Photos from Giacomo d’Orlando’s Symbiosis series

Thanks to a local government initiative that paid her to plant mangrove seeds, Rosalie Inso was able to supplement her fishing income and pay for her son Raymark to study. He is now a teacher. Raymark says: “I owe a lot to my mother and her efforts to provide for my studies. I used to plant mangrove seeds with her when I was a child, and now I have the opportunity to teach my students the importance of contributing to the restoration of the environment in which we live.”

Women on Handayan Island monitor the growth of transplanted mangroves. This was one of the worst affected areas when Super Typhoon Odette hit the Philippines in 2021.

On November 8, 2013, Super Typhoon Yolanda struck Eastern Samar. It was one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded, sweeping away entire villages and killing at least 6,000 people.

“Without the sea, the mangroves, the rivers, we are nothing,” says Roberto “Ka Dodoy” Ballon, founder of a local fishing organization that aims to end destructive practices and regenerate mangroves. “We started this idea as a community when we realized that mangrove deforestation due to timber trade and fishpond creation and destructive fishing practices were severely affecting our fish catch and consequently our income. The whole ecosystem is part of our lives. We must protect our natural resources, not only for our own benefit, but more importantly for future generations,” he says.

A homemade bomb used for blast fishing. When a bomb like this explodes, it stuns nearby fish and cause their swim bladders to rupture, so they float to the surface or sink to the bottom, making them easy to collect. But the explosions also kill all sorts of other marine life, and damage coral reefs. It’s banned in the Philippines, but difficult to police along the country’s long coastlines.

Flying fish are one of the species that make up the biggest part of fisheries in Guiuan, and are a source of income for many people. Most people who catch flying fish live below the poverty line.

Staff and volunteers working for a conservation NGO monitor the health of a coral reef in one of the country’s protected marine areas. They check samples to monitor fish, invertebrates and life on the seabed.

Marine sanctuaries are not always welcomed by people who make a living from fishing. “The initial reaction to the creation of the marine reserve was violent because the fishermen felt they were being denied their cultural rights,” says Mario “Neil” Montemar, who works with the local government to protect a 6.2-hectare marine sanctuary. “There will always be people who try to break the rules and fish inside the sanctuary, especially at night. But eventually people realized that it was beneficial to them and now more volunteers are involved in protecting the sanctuary.”

These women are on their way to check on the health of mangroves that have been restored. For many people in coastal communities, mangrove forests provide their livelihoods, much of their food, and critical protection from storms and erosion. But most mangrove forests in the Philippines have been lost to fish ponds for commercial fish and shrimp farming, which are often then abandoned. Conservation charity ZSL is working with the local government to get mangroves included in marine protected areas.

The Buluan Island Marine Sanctuary is located about three kilometers southwest of the mainland. Established in 2004, the sanctuary aims to protect 63 hectares of waters surrounding Buluan Island, the only place in municipal waters where hard and soft corals are still intact and undamaged by dynamite fishing, commercial fishing boats and siltation. Fishermen are reportedly catching 50% more at the periphery of the sanctuary, and the variety of fish species observed has gone up.

Norberto, Ruben and Ramil patrol the waters of the Buluan Marine Sanctuary. Illegal fishing has always been rampant in the area, but today the fishermen’s behavior is changing, although there’s always someone who tries to fish inside the sanctuary’s boundaries. “They’re more afraid because they know there’s law enforcement now, and they don’t want to be fined or end up in jail,” says Ruben.

A female crab carrying a cluster of eggs. Leo and Tina Betorio caught it on their daily fishing trip, and could get a good price for it, but instead they will bring it to shore to be placed in a crab hatchery.

100 fishers in the community of Roseller Lim have formed an association so they can now access funds from local government and NGOs, to keep seaweed farming sustainable. They cultivate seaweed over an area of one hectare, and each farmer can harvest between 45 to 60 days.

Seaweed farming has always been good business for the coastal communities of Zamboanga Sibugay Gulf. In recent years, rising water temperatures and the spread of ice-ice disease resulting from climate change have made it harder to make a living seaweed farming. That’s why farmers are moving seaweed farms to deeper waters and planting mangroves along the coast to block sediments from mountain floods and improve water quality.

Coral reefs provide habitats for marine life, help replenish fish stocks, and contribute to climate resilience by safeguarding natural coastal defenses. They thrive best in protected areas, where human impacts are reduced.

Maria measures the height of a mangrove on Mahanay Island, as part of a project to restore mangrove swamps that have been harmed by typhoons.

An aerial view of Mahanay Island mangrove forest. Dozens of people from community organizations have been trained to rehabilitate mangroves and beach forests that were damaged by Super Typhoon Odette in 2021.

Main image: The community of Kabasalan is known for its rich fisheries, thanks to a local group that has been working to stop destructive fishing practices and rebuild ecosystems for nearly 40 years.