The Coalition for Agricultural Modernization in the Philippines or CAMP, a group of scientists and respected people in the academe, held an online forum recently to discuss the Blue Economy.
The CAMP under president Eufemio "Dong" Rasco Jr. and Chairman Emil Javier, former Unversity of the Philippines president, is an advocate of the modernization of agriculture and fisheries. Dr. Javier and former National Economic Development Authority Secretary Cielito Habito belong to the National Academy of Science and Technology, the nation's highest scientific advisory body under the Department of Science and Technology.
Together with Ms. Merle Jimenez-San Pedro, president of the Mariners' Polytechnic Colleges Foundation — Legaspi, were privileged to be invited by the group to the forum to share on how Blue Economy can be implemented at the local level.

Ms. San Pedro, also the chairperson of the Movement for Maritime Philippines, presented the highlights of the Summit on Blue Economy in the Bicol Region initiated by MPCF-Legaspi, where Trade and Industry Secretary Afredo Pascual was the guest speaker.

Before we share Ms. San Pedro's interesting presentation, let us have a briefer on Blue Economy. The World Bank defines Blue Economy as the "sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem."

It covers established traditional ocean industries such as fisheries, tourism, and maritime transport, as well as emerging activities such as offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, seabed extractive activities and marine biotechnology and bioprospecting.

There is no question, Blue Economy fits the Philippines being an archipelagic country. It is for this obvious reason that NAST identified Blue Economy as one of the major components of its "PAGTANAW 2050," the Philippine Science, Technology, and Innovation Foresight in the next 30 years which has been approved by DoST.

In her presentation, Ms. San Pedro said the Bicol region, with a population of more than 6 million and 22 percent poverty incidence, is one of the country's poorest regions although its agricultural economy allows it to sell its agricultural and marine products outside the region.

Since Bicol includes some islands, maritime transport is essential to the region's economy, yet it's too expensive. Moreover, it is host to the Tiwi Geothermal Plant in Albay; but even when the plant was operating at its peak, the region still experienced brownouts. Power consumption is also too costly.

Bicol, however, is home to the almost perfect cone Mayon Volcano and the waters around the region are frequented by butanding or whale sharks, the world's largest fish, which is popular among local and foreign tourists.

For the region's Blue Economy to develop, Ms. San Pedro recognized the need to pursue close collaboration with local government units, government agencies, non-government organizations and maritime higher education institutions in Bicol, as well as private investors.

She identified some of the areas for their collaboration. On maritime transport, the collaboration with local government units, non-government organization and investors would focus on providing local infrastructure and capability for boat and shipbuilding; on green energy, the focus would be on harnessing ocean energy and development of solar-powered ships for fishing and inter-island charging stations at ports.

On sustainable fisheries, the collaboration would be on developing sustainable and eco-friendly aquaculture systems and fighting illegal fishing; and on ecotourism, in developing Science-based coastal ecotourism, determining the carrying capacity, and providing support services.

To achieve these, Ms. San Pedro presented specific targets. Maritime higher education institutions would develop curricula related to boat/shipbuilding, port management, logistics, and supply chain management.

Also included in the target is the development of coastal ecotourism and resource management at MPCF-Legaspi's adopted communities as well as aqua-based enterprises; establishment of cruising boats and floating restaurants; design, development, and fabrication of gender-responsive boats for fishing and disaster relief operations; and promotion of water sports and aquatic recreational activities.

She conceded that these need investments. Ms. San Pedro, however, is confident since Secretary Pascual has committed, during the summit, to support the region's budding Blue Economy through small and medium-scale enterprises.

CAMP members were impressed with the presentation and convinced it can be replicated in other regions, indicating their full support for the Blue Economy.

In the next issue, we will discuss the initiative of the private sector toward achieving Blue Economy.