Sunday Essay: 2 women of Tañon Strait

FLORDELIZA Ferolino and Rebecca Pestaño-Smith both do the life-changing work that a lot of us aspire to do, though they approach it in different ways.

When we met on the last day of April this year, thanks to the conservation group Oceana, they were both in the midst of a full day but kindly shared their time and stories with me.

To get to Flor’s house, we drove past a couple of closed intersections and found a tight spot to park in just behind the public market in Badian. Flor then guided us down a rocky footpath that led to her home, which overlooked a mangrove stand. We couldn’t see the water but knew it was close by.

Flor is used to guiding others. To supplement her husband’s income as a fisherman, she helps people secure permits, clearances and other documents they need from government offices. She knows her way around the local government and several regional offices of national agencies. Their sometimes-complicated processes do not faze her. She is patient, soft-spoken and tenacious. She tells me she has literally worn out pairs of slippers going to and from various government offices.

Almost six years ago, Flor helped bring together a community of individuals who depend on the sea for a living. They catch and sell fish and gather seashells when the tide ebbs.Thanks to Flor’s leadership, her willingness to ask for help and her repeated visits to government offices, the group has since received government funds that they’ve used to plant mangroves and build fish cages.

At least 22 of the 46 individuals Flor leads are women. Some of them stopped by during our chat to ask Flor questions or just to say hello. In what she says has been a difficult life, Flor has played many roles: household worker, factory worker, lending company collector, micro-entrepreneur, mother, wife. She would probably be uncomfortable claiming the title, but Flor is clearly a leader, too. She could teach some of our women in power what it truly means to lead. Read the rest of her story here: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1816342.

Less than an hour away from Flor’s home, the resort where I met Becky for the first time lived up to every good thing I’d heard about it. She has been running the resort in Moalboal full-time since she retired from conservation education work.

Conservation’s ethos is clear in the way Hale Manna operates, right down to the winding paths that were designed to work with the natural landscape, rather than cut through it.

At least 50 fishermen and their family members work in the resort to supplement their income. Guests are encouraged to use the kayaks and snorkeling gear for free, in the hopes that they’ll learn to love the sea more. A bamboo raft on the edge of the Tañon Strait, just a few meters off Becky’s resort, has a resident sea turtle.

Done right, tourism can help protect Tañon Strait and other fragile ecosystems. A former lifeguard in Becky’s resort tells me in a separate interview that fishers shouldn’t catch juvenile lapulapu (grouper) because they don’t start laying eggs until they’re at least four years old. You teach conservation by living it, by showing how it can be done in the choices you make in your own business. For the rest of the story, read here: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1816952.

Plenty of challenges remain. How, Becky points out, do we help more people understand the ideas of carrying capacity and the tragedy of the commons? Declaring protected marine sanctuaries, where no-take policies are consistently enforced, is a good start. But how do we spread the idea that government offices charged with overseeing fisheries shouldn’t just see it as a matter of increasing production? That food security in the near future isn’t doable without enforcing limits in the present?