Representatives from the PRDP National Project Coordination Office (NPCO) and South Luzon Project Support Office (PSO) recently visited the Municipality of Roxas in Palawan, a first class municipality with seven marine protected areas (MPAs), for the Global Environment Facility (GEF) re-assessment and action planning.

Acknowledging PRDP’s objective to help the municipality, Roxas Municipal Mayor Maria Angela Sabando encouraged the planning participants to comply with the required documents and be involved in the Project activities.

Through the Project’s science-based instruments called Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MEAT) and Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT), governance and management effectiveness of the MPAs are assessed and monitored. These have been two of PRDP’s tools in evaluating the overall situation of individual protected areas in the Philippines.

“After this, we will be able to look at the weaknesses of each MPA. We will conduct a workshop on management planning and another that will tackle the resources that you have so that we can see the entire situation of each MPA,” explained Ferdinand Cruz, natural resources management (NRM) specialist of the South Luzon PSO.

The evaluation results showed that the MPAs in the  coastal barangays of Tumarbong, Johnson Island, Malcampo, Rizal, Caramay, San Miguel, and Tinitian need improvement in terms of inputs (research, volunteers, and budget), process (training, equipment, and monitoring and evaluation), and output (products and services).

The MPAs’ ratings in terms of legality and community participation were considered satisfactory, but information, site development, and financing as part of the MPAs’ overall management should also be prioritized.

Members of the MIMAROPA Regional Project Coordination Office, Roxas Municipal Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Office and MPA Barangay Officials participated in the GEF activity that included a workshop on policy development framework formulation for effective coastal and marine ecosystems management.

Roxas has three microenterprise sub-projects under GEF that were already approved by the Regional Project Advisory Board and currently under review of the MIMAROPA I-REAP team for submission to the South Luzon PSO. ### (Leira Vic Colongon, DA-PRDP RPCO 4B InfoACE Unit)