“Does a Fisher need to fish forever?” A few years ago, a young girl asked me this question. I was struck by her question since she was inadvertently referring to her grandfather who despite his old age needed to be out to sea for food and livelihood to cover their daily needs.
One of the oldest and noblest of professions is that of a fisherman. In the Philippines, the average Fisher is about 50 to 55 years old, a far cry from a country with a median age of 25 years old. So, what has driven young people away from fishing yet be willing to pay for expensive seafood when visiting island destinations?
Fishing is not considered a profession that is worthy of being called a Self Employed Professional or an Entrepreneur engaged in the trade of fishing. In many countries including ours, the Fishers continue to be classified as members of an informal economy. Why do the frontliners of our food security, who supply 65% of our protein needs, lack support?
How can we promote sustainable fishing behavior if our worry is futures that can shock their daily routines? How can our fishers think of a future if they do not understand options for their own identified issues and risks? To better understand our fishers, we listened to their stories of adventures in the seas and oceans early in the morning as they returned to shore after an evening off the coasts to catch fish and other marine species as their livelihood. In our discussions, I started asking myself, “Does a Fisher need to fish forever?”
I have always been in awe of our fishers. They can survive being at sea every night by their lonesome; their work is actually one of the riskiest jobs with the sea having the ability to turn violent within a few seconds notice. Why can’t we care for our fishers the way we do to our doctors, our lawyers, our drivers, our office workers? Any profession would have social and financial protection mechanisms for themselves and their families. What makes it so difficult for fishers to have social services, health insurance, housing insurance and life insurance when their profession is what we need most to feed and nourish ourselves?
In our contemplation of this conundrum, my team started collaborating with many groups to check the possibility to design social protection mechanisms for our fishers. Under the guidance of Rare, we finally launched the FishForever Social Protection program in 2018 and began rolling out full social protection access a year later, right before the COVID-19 pandemic. This event, which many were not prepared for, especially the fishers, validated the need for our fishers to have social protection. The trust we’d earned with our fishers ensured they continued sustainable practices despite food scarcity fears and health concerns. Going out to sea for enforcement and monitoring within their community waters felt more secure than staying home.
In 2021, with funding from the Equity Initiative and CMB, we rolled out the Social Protection Program to 8 additional municipalities on Siargao Island, Philippines. This provided equitable access to building health and financial security for more coastal fishers. In our discussions with the government, social protection agencies and development partners, they started asking “Does a Fisher need to fish forever?”. Our focus on practical solutions garnered attention, despite not offering entirely novel approaches. Fishers, recognizing the value of social protection and sustainable practices, now see clearer paths to a better future.
Climate change has placed countries like the Philippines at greater risk. Stronger typhoons, extreme heat, and heavy rains threaten food security frontliners like fishers. These are new risks confronting them and their families in their chosen profession. However, social protection programs can help mitigate these risks. In the Philippines, there are at least five government supported social protection program available for all Filipinos to help manage their futures: Social Security Service for Pension, PhilHealth for Medical Insurance and Free under the Universal Healthcare Act, Pag-Ibig for Housing, Philippine Crop Insurance Corporation for Livelihood Protection, Department of Social Welfare and Development – Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situation for immediate assistance. In the Municipality of Del Carmen with the support of Rare, we added critical pieces of legislation to support Social Protection: Institutionalizing the Social Protection Program by Issuance of Identification Cards for Members as many do not have any ID to support application in the Government Social Protection Programs, establishing Community Gardens for Access to Food regardless of shocks to the community and assisting to setup small groups for Community Savings Groups. We successfully piloted these public innovations in eight municipalities across Siargao Island, demonstrating a pathway to transition fishers from the informal to the formal economy.
It took us a while to respond definitively to the young girl: “Does a Fisher need to fish forever?”. Now, we can answer with confidence: No, not if it means a future without options. But Yes, if their love for the sea compels them to be there! The young girl is now a University Graduate helping our local government to look for new innovative ideas to further protect our fishers and encourage new younger fishers to support this profession. There are many more of our youth asking the same question in their own spaces and communities, and now we have concrete solutions that can be replicated and localized to help their neighbors, relatives, family and friends. We need now to push the National Governments to recognize and scale the need to Transform the Fisher from an Informal to the Formal Economy and allow social protection mechanisms to be the norm for ensuring better futures for our fishers and their families.
As we celebrate the OCEANS MONTH 2024, let us ask ourselves “Does a Fisher need to fish forever?” Through collaboration between our national agencies, non-government organizations, civil society and local governments, we can provide an answer to the fundamental question: Together we can protect our fishers, support their interests in sustainable fishing and ensure the marine ecosystems for our food security.
