A local man brings me is ‘catch’ in a coconut shell to examine by the Andanan River. The fish is a tiny tilapia – an introduced species which is not native to the Philippines but which is now one of the dominant species in the river.
Having looked back at my blog it was apparent that there was more about my ‘out of work’ activities than about my “day job”. So here is a bit more about what I do in working hours. Recently we have had two main activities ongoing -
- identifying the key issues which a Managment Plan for the Andanan Watershed will need to address, in terms of sustainable use of natural resources, and achieving conservation whilst meeting the livelihood needs of communities
- documenting what is happening in the watershed, including
- land use activities
- natural resources present in the area,
- pressures on water resources and natural resources, and
- biodiversity in the area.
As soon as you start doing anything like fish sampling (we hired a local fisherman called Dante to catch fish for us) a crowd of locals gathers round to try and figure out what this crazy foreigner is doing !
A crowd of locals gather round to watch us work – we are catching dragonfies, placing them in a glass tank to take photographic records, then releasing them. Soon some of the locals started catching more of them and offering them to us !
We wanted to know what fish were present, which had died out and what the health of the fish stocks in the river is. Toxic chemicals are often used (illegally) by locals to catch fish by poisoning them (would you eat a fish which had been poisoned by insecticide ?). Between that and the introduction of non-native species which dispace the native fish we think around nine species of fish which were present in the river in living memory may now be locally extinct. The size of the remaining fish being caught is very small.
While Dante was fishing, other fishermen came to show us their catches. We also spent our time catching samples of different dragonfly and damselfly species to record the species diversity in the area. Dragonflies are thought to be indicators of good water quality. We have recorded about 20 different types already, and have seen others we still have to catch !
A few of the species we have caught and photographed.
I order to identify the issues in the area we have also been consulting with local residents as well as barangay (village) officials and tribal representatives. Today we had a big workshop which brought together a lot of these people in order to find out their views on the issues in their area, and what they think should be done to improve the situation.
The Barangay representative from Mount Ararat explains the local peoples’ views on the issues in the mountian area. Behind him are cards on which they have posted up the key issues that need to be addressed.
It was a very useful discussion, and I certainly learnt a lot from them, which will all help in the development of the Management Plan for the Andanan Natural Park. It as been another busy day, so it is now time for bed (as Zebedee said).
Tomorrow we are off to Pinagalaan again for the mass feeding programme for the school children there. I will post another blog page soon with an update about the school.
