(PAGASA 24-HOUR PUBLIC WEATHER FORECAST as of Wednesday, 27 March 2024) Easterlies affecting the eastern section of the country. Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Dinagat Islands, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur will experience Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms due to Easterlies / Localized Thunderstorms. Possible flash floods or landslides during severe thunderstorms.


Tuesday, August 3, 2021

BFAR-13, SIKAT hold I-FIT workshop in Siargao Island

GENERAL LUNA, Siargao Island -- The Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) Caraga, together with Sentro ng Katutubong Agham at Teknolohiya (SIKAT, Inc.), the partner and support non-government organization (NGO), recently conducted an assessment workshop using the Philippine Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Index and Threat Assessment (I-FIT) tool among the nine municipalities in Siargao Island.

I-FIT focal persons presented the different components of the said tool - prevalence, vulnerability and response of IUU fishing to readily fill-out the indicator and annex forms.

Training participants actively engaged in the sessions such as arranging of focuser statements that gave them the idea of what the workshop was all about and identifying IUU fishing activities present in their respective areas of jurisdiction.

They also worked together in providing inputs on the questions required to assess IUU fishing activities in their municipal waters. They were also encouraged to proactively coordinate and support each entity to solve the problem of IUU fishing.

To sustainably manage the fisheries resources and find long-lasting solutions to IUU fishing threats, the I-FIT tool was developed and designed by Fish Right Program and DA-BFAR in efforts to reduce and eliminate IUU fishing in the country using a science and knowledge-based approach.

This requires an in-depth understanding of the context of IUU fishing in municipal waters and in a given area. This set of tools enables to assess prevalence, vulnerability and responses to IUU fishing in specific areas starting with the municipal waters of an LGU and use this information to identify opportunities to address IUU fishing to develop targeted and focused strategies and interventions.

Using the tool will enable law enforcers to come up with standardized and comparable tracking of progress in a given area and the entire country in reducing IUU fishing over time.

The said workshop assessment convened municipal agriculturists, agricultural technologists for fisheries, municipal environment and natural resource officers, FARMC chairpersons, representatives from the ‘Bantay Dagat’ group, fisherfolk organizations and Philippine National Police from the nine municipalities in Siargao Islands, Surigao del Norte.

The first batch ran from June 22-23, 2021 with participants from four municipalities, and on June 24-25, 2021 for the second batch with participants from five municipalities. (DA-BFAR Caraga FPLEG/PIA-Surigao del Norte)