The Philippine government has welcomed the scorecard that several civil society groups have put out for the monitoring and evaluation of policy interventions within designated fisheries management areas (FMA) in the country.

The FMA Scorecard is intended as a tool to monitor and recommend measures for an effective and sustainable administration of the 12 FMAs in the country.

A statement showed that the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources has welcomed the release of this “game-changing assessment tool”, which was established by different groups including Oceana, Philippine Earth Justice Center, Environmental Defense Fund, and Zoological Society of London – Philippines, Environmental Legal Assistance Center, Inc.,

NGOs for Fisheries Reform, Inc., World Wide Fund for Nature Philippines, Center for Agrarian Reform Empowerment and Transformation, Institute of Social Order, and Large Marine Vertebrates Research Institute Philippines were also part of this collaborative effort.

A key element of the FMA Scorecard is the “Checklist” which asks a series of simple questions pertaining to the effective and sustainable management of the FMAs.

This “Checklist” focuses on areas to determine the compliance status of the FMAs with respect to the existing laws, rules, and regulations and the Means of Verification provide for the legal instruments or actions taken.

In 2019, BFAR issued the Fisheries Administrative Order (FAO) 263, which established the FMA system covering all Philippine waters.

It encourages all coastal local government units as fisheries managers to take on shared responsibilities with national government and stakeholders for the conservation and sustainable management of their respective FMAs and provide a science-based, transparent, and participatory governance framework for their management.

Under FAO 263, each FMA is tasked to set up its own governance structure, through a multisectoral management body, and develop its own FMA Plan to guide the policy direction and response of key stakeholders.

Assisted and advised by a scientific advisory group, the management body also sets reference points or critical range of values of performance indicators of fish, and formulate harvest control rules that would promote sustainable fishing.

The FMA Scorecard can also serve as a guide in complying with the said BFAR order, Oceana said in a statement.

It also serves as a participatory, monitoring, and evaluation tool of the implementation process that will be contained in the required yearly report of the FMA Management Body to BFAR.