Recent studies suggest that the Philippines loses approximately 68.5 billion pesos to illegal fishing activities each year. Poor enforcement has also allowed fishing outfits to operate unchecked, which has left 10 of the countries’ 13 fishing areas overfished. Rampant and destructive fishing practices have cost the Philippines’ fishery industry, putting the livelihoods of millions of Filipinos at risk.

WWF-Philippines, together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and BFAR, has been working with technical partners on the development of an effective electronic catch documentation traceability system, to provide a simple and comprehensive way to monitor fish catches in the country.

“We’ve heard from local government units, and they’ve expressed their willingness to follow traceability measures. Their problem is a lack of guidelines as to what they should be following,” said WWF-Philippines Fisheries Technical Officer David N. David. The existing fisheries code calls for traceability measures to help with the enforcement of the law over the countries’ marine resources. Guidelines to implement these measures, however, are currently lacking, making it difficult for key players to roll out what is already in the law.