USAID ECOFISH Project launched during Fish Conservation Week

 

Philippine Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala (2nd from right) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Chief Rolf Anderson (2nd from left). With them looking are DA-BFAR Director Asis G. Perez. (right most) and ECOFISH Chief of Party Geronimo Silvestre (left most).

Philippine Department of Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala (2nd from right) and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Chief Rolf Anderson (2nd from left). With them looking are DA-BFAR Director Asis G. Perez. (right most) and ECOFISH Chief of Party Geronimo Silvestre (left most).

The USAID-funded Ecosystems Improved for Sustainable Fisheries (ECOFISH) Project was launched by Philippine Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, assisted by BFAR Director Asis  Perez and USAID’s Rolf Anderson, Chief of the Office of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (OEECC), at the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) central office on 17 October 2012. The event was was timed to coincide with Fish Conservation Week, which is celebrated every third week of October. Some 150 guests from the public and private sectors attended the launch.

ECOFISH is the successor of the highly successful USAID-supported Fisheries Improved for Sustainable Harvest (FISH) Project (2003-2010), which demonstrated that it is possible to restore the productivity and profitability of fisheries by enhancing the natural resource base with the full cooperation and engagement of national and local government units and the local communities.

ECOFISH seeks to build and innovate on the FISH Project by reforming the fisheries sector through an application of ecosystem-based fisheries management in the eight marine conservation areas: (i) Calamianes Group of islands; (ii) Lingayen Gulf; (iii) Ticao-San Bernardino Strait-Lagonoy Gulf; (iv) Danajon Reef; (v) South Negros; (vi) Surigao del Sur and Norte; (vii) Sulu Archipelago; and (viii) Verde Island passage. It was designed to contribute to the priority actions laid out in the Philippine Development Plan, 2011-2016 in the areas of sustainable agriculture and fisheries as well as in the conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources. It also supports the current US Country Assistance Strategy with respect to assistance directed at reducing threats to biodiversity and improving natural resources and environment.

PRIMEX is one of the Philippine associates of the Consortium led by Tetra Tech EMI (USA), which has been engaged by USAID to manage this five-year project. Chief of Party is Mr. Geronimo (Gerry) Silvestre. PRIMEX consultants to ECOFISH are James Kho, Institutional Development and Governance Specialist, and Nestor Escara and Rupert Sievert, Site Coordinators.