Landlocked yet drowning: the impacts of environmental change on the lives of Philippine fisherwomen

To what extent do pressures on local marine habitats in the Philippines affect gender relations within municipal fishing communities? 

There already exists a steadily growing body of literature on the adverse effects that environmental degradation – such as overfishing, habitat destruction and increasingly climate change – is having on coastal communities, particularly in the developing world. Much of this work, however, is focussed at the community level, treating each of the groups in question as a cohesive, uniform unit. Feminist political ecology has emerged with a view to unseat such assumptions. It uncovers the gendered dimensions upon which the often dissimilar and/or unequal effects of environmental change are played out. Informed by this approach, this analysis examines the extent to which particularly women within municipal fisheries in the Philippines are affected by external pressures on local environments.

The Philippine fisheries sector is sub-divided into four categories: municipal (capture) fisheries, commercial (capture) fisheries, aquaculture, and fish processing. Municipal fisheries refer to coastal fishing activities by means of traditional and simple fishing tools, primarily for subsistence. It should be noted, however, that small-scale fishing operations conduct (quite literally) their own ‘in-house’ fish processing. Due to the gendered division of labour, such activity goes undocumented and therefore remains economically unaccounted for, as will be discussed later. Furthermore, small-scale aquaculture operations are categorised as municipal rather than aquaculture fisheries, due to their function as subsistence income sources – albeit this applies to only a small number of cases as the majority of Philippine aquaculture production is commercial. On the whole, however, municipal fisheries may be understood as artisanal fishing conducted at a household or community level, using traditional and often more sustainable fishing practices than large-scale outfits.

Municipal fisheries face multiple environmental and socio-economic pressures, which often interlink. In addition to climate change effects and the threat of sea-level rise, small coastal communities must contend with overfishing, illegal fishing, trade liberalisation of fish produce, and habitat destruction, such as mangrove forest conversion for the establishment of fish farms and/or development of beach-front commercial and residential properties. All of these activities diminish the profit margin for municipal fishers by depleting available wild marine stocks, destroying habitats of near-shore species, or limiting market access. As a result, whereas total fish production for commercial and aquaculture fisheries has increased, the volume of total fish production by municipal fisheries has steadily declined from 60% in 1979 to 26.5% in 2009, and total production value has decreased from 55% to 35% within the same period. Not only is this trend deeply worrisome in socio-economic terms, as this sector is comprised of Filipinos in the poorest income bracket, but it also signals a serious environmental risk, given that the methods used are significantly more selective and more sustainable than those used by commercial and aquaculture operations.

In terms of employment within the Philippine fishing industry, there is an apparent gender imbalance. Exact figures for municipal fisheries alone are difficult to determine, yet the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that the fisheries sector as a whole provides direct and indirect employment to over one million people, or about 5 percent of the national labour force, of whom 65 percent (675 677) are in municipal fisheries, 26 percent (258 480) in aquaculture and 6 percent (56 715) in commercial fisheries. Of the total employed workers, women consisted of only 8.2 percent, dropping to 6.3 percent in 2002. However, these figures reflect solely the number of individuals executing the direct act of catching fish. Women within fishing communities directly and indirectly support the trade in ways which are often unaccounted for. Through household management, community participation, fuel and water gathering, and alternative livelihood provision, such as vegetable gardening and livestock rearing, they enable the maximisation of men’s time at sea and allow for the continued existence of municipal fishing even in the face of mounting external pressures. Meanwhile, they perform crucial pre- and post-harvest duties, including net-making and mending, gear installation and maintenance, fish processing, and fish vending or market retailing, without which the fishermen’s labour would be fruitless. Finally, fisherwomen and fishermen’s wives carry out near-shore activities which contribute directly to household income and food provision, such as shell and fry gathering/gleaning, spear fishing in rivers, and reef fishing using scoop nets, traps and fish baskets. Due to the lack of recognition and remuneration for the financial and social value of these tasks, women’s participation in the fishing sector and their contribution to the running of municipal fisheries – and in turn, to the use of largely sustainable fishing practices – is grossly underestimated.

In order to understand why fisherwomen’s labour is overlooked at both national and local scales, one must take into account several factors. First, they constitute part of the poorest sectors of Philippine society and thus have little economic clout. Data from the 12 bays in the Philippines reported an average annual income of P25,426 (USD605.00) in 1992. Therefore, despite the importance of the fisheries sector to the national economy, the majority of those who engage in it as a livelihood earn average incomes far below the poverty threshold. Second, several studies on gender dimensions in fisheries show that the majority of female respondents receive limited education – the average being four to six years or less, which is not dissimilar to the duration of education received by men, but lower than the average among women in urban areas (6.9 years) – and therefore have fewer qualifications and social resources to draw upon. And third, their self-perception is in keeping with the male-dominated division of labour predominant in Philippines society. Viewing themselves as supporters rather than leaders, they derive satisfaction from the success of those they have assisted and thus focus their energies on domestic tasks, as well as assume secretarial rather than leadership positions in community affairs. This confluence of social-economic limitations, engendered both externally and internally, culminates to render women invisible in the management of municipal fisheries.

Nevertheless, as the profitability of municipal fish produce declines, it is women who move to plug the gaps in household income. Wives increase their load of domestic duties and pursuits of alternative livelihood, such as agricultural production or basket weaving, in order to enable their husbands to spend longer hours going farther out to sea in search of fish. Since formal credit institutions recognise men as borrowers, women transact loans from relatives and neighbours through informal community links and, when household incomes are inadequate, the women take on the role of seeking such informal credit. And finally, when all else fails, it tends to be women who migrate to urban areas seeking menial labour in order to remit money back home. Thus it is the sacrifices borne by women that enable municipal fishing communities and their traditional fishing practices to stay afloat even as the odds stack up against them.

Yet despite the marginalisation of their efforts within their communities, and what is more, the marginalisation of their communities within the broader Philippine fishing industry, women fisherfolk have organised and agitated for their interests. Acting jointly with fisherwomen’s groups throughout Asia, Filipinas contributed to and co-presented the Hanoi Declaration on Women in Fisheries in 2000, which demands fair education, representation, empowerment, and inclusion. Furthermore, as part of the national FisherFolk Movement, known as Kilusang Mangingisda (KM), which strives to unite and empower small fishers throughout the Philippines, women have organised themselves into the Kababaihan sa Kilusang Mangingisda (KKM) or Women within the Fisherfolk Movement. They thus partake in all of the activities of the KM, shedding light on gender-specific issues within fishing communities, cooperating with NGOs, participating in direct action (such as the dismantling of illegally constructed fish cages), and holding workshops for fellow fisherwomen.

Only by delving analytically deeper than the community level can we uncover the gendered dynamics operating within municipal fisheries. Given their immense contribution to the survival of the industry, it is necessary to acknowledge women’s achievements, address their concerns, and equip them for the future. Only in this way can the livelihoods of some the country’s most impoverished citizens be safeguarded, and its marine habitats sustained.

Provisional Sources

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·         Presented in the Regional Training on Ecological Mangrove Rehabilitation at Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, on July 18 to 22, 2011. Sponsored by Oxfam GB, CIDA AND  MAP Indonesia

·         Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Department of Agriculture, and Department of the Interior and Local Government. (2001). Philippines Coastal Management Guidebook No. 6: Managing Municipal Fisheries. Coastal Resource Management Project of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Cebu City, Philippines.

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