Perceptions of Fishermen Households on the Long-Term Impact of Coastal Resources Management in Panguil Bay

Coastal resources management (CRM) has flourished as a management approach for attaining a more sustainable form of economic development in the coastal areas of the Philippines. Its proliferation, coupled with the reasonably long time it has been in implementation, now calls for an evaluation of its long-term impact as a management and development approach. In this study, the long-term impact of CRM is evaluated not from the perspectives of technical people but based on the perception of its intended primary beneficiaries--the fishermen households. It does so not by looking into a specific CRM program or project but by observing the succession of CRM activities conducted in a single coastal area--Panguil Bay, Mindanao--over many years. The objectives were to ascertain if CRM works, identify its major constraints if it does not, and recommend future courses of actions to address the constraints.