Community efforts yield new marine protected area in the Philippines

The Philippines has officially designated a new marine protected area after an 18-year campaign by local communities, fisher associations, civil society organizations and government agencies, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced Aug. 13. The newly created Bitaug Marine Protected Area (MPA), which covers nearly 150 hectares (about 370 acres), is the largest MPA in Siquijor province in the Central Visayas region of the country. The MPA includes a core zone of 44 hectares (about 110 acres) and a buffer zone of 105 hectares (260 acres), according to the Philippine Information Agency (PIA), a government body. The coastal waters the MPA covers are home to a high diversity of corals, reef fish and seagrass. They also host high biomass of commercially important fish species, turtles, sharks