MENDOZA, JIMLEA NADEZHDA Local Ecological Knowledge of fishermen as a basis for sustainable fisheries management: case study of Mabato-Asufre Pangil, Laguna Philippines.

Overview Laguna lake region, the biggest inland body of freshwater in the Philippines, where the fishery sector has become an important economic contributor locally and nationally. Currently, it is experiencing many challenges concerning decline in fisheries in the region. The lake has been affected by natural calamities which may lead to prolonged flooding, increasing levels of pollution from industrial, domestic wastewater and agriculture, fish kills and occurrence of invasive species in the past years. All of these are causing damages to public and private property and economic activities especially concerning local fishermen. The changes are in the hands of local people because these knowledge systems and practices may be helpful tools for understanding processes in the ecosystems and related changes and establishing local level responses to prevent negative impacts of such changes. Method The field investigation will be carried out in Barangay Mabato Asufre Pangil Laguna Philippines in February 2020. The data concerning local ecological knowledge will be gathered thru free-listing, semistructured interviews, key informants/focus group discussions and personal interviews. Key respondents in the study area are local stakeholders including traditional fishers, farmers, and community leaders from BFARMC or “Bantay Lawa” and will be determined using snowball method. The qualitative, semi qualitative analysis, of the fishes and their uses with respect to past and present ecological knowledge are the products of several personal meetings with fishers and community leaders as well as consultations with fisheries managers. A total of 30 people will be directly interviewed from the community level and 3-5 officials from the related local government offices. Substantial amounts of secondary data related to fisheries management policies will be collected from government offices and from the works of experts in the field of managing fisheries in freshwater resources, as well as consulting the meeting minutes of community level organizations in the study area. Expected Outcomes I chose the project focus environmental diversity and community empowerment provided that the project that I am working on will promote the participation of all stakeholders by means of increasing the capacity of local people in protecting local freshwater resources while engaging local people more and in order for research institutions to work hand in hand with local government units and community based organizations to contribute in achieving collective efforts to address environmental challenges, to enhancing lake stewardship, inclusion or engaging the youth nowadays by promoting environmental education and raising their awareness. This research will be a collaboration among Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics of Ca Foscari University of Venice Italy together with concerned local government units and organizations such as one of the nearby high school in the village.