There are growing evidences to suggest increase in the level of poverty decline in the ability of communities to be self-reliant, and the gap between the rich and the poor and widened
The educators, teachers can play an important role in integrating environmental concepts related to fish and fishing industry in the elementary and secondary schools curriculums.
In the past, workshops at national as well as regional levels were conducted on fisheries research, fishing industry, territorial rights in fisheries, fishery cooperatives. fisheries policies funded by different government agencies and private organizations like the Chamber of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Philippines (CFAR), PCAMRD. Similar p Iems were also encountered among the fishing industry and fisherfolks. These are:
(a) lack of education, lack of fisher folks organizations, appropriate technology applicable to fishing industry and fisher folks;
(b) rampant and unabated wanton destruction of fishery resources due to illegal fishing, lack of law enforcement resulting in the depletion of fish catch by sustaince fishermen;
(c) lack of fishery infrastructure and facilities for processing aquatic products for local and international market; and
(d) lack of national programs for the promotion, organization and development of cooperatives among fishermen and people engaged in the fishing industry.
Executive Order No. 15, creating the Philippine Council on Sustainable Development in 1992, emphasized the integrated approach to environment and development issues in the Philippine National Policies, Plans and Programs that involve all sectors of the society. The goal of the Philippine Strategy for Sustainable Development as identified in 1989 mostly relate to aquatic resources (fisheries) in a five-year-plan to address the problems of the fishing industry towards the country's intensive campaign for economic development program - Philippines 2000. These are:
(a) develop management programs to preserve the country's heritage of biological diversity;
(b) build a pool of professionals from faculty to students to actively incorporate environmental concerns and concepts which is relevant to the fishing industry;
(c) develop a comprehensive and research-based fishery program that can serve as a guide in the promotion, organization and improving the fishing industry nationwide, design and implement a training program to provide technical assistance and skills to individual members (fish processing, fish marketing);
(d) develop awareness in the protection and conservation of aquatic fishery resources;
(e) stop the unabated abuse and proliferation of illegal fishing (dynamite, fish poisoning, fin mesh net etc.);
(f) promote the cooperative principles and practices and inculcate the importance of self reliance and self-help;
(g) develop the proper human values for the improvement of the living standards and quality of life of the beneficiaries of the program;
(h) undertake zonification of all swamp lands and estuarine areas into their best uses, increase productivity, establishment of open and closed seasons in fishing grounds, establishment of fish sanctuaries and reservations through measurement of sustainable yield of each fish zone;
(i) university should assume greater responsibility as leader, mover, information center, implementor or ordinances, laws in maintaining ecological balance (protection and preservation of environment);
(j) pursue appropriate programmes in the population sector to control population growth, emphasize proper spacing of births, discourage migration of people to urban areas and improve the quality of human resources in terms of productivity, environmental consciousness and the ability to manage communal resources and social responsibility.
