THE Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) is now reviewing the permits of fish cage and fish pen operators as part of the move to decongest the country’s largest freshwater lake.
LLDA General Manager Nereus Acosta said the dismantling of fish cages and fish pens would now be continuing process, as the LLDA steps up to implement the Fishery Zoning and Management Plan (Zomap) for Laguna de Bay.
Acosta, who recently met with Environment Secretary Regina Paz L. Lopez, said the LLDA would prioritize small-scale fishers instead of corporations and rich and moneyed individuals in granting permits to operate fish cages and fish pens from now on as ordered by President Duterte.
“Actually, our activities during the past two weeks were a result of President Duterte’s marching orders,” Acosta said.
Lopez had earlier said that, as secretary of the environment, she would ensure the number of fish pens and fish cages in Laguna de Bay is within the lake’s carrying capacity.
She also vowed to convert the entire Laguna de Bay into an ecotourism zone, starting with bringing back to its pristine state the waters in the lake.
Lopez said wastewater from around 400,000 households drain to Laguna de Bay, which contaminated the lake’s waters. She added that she would meet with local officials within the Laguna de Bay region.
Fish pens and fish cages currently occupy around 15,000 hectares of Laguna de Bay, Acosta says.
This is way beyond the lake’s carrying capacity of 10 percent of the 90,000 hectares surface area, or approximately 9,000 hectares.
In the 1970s fish pens and fish cages occupy around 20,000 hectares of the lake’s surface areas, more than twice its carrying capacity, which experts said contributed to the environmental degradation of the lake.
“Over the past two weeks, we have been intensifying operations against illegal fish pens and fish cages, as ordered by the President,” he said.
First developed in 1983, the Zomap was designed to rationalize the management and regualte the utilization of the lake’s fishery resources, as well as to resolve the equity problems among large-scale fish pen operators and small-scale fishers dependent upon open water catch.
The Zomap was updated in 1995. In 1999 the fish pen belt, as laid out in 1996 revised Zomap, was further modified and duly approved per LLDA Board Resolution 95, Series 1999. Its implementation was then placed under LLDA Lake Management Division.
Areas were alloted for fishpens, fishcages, fish sanctuaries and open fishing. Navigational lanes and barangay access lanes were also identified to facilitate the movement of people, goods and services within the lake.
Acosta said as part of the rehabilitation effort, the LLDA would intensify the massive reforestation within the Laguna de Bay Region. This, he said, is to rehabilitate the rivers that drain to the Laguna de Bay.