
Islands in the Philippines understand the relationship between power, wealth
and the environment, and how this understanding has contributed to the
current situation of marine resource management. Unlike perspectives that have
sought to establish objective measures of this relationship, I am interested in
how it is subjectively understood and represented, by examining how local
discourse has shaped a process of contestation over marine resources. Such
management contestations are a characteristic feature of the ‘resource frontier’
in the Calamianes Islands, where fishing, conservation and tourism enact
competing visions of how to engage with the bounty of marine resources.
Fishers in the Calamianes Islands with whom I have worked represent their
fishing traditions as possessing two key features: their fishing methods are
harmless to the environment and their use of low technological gear is closely
tied to their poverty. Because of this, their practices are imbued with a sense
of morality. In contrast, the activities of ‘immoral’ illegal fishers and outsiders
are perceived as being responsible for all environmental degradation. From
this perspective, it follows that any regulations introduced by government to
reduce environmental problems should address those who cause the problems
(the illegal fishers) and those who can afford to pay for their amelioration (the
illegal fishers and the tourism industry).
This local fisher discourse was expressed, with varying emphases, in a range
of contexts concerning marine resource regulation in the Calamianes. Two
notable cases in point occurred during the debates on reforming the regulations
governing the lucrative live fish trade, and implementing a series of marine
protected areas. By adopting this discourse in these debates, fishers contributed
greatly to the decisions reached, namely: the overturning of the live fish trade
regulations and changes in the proposed implementation for the marine protected
areas. Understanding the nature and effects of what I call the discourse of the
‘poor moral fisher’1
became the primary focus of my research.