During the 80s, three percent of the country?s total fisheries production was contributed by Tayabas Bay, which encompasses the fishing grounds of the municipality of Unisan, Quezon province. In fact, it was considered as one of the 10 major fishing grounds in the country then.

Due to overexploitation and poor management practices of coastal resources, it has been continuously on the decline, resulting to diminishing fish catch and rural poverty among coastal communities. The conversion of mangrove forests into fish ponds greatly contributed to the decline as replenishment of fish stocks has been slowed down due to the absence of breeding grounds (mangroves) and the poor condition of adjacent coastal ecosystems (corals and seagrass beds) due to destructive fishing and siltation from the upland Bondoc Peninsula.

The proposed project involves the enhancement of mangroves as fish habitat to improve coastal biodiversity and fisheries productivity of Unisan, Quezon. Activities will include assisted regeneration of mangrove stands (replanting/reforestation of abandoned fish ponds covering at least 19 hectares), setting up nurseries, capacity building of POs and enterprise development.

It is expected that these efforts will increase the livelihood base of the fishing communities in Unisan. Community organization/s will be capacitated and trained to become managers of the mangrove management efforts and livelihood projects.

General Objective:
To improve coastal biodiversity and fisheries productivity of Unisan, Quezon through the rehabilitation of denuded mangrove areas by establishing community-managed and LGU-supported mangroves reforestation and development areas.

Specific Objectives
1: To reforest and rehabilitate the highly denuded mangrove areas in Barangays Malvar, Muliguin and Balanacan in the municipality of Unisan, Quezon;
2: To establish a community-managed mangroves nursery in Brgy. Malvar that would provide supply of seedlings for reforestation.
3: To strengthen the peoples? organizations and the MFARMCs for the mangroves and fisheries management.
4: To develop alternative livelihood project suitable in mangrove areas (mangrove-friendly aquaculture) and to generate socio-economic impact data of the project.

Expected Outputs
1. 19 hectares of mangrove replated with 119,000 mangrove seedlings of at least 5 local mangrove species
2. Conduct of capability building trainings for PO partners on mangroves and fisheries management.
3. Establishment of at biodiversity monitoring plot in each of the reforestation site
4. A 4,200 square meters mangroves nursery established in Brgy. Malvar that is managed and operated by the partner PO
5. number of training workshops on nursery operations and management conducted and the actual nursery development and management plans formulated.
6. MFARMC of Unisan is fully functioning as the local management body in coastal resources management, wherein its members from the partner POs and the local government units (Municipal Agriculture Office, Sangguniang Bayan and PNP) are actively involved especially in Bantay Dagat operations. Measuring the success of this output shall be done determining the number of trainings/workshops on MFARMC mandates, functions, tasks and responsibilities conducted; the number of MFARMC meetings done; number of resolutions/agreements formulated; and MFARMC activities conducted.
7. LGU support to mangroves rehabilitation and management secured, through the institutionalization of Unisan?s Fisheries Development Plan.
8. Viable mangroves-friendly livelihood projects are identified, adopted and supported by the Unisan LGU through its MFARMCs, including the identification of best options for managing and judiciously sharing the benefits of the same.

Planned Activities:
1. Mangrove Rehabiliation
2. Biodiversity Monitoring
3. Nursery Establishment
4. Capacity Building of partner PO and MFARMC
5. Local Policy Advocacy
6. Livelihood Support (counterpart for sustainability)