This policy brief is based on the report Philippines Integrated Coastal Management: Diverging Stakeholder Agendas and Elite Co-option in the Babuyan Islands.

The national response in the Philippines to concerns regarding ecosystem decline and degradation has been the institutionalisation of the Integrated Coastal Management (ICM) paradigm.

The resulting co-management approach builds on pioneering efforts in community-based coastal resource management, converting unregulated open access into co-management regimes. It thus forms a reaction to former ‘command-and-control’ management, and the colonial legacy in Philippine natural resource management under Spanish rule and American administration.

However, despite the promotion of ICM, the Philippines has in recent years continued to see a significant decline in the fisheries sector of more than 25% in its contribution to gross domestic product, and the management of declining near shore fisheries is leading to rising resource conflicts.

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