PAMANA 2011 National Meetings

by Gian Valenzuela, Daluhay Program Manager

2011 Fisher Folk Congress

On September 3, 2011, PAMANA held its annual Fisher Folk Congress and Workshop at the Aurora State College of Technology in Baler, Aurora Province. The activity was jointly sponsored by the Aurora State College of Technology (ASCOT), the Office of Senator Edgardo J. Angara, and DALUHAY (Marginalized fisherfolk partnership) through CA- PAMANA 2012 (What is CA- PAMANA?). Particpants included fisherfolk and marine protected area managers from around the Philippines, as well as seven of the eight municipalities of Aurora Province.

PAMANA President Fernando Tiburicio opened the Congress by welcoming all participants, and reiterated the commitment of PAMANA towards helping improve the visioning and sharing their utmost experience on handling marine protected areas. Dr. Marivic Pajaro headed the proceeding and discussed the significance of seeking solutions to improve the quality of life from looking at the lens of both their marine environment and how fisherfolks should focus on preserving their marine resources and help predominantly coastal communities.

The focus of the Congress was to set priorities and perspectives involving fisherfolk along with marine protected area (MAP) managers from across the country to conduct the PAMANA practice known as “best practice transfer”. Participants held focused discussions concerning organizational vision, strategies and action plans in order to address the prioritized challenges with the objective of realizing the proposed solutions. Together with attendance of several PAMANA leaders all across the country the sharing of best practice transfer became part of the proceedings.

To facilitate visioning, strategizing and action planning, the Bagong Lumad Artists Foundation, through Mr. Joey Ayala, an internationally recognized artist who is an environmentalist, singer and composer provided inputs on social artistry that helped draw out from the participants, their ideas in a simple, fun and less formal manner which is otherwise done in academic or classroom settings. Participant has actively participated as the Mr. Ayala coupled his music towards their enlightenment.

2011 National Council Meeting

The following day, September 4, 2011, PAMANA held a National Council Meeting. Attending were 10 council members headed by Mr. Fernando Tiburcio, President of PAMANA ka SA PILIPINAS. The meeting was called to order at around 9:00 am in morning, with Dr. Pajaro acting as the secretariat. Fresh from the Congress the Council members agreed to apply their visioning skills learned from Joey Ayala. They focused their discussion on the next possible area where they can possibly conduct the same project, hence the introduction of North Philippine Sea Project.

CA PAMANA 2012: Considering the possibility of another proposal being submitted for the same program in 2012 (funding window up to P2 Million), how would the Council suggest the nomination of sites to occur? DALUHAY could perhaps arrange to visit several finalist communities to see which is best prepared to host the next proposal.

Criteria discussed:
Strong support of the local mayor (or mayors if more than one municipality involved - perhaps most important).
Note the the funding program has had in past (expected to continue) a focus on sewer and water provision.
We had several agencies to counterpart financially locally, including sinaglahi (concert and film organizer); LGU of San Luis; provincial offices; Senator’s office; DALUHAY (will not be able to provide office space in other community);
After a long period of discussion the council had met the consensus that the next project be made on Mr. Greg Siaron VP for PAMANA.Quezon Province.

PAMANA meetings in Aurora Province, Sept. 2011.