As the world marks World Fisheries Day, the Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) amplifies the urgent calls of coastal communities and fisherfolk organizations confronting the intensified threats to their survival.

Small-scale fisherfolk—already among the country’s poorest sector—continue to face severe livelihood losses due to large commercial vessels intruding into municipal waters, destructive reclamation projects, and resource-extractive coastal development. Recent data show more than 100 reclamation projects covering at least 30,000 hectares of critical fishing grounds nationwide, while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) records indicate steep decline in blue crab, anchovies, acetes, slipmouth, and siganids in reclamation-affected water such as Cavite between 2019 and 2021. These reflect a national pattern of dwindling catch, shrinking fishing spaces, and systematic marginalization of artisanal fishers.

Dredging operations further deepen this crisis. In Ilocos Sur alone, reports show that more than 9,500 fisherfolk in Santa and Caoayan have suffered severe losses from seabed extraction by private contractors. Before dredging began, fishers harvested up to 100 cans (17L each) of ipon per trip; today they barely haul barely 30. Catches of kapiged and other nearshore species have similarly collapsed. These operations not only devastate livelihoods but also accelerate coastal erosion, destroy marine habitats, and heighten vulnerability to climate-driven hazards—echoing PAMALAKAYA’s long-standing warning that dredging and black sand mining “kill the seas that feed our people.”

Emerging “green” industries introduces new pressures. In Ilocos Norte, the proposed 2,000-MW BuhaWind offshore wind project is expected to affect more than 6,500 fisherfolk across the coastal towns of Pasuquin, Burgos, Bangui, and Pagudpud. The project’s 50-meter “no sail” exclusion zones would restrict access to ancestral fishing grounds, while construction threatens long-term ecological disruption. Renewable energy is essential, but it must not replicate the extractive, top-down model long used in mining and reclamation. Clean energy cannot come at the cost of community displacement and marine destruction.

These crises reflect deeper governance failures enabling commercial fishing incursions, fast-tracked reclamation, and extractive coastal projects. Corporate influence, weakened regulation, and opaque permitting processes allow developments to proceed despite strong community opposition and inadequate environmental assessment. Such conditions create the environment in which illegal commercial fishing flourishes and destructive projects override fisherfolk rights.

This World Fisheries Day, CPDG asserts that defending Philippine fisheries requires dismantling policies that privilege private profit over people’s rights and ecological balance. Echoing the calls of fisherfolk communities and PAMALAKAYA, we urge: Stop reclamation and dredging; defend municipal fishing waters; uphold food sovereignty; and protect coastal communities now. The struggle for our seas is inseparable from the struggle for justice, democracy, and the dignity of Filipino fisherfolk whose labor feeds the nation.#

AtinAngKinse #DefendFishersfolk #StopReclamation #SaveOurFisherfolk #ProtectOurSeas #SDG14 #UPR4MidtermReview #PeopleEconomics

Photo sourced from https://ispweb.pcaarrd.dost.gov.ph/philippine-fisheries-dynamics-market-shifts-aquaculture-update-sovereignty-concerns-solar-projects-and-project-lead/