How To Protect The Ocean

Coastal 500: Uniting Mayors for Ocean Conservation

Duration:: 56m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

This episode explores the resiliency of coastal communities in small island states like the Philippines and Honduras. The focus is on organizations like RARE and their projects, such as Fish Forever and Coastal 500, aimed at building capacity and resilience in these communities. Join host Andrew Lewin as he speaks to RARE's Rocky Sanchez Tirona and dive into initiatives working towards a better ocean future.

RARE's website: https://rare.org/program/fish-forever/

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Building resilience in coastal communities is crucial for adapting to environmental changes and disasters. The podcast episode highlights the importance of building resilience in coastal communities, especially in small island states like the Philippines. The Fish Forever program by RARE focuses on working with local communities and governments to manage coastal waters sustainably. By empowering these communities to manage their resources effectively, they can adapt to changes in the environment and be better prepared for disasters like typhoons.

One example mentioned in the episode is the case of a local government in the Tanyan Strait in the Philippines. The mayor of this region took proactive steps to protect the mangrove forests, which are crucial for coastal protection. By implementing policies to prevent deforestation and creating livelihood programs around the mangroves, the community was able to benefit from the protection provided by these habitats during a typhoon. This example showcases how investing in coastal habitats and involving local communities can enhance resilience to environmental changes and disasters.

Additionally, the Coastal 500 program brings together mayors and government representatives from different countries to share experiences and solutions for coastal management. By creating a network of leaders who can collaborate and learn from each other, the program aims to strengthen the resilience of coastal communities globally. The exchange of knowledge and best practices among these leaders can help in developing effective strategies for managing coastal resources and preparing for environmental challenges.

Overall, the episode emphasizes the need for building resilience in coastal communities by involving local governments, communities, and international partnerships. By focusing on sustainable management practices, creating livelihood opportunities, and fostering collaboration among leaders, coastal communities can better adapt to environmental changes and disasters, ensuring their long-term sustainability and well-being.

In the podcast episode, Rocky Sanchez-Torona from Rare discusses the collaborative efforts among local governments and communities in the Philippines and other countries to successfully conserve and manage coastal resources. The Fish Forever program, initiated by Rare, focuses on working with local communities and governments to manage their coastal waters effectively. Through this program, communities are empowered to take ownership of their marine resources, leading to sustainable practices and livelihoods.

One key aspect highlighted in the episode is the importance of building resilience within coastal communities. By involving local governments and communities in the decision-making process, there is a greater sense of ownership and commitment to conservation efforts. For example, the program in Siargao, Philippines, showcased how mangrove protection and sustainable practices were implemented with the support of the local government. This proactive approach not only protected the mangroves but also provided livelihood opportunities for the community.

The Coastal 500 initiative further exemplifies the power of collaboration on a larger scale. By bringing together mayors and government representatives from different countries, the program facilitates knowledge sharing, mutual support, and collective action. The exchange of ideas and experiences among these leaders can lead to innovative solutions and best practices being implemented across various regions.

Moreover, the episode emphasizes the role of partnerships and capacity-building in scaling conservation efforts. By training provincial governments, universities, and other organizations, Rare aims to expand the reach of their programs and empower more communities to take action. The goal is to create a network of empowered local leaders who can drive change and advocate for sustainable coastal management practices.

Overall, the collaborative efforts among local governments and communities, as demonstrated in the Fish Forever and Coastal 500 programs, showcase the effectiveness of working together towards a common goal of conservation and sustainable resource management. By fostering partnerships, sharing knowledge, and empowering communities, these initiatives are paving the way for a more resilient and environmentally conscious future for coastal regions worldwide.

The podcast episode featuring Rocky Sanchez-Torona from Rare sheds light on the impactful programs like Fish Forever and Coastal 500 that are making a positive impact by empowering communities and promoting sustainable practices. Here are some key points from the episode that highlight the significance of these programs:

Fish Forever Program:
The Fish Forever program works with local communities and governments to manage coastal waters sustainably.
The program focuses on giving communities exclusive rights to fish in certain areas, leading to better management and protection of marine resources.
By involving communities in decision-making and management, Fish Forever encourages sustainable practices and fosters a sense of ownership among the locals.
Coastal 500 Initiative:
The Coastal 500 initiative aims to bring together 500 communities and governments to share resources and build coastal resiliency.
By creating a network of mayors and government representatives from different countries, Coastal 500 facilitates knowledge exchange and collaboration on marine conservation efforts.
The initiative empowers local leaders to drive change, advocate for policies, and work together towards common goals for protecting coastal ecosystems.
Community Resilience:
The success stories shared by Rocky highlight how communities have embraced sustainable practices and conservation efforts.
Examples like the protection of mangroves in Siargao and the establishment of savings clubs demonstrate how communities are becoming more resilient to environmental challenges.
The emphasis on building capacity, promoting livelihood programs, and engaging in collaborative efforts showcases the positive impact of these programs on community empowerment.
Global Collaboration:
The episode underscores the importance of global collaboration and knowledge sharing among mayors and government officials from different countries.
By learning from each other's experiences and solutions, communities can address common challenges and implement effective conservation strategies.
The formation of alliances and partnerships at a global level enhances advocacy efforts, amplifies voices, and accelerates progress towards sustainable marine conservation.

In conclusion, programs like Fish Forever and Coastal 500 by Rare are instrumental in empowering communities, fostering sustainable practices, and promoting resilience in the face of environmental changes. Through collaborative initiatives, capacity-building, and community engagement, these programs are driving positive change and creating a more sustainable future for coastal communities worldwide.

When we talk about the oceans, we talk a lot of times about bad news is happening. Sea level rise and climate change effects like sea surface temperature increases and coral reefs dying because they're bleaching and all this bad stuff that happens around like small islands where they their shores are just all plastic from plastic pollution from other countries and things like that. A lot of the times we don't talk about the resiliency of these coastal communities in different parts of the world, especially small island states. On today's episode, we're actually going to be talking about the building of that capacity and that resiliency in different countries like the Philippines, Honduras and other countries that just need that little extra help and rare organization that I've worked with before we've had on the podcast before. Talk about this on this episode. I talked to Rocky Sanjay's Tarona who is here to talk about the projects in the Philippines as well as other places about their fish forever program as well as their coastal 500 where their goal is to bring together 500 communities, 500 governments to talk about sharing resources about building that coastal resiliency in a lot of places along the equator. We're going to talk about that on today's episode. I'm super excited. Let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host Andrew Lewin and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. Now today's episode, we're going to be talking about living for a better ocean by taking action in a way that I've haven't really talked about in a long time and that's looking at what organizations like Rare does with small island communities. These are communities within small islands that are fishing communities that primarily depend on fish and fishing for their sustenance as well as making a livelihood and obviously changes in the environment that are affecting the availability of those fish, the availability of that seafood for them to live a proper life in the life that they're used to living and so it's building that resiliency to be able to continue to have that livelihood, to be able to live the way they've wanted to live and the way they have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years and be able to do that in the face of change ups and downs whether typhoon comes in, whether there is you know bleaching within a coral reef or you know there's a change in you know the topography or whatever that might be. You never know what's going to happen in the ocean, that's what's kind of the dynamics of the ocean, it gives it such a great and interesting way of studying it but also you know these communities depend on the fish and seafood from the coastal areas and it's important that organizations like Rare help these communities as much as possible and provide them and empower them to be able to become resilient for a long time into the future. So we have on a very special guest Rocky Sanchez Torona who is who joined me from the Philippines to be able to talk about the program, how Fish Forever was built within the Philippines, how it grew by community and community, how they came to you know basically work with about 700 or 800 different types of villages, different governments and how they're bringing government mayors and government uh how they're bringing mayors and government representatives from all over the world in small islands and other places where they're talking about protecting fish and how this there's some similarities between some of the challenges that they have from Honduras to the Philippines to Mozambique to Mauritius and all different other types of islands, it's really interesting, it's something that I can't wait for you to listen to so here is uh Rocky Sanchez Torona from Rare talking about the Fish Forever program and the Coastal 500 program in the Philippines and elsewhere, enjoy the interview and I will talk to you after. Hey Rocky welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast, are you ready to talk about the Coastal 500? Hi Andrew, absolutely. Wonderful, I love the name Coastal 500, it almost sounds like uh you know one of those F1 races or like those NASCAR races, it's really sounds really exciting, I'm looking forward to getting into this because this is how this conversation sort of came to be Rocky and I you and I kind of got together because of a common colleague Zach Lowe who works for Rare just like yourself and he was he reached out to me he's like Andrew you know you've got it, you've got to talk to Rocky about Coastal 500, there's some new progress that's been made, we talked a little bit about it in my last conversation with Rare with Steve but there's been so much that's happened since I'm looking forward to getting into this conversation but before we get into that Rocky why don't you just let the audience know who you are and what you do? Sure so my name is Rocky, I'm based in Manila in the Philippines and I am the managing director of a program called Fish Forever at Rare. We work with local communities and local governments to help them manage their coastal waters. It's quite an interesting program because you know you work you know in the in the Philippines obviously but there are a lot of fishing villages in and around the Philippines who you know rely heavily on fishing for you know for sustenance for you know getting paid to feed their families to get the kids in school. That's a really cool thing a really cool program to to be a part of. How did you get to working with Rare like where did your interest in this type of work start? So I have I have always loved the ocean, I'm a big scuba diver, I've been doing it for almost 30 years now and and so any excuse to get in the water, I will say. Nice, nice. My first life was actually in marketing and advertising communication. I'm sorry I've sold a lot of shampoo. I've got to make a living somehow right? And but increasingly over over time I really wanted to try and see whether those skills could be applied to to be 3D the things I really cared about. And when I heard about Rare it felt like the perfect fit. Rare is focused on the human aspects of of environment and conservation and really understanding how you can help people become solutions to environmental challenges. And so I thought that at least my background in in understanding human behavior and really thinking about the ways that can move people can be useful. So I joined Rare and that came at a time when Rare was just starting fish forever in the Philippines and like so I finally found myself in a position where I could use my skills and get in the water all the time. Now that like that's quite exciting to be able to you know want a position very similar to this. It obviously matches up very well to your skill set and your experiences in marketing and communications from before. But Rare is is that kind of organization. It's a rare organization no pun intended of of an organization that's you know built on you know marine conservation principles but really focused in on people. Now I have to admit like you know a lot of times when when someone says oh I'm involved with an organization that protects the ocean when you started to look at you know things that were important to you which I assume were you know ocean protection and conservation and things like that. Did you think organizations like Rare you know being out of the the field of marine conservation did you think organizations like Rare existed had you ever have you ever met or learned about Rare before have you ever met an organization that was similar? No I had been dabbling in another NGO's volunteering for the board and it was very focused on reefs and and kind of like you know so I learned how to to do transects and count fish and things like that. But I hadn't really thought about really putting all the effort or I guess predominant you know a large part of the effort really on the people side of things. I mean it it felt like a no-brainer and I was really glad to see that that Rare was had really kind of like positioned itself squarely in that space and and Rare doesn't just work on marine it's really you know the understanding that you can apply behavioral insights to any sort of environmental challenge right there's always always people involved in every challenge. So is that why you got into marketing and communications in the first place was more of the psychology behind you know putting out messaging for whether you're promoting a product or you're promoting a service? Yeah I think so I was actually a psych major in college. That was my next question. Yeah and but I also like to write so so so it felt again it I sort of like fall into these things where yeah okay here's where I kind of are interested in people but I can't write and I'm creative so and I stay there for quite a long time because it's a fun industry you learn a lot there's there's a lot of kind of like interesting things to do and and even within that field I started gravitating towards communications projects that were really focused on social impact and yeah change and advocacy so so that's where I was happiest right and yeah that's actually how I met Rare. Rare was my client first and I said hey they're really cool they they do these things and yeah and I can help so so when I said I want to make the jump I really came to Rare and said what can I do for you right? Yeah yeah and I love that so before you met Rare though and you were doing this seems like a consultancy what other type of social impact projects where you were. I did a lot of work on family planning and that's another big one right health vaccination and just health health good governance it's another anti-corruption kind of activity so I think that gave you a really good view of society and kind of like systems right and and so I kind of know what are the levers we had we had a client yeah it was great at education for example in education governance and I still see a lot of those parallels to the work we're doing now on environment right and the role that local governments for example play yeah yeah no doubt it's yeah it's really interesting when you first started working with Rare what was it this project like the Coastal 500 that you're working on or what type of project were you working on? In the beginning actually this fish forever actually has expanded and and grown when when we started it when I started at Rare it was just starting and basically what we were trying to figure out was how you can get communities to manage the fishing effort around protected areas so that they could kind of like the better benefits than just kind of closing off areas we the premise was that having these communities have exclusive rights or preferential rights to fish in an area gives them reason to to actually protect and manage more sustainably because they're the ones that are going to benefit from from the catch so so we started out by just kind of proving that that was true and that we we could do that and figure out what's the policy that needs to be in place so that that can happen and we started doing that in the Philippines and and it took off and and really kind of like people got excited the first time we did it there were communities that said wow you know we've been doing marine protected areas for years and and while we saw the impact of that this is the missing piece this is the part where now we know that we're the ones that are fishing around it and therefore we're also we have good reason to change our gear to cooperate with each other follow more rules right so it becomes a much more holistic kind of protection so that's so forever yeah so for the fish forever like so before fish forever kind of was built in this in in the Philippines or was brought to the Philippines before it was what people would just say here's the marine protected area you have to follow the rules yeah go protect it but they didn't but the but the fishing villages didn't really completely understand the reasoning why or how would benefit them or I think the benefits were sort of limited what yeah so before I joined rare actually the first rare got known for what are called pride campaigns yes they would teach communities how to run behavior change campaigns around certain solutions so the first round of work in the Philippines were there were these protected areas and then they added on these behavior change campaigns and and they were excited because the fishing back and people were really all on board but then the fishers would say we've been doing all this work protecting and then other people come and fish in the area around the protected area and we're still poor right right right that's the piece that was missing that's the part that said okay if we then try and manage how you're fishing in the areas around the protected areas yeah and you're the ones that benefit from it then you can actually stick to it longer so so that's how it expanded and that's where we got we started working much more closely with local governments in the Philippines for example because they have authority over all of these municipal waters so now they saw okay that combination of protected areas and then these areas where the fishers are following rules and changing their gears they're benefiting from this that becomes something that we can sustain and actually going because because this is in effect the the whole engine so so that's fish forever and then when coastal we thought we got the idea for coastal 500 when we realized just how much power the local leaders like the mayors that were on board had in making change happen right so when you had a good inspired mayor that that really pushed things made the right calls the policies allocated budgets went showed up at these events and told fishers why it was important to do this things moved a lot faster and it really paid off so we thought then the next logical step is to bring these mayors together so that you learn from each other inspire each other and you actually kind of like become a greater force that's really interesting okay and so now that so coastal so you had fish forever that really helped show the benefits of a little extra management around the marine protected areas so that the local area would benefit more instead of having everybody else come in and benefit from this protected area even though they didn't really necessarily make the sacrifices that you know the local fishers would would would do and then coastal 500 kind of expanded on that word it started to bring in the local mayors and and other bodies like municipal and and regional bodies to say hey let's let's expand on these protections is that is my understanding that right and so they got more involved so for the mayors to get more involved you know i guess it's interesting when you have like local management where like there's there's a community that's managing it but then when the government comes in and says okay we're going to manage this a little bit more how does it is there there does there need to be you know sort of community and government sort of talks before that happens yeah so so that's where the idea of coal management comes right um depending on the country or in the level of authority that's devolved to local governments varies we're lucky we were lucky to have been starting at the end of philippines where there's uh there's really a fully devolved local government so they have authority over these waters and that the the challenge was to convince the local government that they actually get better work done and and have more success if they work with the community from the get go so so they together the the representatives from the local government and leaders of the let's say the fishers if they're the ones saying oh this is the area that needs protection these are the kinds of rules that will work and yep and and then everybody agrees on that and it's turned into policy by the local government then it's much easier to enforce and right and and and the community will um support it more yeah over the long term well you get you get the buy-in from the community so the the the legislation the laws that get passed end up being a lot stronger because you have the buy-in from the community it makes the government look good because they're passing laws that are actually seeing change because they have the buy-in because they've already done the work how much work is it for those mayors and government to talk and and i guess negotiate with the community like i mean there's got to be times where there's a bit of conflict right not everybody's gonna see eye to eye there's trusted there's trust to be built um there may have already been trust issues you never know like i live in Canada and i know there's trust issues between the government and and everyone so i can imagine you know small and state where there's maybe more contact with the government there's probably some trust issues there always how does that happen like does that happen often and then how does does the program help you know get over that is it just more just conversation so that's i think that's a large part of what we do kind of like facilitating that process right to get to agreement and then kind of like helping then them sustain it um i think the key pieces there are finding the right people in the local government that can lead that process and then building their capacity and helping them arm them with the tools and skills needed so for example if you're going to go into a community and you know you're going to have to start that difficult conversation but hey we're gonna have to protect certain areas or we're gonna have to impose new rules right how do you have that conversation so that they're open to the idea and and kind of like go with you along the way so that's where we give them things like here's a fish game where if you run it uh in the community people play they come to realizations about uh kind of like how things are and what will happen if we keep them the way they are if we don't make any changes and then but they do it in a safe friendly way where they're having fright and and they're much more willing to have than a conversation afterwards right so so providing those kinds of training tools and processes i think is where we come in um and and that's where our partners have kind of said we really appreciate you helping us do this and and helping us also translate science you know yeah that's easier to absorb and kind of like exactly what is needed by the community and not too much or to overwhelming right and it's interesting because rare has a really good reputation for working in collaboration with communities you mentioned it like partners it's not it's not as if you know rare is going in it's like you need to do this you need to do this you need to do this a lot of the times from my understanding is you come is like hey what what help do you need like what are your challenges that you're facing so so rare continues to do that so i i assume like a lot of the times once you get a reputation within some villages and some coastal communities i assume other communities might be inviting you to help them and and have conversations with them to help them solve any kind of problems that they're having yes exactly and and that's sort of how we've been growing where one community does it and then their neighbors say they want to do it as well and that's where the kind of like the idea of an alliance really comes in yeah we're now at a point in let's say in some places where we have every buy-in from from a string of local governments so we've helped them come together as an alliance so that they can coordinate among themselves and share resources as well so that's sort of like a next step right that's the next step for and and i think that kind of comes to sort of the name coastal 500 can you just sort of describe what the 500 obviously coastal is for coastal communities but what is this 500 signify so 500 was sort of like the aspirational our aspirational number of if we have 500 local governments doing this we could we could actually cover you know dispenny communities and dispenny people yeah it also just sounded good a nice round number yeah and and we know we will exceed it right i mean right we uh i think what we're hoping for is by 2025 we're doing 500 uh communities in by 2030 hopefully we have 5 000 right because yeah then we will figure out the ways that we can pass on more resources more learning more connections uh in in ways that are that don't maybe a little less intensive on on on our staff right but but that's how we would grow um yeah yeah so are you looking at 500 communities within the Philippines or is this 500 communities almost across the world right right now we have 170 or so member uh communities in seven countries that's awesome yeah and and we want to right now those are also areas where we're directly working as rare right so our staff are on the ground working with these communities we want to get to a point soon where we can open up membership to others uh where they'll just get kind of like a set of tools and resources and yeah connections to the others and then they can do things on their own even if we're not there so it's more scaling it because you're only you can only do you can only be in so many places right how many how many communities right now are working on this program within the Philippines itself because I feel like just with the way that the island shape the country's shape there are a lot of sort of archipelagos and and ins and outs and inlets and things like that so how many communities we have we have a lot uh 75 local governments that are members of coastal 500 uh they represent I I think something like seven or eight hundred communities or villages actually wow within that yeah in in the holy cow yeah so that's a lot we think it's about almost we're at about nine percent of all the municipalities coastal municipalities in the Philippines it's a it's a lot um it's a lot yeah yeah and and it's nice because there's uh because of that evolution right there really is a clear mandate for local governments to do this for their constituents so so it's very aligned uh the government understands this the department of interior supports that um and and the mayors are kind of like really also see the value of it for for their communities and the constituents so for for rare you know do you have a system where you evaluate each like the the sort of outcomes for each community yeah although I will say that it's a work in progress well I would imagine too because I would imagine each community has their own goals that they want to set that are probably very different by region or even just within among the communities right right so we do have a number of indicators that we're tracking like you know the number of hectares that are under strict protection or notic the number of hectares that are under some form of management so that's sort of like after very loose end we try to figure out whether there's an actual management body that's established and meeting that kind of that kind of means it's functional in some way and then we are also gathering data where we can about the ecological impacts so the the amount of fish in the water the biomass and the abundance of the fish of certain species that are important to the community so we're tracking that we're doing household surveys and tracking changes in how people are feeling are they feeling more positive are they feeling like food secure or livelihood secure kind of thing but it's it's a lot of places and the more we scale the less able we are to kind of like have data constant yeah so we're sort of thinking about what are the quick ways that we can keep doing this for years so that we really know what's happening because even in the places where we're tracking we'll see okay doing well doing well and then a typhoon kind of like wipes out the coral right and then it all right right so again try again but so so understanding those those yeah changes happen yeah changes happen I mean even like a global pandemic you know that probably changes things as well as you go through depending on where you live and right you know changes happen especially with the storms these these years I know you know in North America and the Caribbean we're expecting probably our worst hurricanes a season yet you know on record I would imagine the same thing is similar in your area like you're part of the world in Southeast Asia and so it could be it could be interesting I mean changes do happen you know and there are a lot of changes in the environment that can happen that will affect communities and I think it's funny because when you do evaluation programs you're always looking for positive outcomes and if the positive outcomes don't hit you're like well what's wrong with the program but that doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong with the program it could just be like you said a typhoon comes in wipes out the corals or runes the corals that habitats gone so it might take a year six months a couple years to to rebuild and rebuild that fishery but I think having and having that program in that evaluation program and tracking it through you can see how fast the recovery might be you know and and once you start getting that information you can better predict what's going to happen so like you know if a typhoon hits as you mentioned coral gets gets ruined the next time that happens after you rebuild it's what worked last time to help rebuild it faster how did the community get involved how did the local government get involved is there funding to help that you can build almost programs from that right like that adaptation would probably be a lot more helpful from programs like that is that sort of where you're going with with these types of evaluations exactly yeah and I think increasingly we're recognizing that resilience really comes from having people that can work together that kind of know what to do uh so that they can act on changes uh and respond to them and adapt right and and increasingly that's that's what we're after I think gotcha yeah so so even things like in a way we've been seeing kind of like we've been adding things to the program that help enhance that so for example uh financial resilience right of households so we've got these savings clubs that that are being formed in the communities they're keeping money next time a typhoon comes they're actually able to drop those savings so so those are things that enable them to then sustain the good practices that they're doing uh because they have that um yeah and having leaders that can read that and kind of understand that that's what we need to keep pushing I think it's important so it's almost building that capacity to understand here are the environmental changes that can happen here is how it's affecting the community we have the data you know and now you can track it and now you can be better prepared for it and each community can be better prepared for instead of just sort of going through the motions and never knowing what to do afterwards do you find that change is already happening like you're already starting to see positive outcomes from you know storm coming through and people you know there's there's a bit of savings or is it too early in the program to see that change? No those we've seen in fact I love savings clubs because they're sort of like quick return right there yeah first cycle they'll already have money uh while you're while the fish take seven years to recover there there days where we joke let's just put up savings closing the payback is uh the emotional payback is uh yeah faster um but yeah so so we see those we've seen examples where because they were organized and kind of like working together where the typhoon comes they're actually the team that actually helps the rebuild and and kind of like dust the the uh you know in one place they actually two days after the typhoon hit their town and their houses were destroyed they were actually back in the water putting back the marker buoys for the protected areas right so because they know that that's important and and they know that they actually saw it for themselves that in the period right after the typhoon they could get food from from the marine protected area because it was already there yeah uh so that was their their backup right so oh that's really cool that's really cool I'd love to hear that that's that's amazing instead of before if there's no marine protected area everybody's fishing wherever that could have been overfished a long time ago so when a typhoon hits you're not going to get anything at least now you can get something and you can still feed your families you can still pay for food like you know basically support your families and things like that and and support a living that's that's amazing just to think about to think about that um now it's you know it's interesting to work with you know regions and different villages as you mentioned you know 700 800 villages and you know talking about different different regional governments but recently you guys had a meeting uh and I think it was in the last few months where you brought those leaders from the communities the mayors and from those governments into one area was it millilah was that were you was that where they met we went to shargao in in the Philippines that's a set of islands in in the southern southeastern part of the Philippines okay uh we had including the Philippine mayors we had 16 mayors from okay from six countries okay Indonesia oh so it was different countries it wasn't just in the Philippines yeah oh cool cool so we had we had mayors from Honduras Guatemala district administrators from Mozambique representatives of the local government from Brazil from Honduras and yeah Guatemala yeah so and then Indonesia so Palau a government in Palau was there yeah and they spent a week in the Philippines and it was nice because it was a series of things the first two days were about visiting communities in shargao so two separate local governments hosted them for the day where they kind of saw different aspects of coastal resource management right so okay on on the first day it was um kind of like the protected area the enforcement the the kind of like policies that the local government had passed and then they talked to savings clubs on the second day it was a kind of like the ecotourism component of of the work the local government that was doing along with additional social protection programs that they had implemented for their fishers or insurance links to the government projects etc so those were like the field trips and then in the afternoons they would come back together and sort of brainstorm what this meant for them and kind of like things that they would want to do in their own countries and communities right and then we got them together to then also think about okay as a network what could you do together so we see that sometimes in alliances when they're kind of like associated and then say okay we'll do joint enforcement plans etc at the national level some they can become a real powerful force for advocacy in Honduras in Honduras the mayors all along this one bay have been working with the national agency to push for a law that will exclude industrial fishing from 12 nautical miles to really kind of like protect 12 nautical miles and reserve it for artisanal fishers and the communities that depend on them and that will also take out kind some of the more destructive fishing practices yeah like bottom trawling so and if they so if they were just going like one or two mayors tried to do that they would not they probably wouldn't work but the fact that they had 16 yeah that made it that made it that much more powerful yeah nice yeah yeah so that's that's super exciting and and it it fires up the yeah it gets action from national government of course yeah and the communities are feel like they have they have you know somebody backing them up right so right so that's exciting and then we also have been taking the mayors to global events so so our mayors have spoken at the UNFCCC COP that's spoken at our oceans and and the CBD right so and it's a way to elevate the voices of of local communities I think that's one of the other very important pieces here as the world talks about protecting the ocean land and sea and when hitting these targets we have to make sure that we're not forgetting that so much of the you know so many people depend on you know these coastal waters and that they actually have the power to to make change happen and sustain it because it's they're the ones closest to their resource yeah that is so cool that is that is awesome so we're seeing a lot of power in that and and even sharing among sort of global leaders in this has probably helped were there any sort of benefits that we saw I know it's still soon to tell because they just met a couple of months ago but did you did you hear of talk of being excited of learning how like say you know governments and and like mayors in Honduras reacted compared to mayors in like or district representatives in like Mozambique or anything like that like were there a lot of ideas that were going to be influenced somewhere else yeah I think that's that that really was that really came through where they said I'm going to copy that right I'm going yeah that thing because in a way they're all really working the same problem yeah and there's a general similar solution but how it how it's adapted or how it plays out right once you're the ones where you really need to see somebody else doing it yes and see okay that I it's feasible yeah yeah even offering advice on how to go about doing it the more mayors together more advocacy power even just sort of the structure the framework of of how to do it could probably help a lot and I guess now they're probably going to just be in constant connection you know they've met each other they they you know probably stay in touch and and so forth what's up community oh even on what's I was just texting back and forth talking to each other I love it and and hopefully we're trying to drive more of like show you know send a picture of what you did yeah other people excited yeah yeah that's amazing that's amazing I'm sure that will that communication will develop as you go along to do that stuff there seems to be a lot of great things on this on this program and and it seems to be just getting bigger and bigger how are how is rare trying to grow this this program to include more communities in the Philippines and of course around the world so I one one I think one very big element of this is really kind of rethinking our delivery pathways right as I explained earlier for the longest time we we got where we were by really having people on the ground working closely with every local government or community and kind of like walking them through the process so we are still doing that and and that's an important part of the work but we're also really trying to figure out ways that we can pass it on to others so so we're working with let's say provincial governments where we're training their staff on how to work with local governments so that we can help them do certain things or universities for example right again downloading elements of the of the program in that way coastal 500 is in effect another piece of it where it's really lighter touch where it's influenced and access to to others into a network hopefully all of those kinds of things add up right and yeah and and they they come up to a growth and and kind of like deeper I guess wider reach yeah we we're also exploring a lot of partnerships as well either with other NGOs or or other kind of like initiatives or programs where where we can add value or just maybe do a component of it as well right we're also looking at ways that so some of the partnerships we're exploring are with the groups that let's say fund local organizations so you know having a combination where they're providing the funding but we're providing the training with kind of like really ideal right yeah getting more dedicated groups because they can spend more time on it because they're getting paid to do it is probably a lot better than just having volunteers who have other jobs or other priorities and then it's an extra thing on the board I can I can see that happening a lot I mean you see that a lot with board of directors right if they're volunteering some of them maybe too busy to do the work that they need to volunteer as you probably have that experience as well right yeah some board members are more present than others I would imagine the same thing with communities if they they have the funding to actually spend some time on it and get the right resources for it then it'll probably be a lot more dedicated to to achieving those goals right yeah yeah so the we're trying to find ways to link our partners our community partners to more sources of funding yeah as well yeah that's awesome that's amazing you know you've you've done this for quite some time you've seen a lot of different communities you know change over time can you talk about maybe one that's really stuck that's stuck in the back of your mind of just being like this is this was a really cool to see like do you have an example of one of those communities sure um I I visited a local government this is interesting because we started working in this in this area called Tanyon Strait in the Philippines back in 2010 and and this particular local government was actually not part of the first ones that we had worked with so they were like a maid bar um and and they were just there but they're they're pretty strong and awesome on their own they have good staff that have stayed there and they were doing things but we hadn't kind of partnered with them and then in 2017 we we finally signed an MOU with them and they were part of a batch of of communities in that area where we did kind of like almost just a light kind of intervention we we we were experimenting to see how much lighter can we go right so that it's not so intensive and expensive um and and they were like the star pupil in that cohort and kind of like ran with it etc and and did things and then at the tail end of that two-year engagement they were also saying oh and you know what we're going to pull together our neighbors and form an alliance so oh wow so they went ahead and and we we helped a little bit in terms of kind of like oh here man was there but but they kind of ran with it they worked with a provincial government I visited them recently and they were showing me stuff like here's the roadmap that you you showed us and we still do this and that's awesome that is so cool so to me that's kind of like yeah that's our dream right where yeah they were doing and they were even now they're for they're functioning as the lead in that alliance where they're actually sending their divers to help do ecological surveys in in the other communities right so wow that's amazing yeah that's so cool like to be able to see a community just take it on so much and you see the benefits right of all the communities that take it on and they're more they're much more prepared for any kind of adaptation or any kind of you know change ups and downs and and so forth it must make your job feel really good to see like your your communities really you know rallying behind this and being able to see you know that resilience in those communities to to the different environmental changes that happen especially in in small islands because small islands feel at the most you know with these with these different changes so I really yeah I really do appreciate like hearing that now with are there are there some challenges that that are faced particularly in the Philippines maybe new challenges that you need to be addressed that you're looking for just sort of taking on you know whether it be sea level rise whether it be you know plastic pollution or any kind of like litter like marine litter or anything like that have you seen anything that's been like a sort of like a rising challenge that you've seen lately I think in the Philippines and in countries where there's high population and and just kind of like the rate of coastal development I think is that maybe or something to be confronted really and and I think that's why it's so important to be working with the local governments where everything lands because then planning and everything yeah yeah it's a lot of it has to do with planning and what's allowed what's not allowed in in the area because along with that are things like sewage going into the ocean yes yes making sure and those things you can't fix without good land use and planning right yeah though that's a big that's a big thing one of the articles that Zach sent me mention it was it was the meat about the meeting and and one of the mayor's mentioned I think it's I guess it was in siago is that siago is that how you pronounce it mentioned how the mangroves you know protected them from it was a typhoon that happened I guess it was earlier than 20 or 2021 yeah two years ago yeah yeah two years ago so can you just talk a little bit about like like maintain like you know you talk about planning talk about urban development the importance of maintaining those coastal systems you know this this mayor mentioned how this was going to be like this was a huge thing yeah does that is that with all the members that are part of the coastal 500 is that a common theme is mangrove seagrass you know coral regions are always the habitats are a big thing you just talk a little bit about that sure so that that case in siago is actually really interesting and and we really can't take credit for all that they've done because he was right that mayor is pretty visionary when he first took office in the in the around 2010 there about okay that's when he kind of really saw that they needed to address the threats to to the mangrove areas they've got the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the Philippines actually so it's right it's a big deal but it was also getting cut down for firewood etc so he kind of like put in a lot of policies and systems in at the time and and kind of like you know demonstrated political will do to really kind of like stop that then he met us in 2014 I think and and that's when we kind of like trained them on behavior adoption strategy so they sort of like layer that on and and applied it and in effect deep and the impact of it so so that's really changed he's he took it upon himself to add on livelihood programs around the mangroves that made it great more you know again created greater incentive for communities to stick with protection and and so their payoff was really during that food where it was it's there and and we've seen that in many ways either for coral reefs paying offer for food etc yeah even like wave energy too right dissipating wave energy that comes in because those corals really do a good job at that right yeah the science just isn't great so it's a little harder to prove it to communities yes yes true true yeah yeah it's not as as obvious that way but but yes I think food and it's kind of like the main thing that he does yes he when they think about think about in the same coral but with mangroves it's this really kind of like that protection protection yeah it's you know I think this is this example right here is where you see the power of coastal 500 because you have you know a mayor who may or may not in the past have only been able to speak to a couple of other mayors in and around the region too and I don't know what the dynamics are in the Philippines in terms of how often mayors get together and how far reach they have with other mayors in the country and and even but now we're talking over different you know countries and and different parts of the world and being able to share the benefits of maintaining mangroves not only for protection but also doubling down and saying hey we're going to put livelihoods around around the maintenance of the mangroves and and things like that so now I see now where it's like okay other mayors start to see this I'm like oh so there is a reason not like more than one reason to keep those mangroves in instead of like you know getting pressure from developers to be like oh no we're going to put a hotel or resort here or we're going to put a building here we're going to put some whatever development that might be I think that's really cool because you get those those mayors with those types of visions really have a lot more power in sharing with other mayors yeah yeah yeah I think it's also I think there's also benefit to to it being a global group yes because in a way you remove the element of political competition and kind of yeah true because they're just mayors together right when when they're kind of a situation so it's it's fantastic there they let their guard down there and open and honest as well and and candid and even seeing as you mentioned before the similarities of the problems and the challenges that they face and then how those solutions can maybe help you know one in the Philippines and one in like Honduras or Guatemala or wherever that might be I there's a lot of power in this and I really like the fact that you know rare is involved in this and trying to help and scale it to a point where it's like we may you may not need rare at this point too much and you know it's a it's a it's a large organization but the small organization for the impact that you're having and I just appreciate the work that you and your colleagues have done to get this program off the ground and to help these communities and and you know to really empower the communities I think that's really what's you know where conservation has been heading for a long time and rare has been at the forefront of that for a very long time with fish forever and their other programs and the pride campaigns that they've had for for various you know species at risk and so forth so Rocky thank you so much for for joining me today on the podcast to share this information I know this is something that's very positive for for us to hear and for the audience to hear because you know every once in a while we need some positive news about wearing conservation and we appreciate all the work that you've done so thank you so much for coming on the podcast thank you for having me it was fun you bet conversation thank you absolutely you bet thank you Rocky for joining me on today's episode of the how to protect the ocean podcast this was amazing it I love being able this is what I love about my job this is what I love about doing this podcast is I get to speak to people like Rocky who work for you know organizations like rare who work with communities to become more resilient it energizes me because I know that these communities are better off having a savings account for the community having the savings bank to say hey you know what if something happens we're ready to go you know we're ready to be able to support each other because we're prepared for anything that might happen because we never know what kind of storm is going to come through we never know what might happen our infrastructure is better our you know support is better our financial support is better and we're ready to go even to just think that after a storm you know you know villages will go out and put out their marker buoys to mark out the boundaries for the marine protected area because they know that they have more fish after a storm than they would previously if they didn't have a marine protected area in place that is huge that is what we call resiliency and that is what I'd like to see more and more of and hear more and more of with different different communities around the you know that live around the ocean live on the coast around the world I want to hear this because a lot of the times we hear this news and even even on this podcast we hear news and I tell news about really damaging things and really big challenges that we face where we see these you know organizations and these communities come together to work to become more resilient to these changes and be able to adapt and manage these areas a lot better than they have been in the past just because of the changes that they're facing and even though there are probably more changes coming they're still going to be able to be more resilient because they're prepared and they've and you know although that change is going to continue to happen although there's going to be challenges that they're going to face they're going to adapt they're going to make more preparations and they're going to be able to be ready for anything that is put in their place and they'll be more resilient for it this is what I love about my job this is what I love about organizations like Rare about people like Rocky to be able to work with communities like this and of course the resiliency of the community to be able to you know identify challenges that they have you know invite people in such as Rare to come in and help them out and provide resources work with governments that you know there may not have been trusted there may not there may have been trust issues in the past and be able to overcome those and have you know visionaries of like of mayors like we just talked about in Chicago in in the Philippines to be able to say hey we need mangroves and mangroves are actually saves our save our towns because when we keep them in place they save our towns from flooding and from storm surges and so forth during typhoons and that's you know we're going to put livelihoods around that so we need to protect even more especially after there's a lot of development in the face of a lot of development so love the fact that we have these types of episodes love the fact we have these organizations and people like Rocky and Rare to be able to help out these are going to these these communities in all different types of places so thank you Zach for putting me in touch with Rocky and making me aware of this story thank you Rocky for coming on the podcast and sharing your insights sharing your stories and thank you the audience members for listening to this I want you to share this because this is one of those episodes that I feel like are so shareable that people will really become more optimistic about how we adapt to changes in our environment to changes in our ocean so share this with with one of your friends your colleagues your family members whoever that might be these are these are stories that we need to get out more and more so thank you so much for listening to this episode of the How to Project the Ocean podcast I'm your host Angela and have a great day we'll talk to you next time and happy conservation