In the heart of Dumaguete at Freedom Park, the Buglasan Festival 2023 unfolded as a vibrant celebration like no other. Spanning from October 14th to 22nd, this years ‘fiesta of fiestas’ brought together the unique spirits of the 6 cities and 19 municipalities residing within Negros Oriental. The province’s rich heritage was shared through a colourful journey of traditional dances, delectable local cuisine and more. Buglasan Festival derives its name from “Buglas”. “Buglas” or “Buglas Insulis”, was the island’s name in the pre-Hispanic era referring to the tall “marsh grass” that grew in abunda ..read more

Along with the rest of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic was a severe disruption for MCP, and our activities were suspended  from March 2020 until February 2022. We tried to use the down time to improve and refine our operations for when we could resume, and we’ve expanded our monitoring horizons to include additional survey sites. Excitingly, new Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have also been established. This is wonderful, encouraging news for our mission to help ensure food security for local communities.  We’re very happy to share that we’ve just finished our first complete survey s ..read more

PRESS RELEASE February 15th 12:03 For Release: Immediately Calls on IATF and Bureau of Immigration to consider the environment under new Travel Rules Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental. After two years of strict pandemic border control and following recommendation and guidelines established by the Inter Agency Task Force, the Philippines reopened borders for international tourism starting February 10th. Tourists from 154 countries are now able to enter the Philippines and get a 9A tourist visa on arrival, valid for a maximum of 30 days. Pre-COVID tourism in the Philippines contributed ~13% of the ..read more

As the covid19 pandemic rages on and borders are still closed, it’s been a priority for MCP to try and keep our local staff employed for as long as we are financially able to so they may continue supporting their families. The downtime has been used to make a lot of renovations and base improvements. Former volunteers will be happy to know that thanks to a new water tower and new piping, we now have good water pressure all over base – even when everyone is trying to shower at once. We have built additional toilets and showers, which will help increase safety when we open up again, in terms of ..read more

As a MCP science intern, I thought I knew what to expect – diving each day in one of the most biodiverse areas of the world, working hard within the monitoring team to help with surveying and training volunteers, and to prepare for the busiest six months of my life. But, believe it or not, I wasn’t prepared to undergo life here amid a worldwide pandemic. How everything unravelled The Philippines was the first country to have a reported case of COVID-19 outside of China. At the beginning of the outbreak in February, which now feels like so long ago, the staff at MCP were as dismayed as everyo ..read more

For those of you who are not familiar with Basay, it is the most western municipal of Negros Oriental facing the Sulu Sea, about a two hour drive from MCP. It is a gorgeous, little coastal town surrounded by rice, sugar cane and corn fields with spectacular forested mountains just behind. With a Marine Protected Area of 40 hectares fringing the coastline, we were about to find out what Basay had to offer. MCP had an exciting opportunity to visit this stunning part of the country. The Fisherfolk President of Andulay/President of the Fisherfolk Association of Negros Oriental, had kindly invited ..read more

What better way to experience mangroves than to actually stick your feet into the nutrient-rich mud and plant a mangrove sapling! On the 25th of January, I met Evelyn, one of the members of PAPSIMCO (Palayuhan, Palimpinon, and Siit Multipurpose Cooperative), to strategize with her where to plant the ready mangrove saplings in Tambobo Bay. PAPSIMCO is one of the people’s associations in the Municipality of Siaton that MCP has been collaborating with in different projects including mangrove restoration. Mangroves are salt-water loving trees and they are a vital ecosystem for conservation in the ..read more

We stood around a feast of seafood, noodles, curries and rice, and smiled at each other as Neil, the president of the Fisherman’s Association of Andulay, explained to us the rule of sharing this meal: you must stick your hands right in to enjoy. As we started digging into the beautifully cooked meal prepared by the local women, we all laughed, ripping off pieces of the leaves that held the different food and still trying to locate plates to eat off of. On the first of September, Marine Conservation Philippines (MCP) held a community day with the local fisher folk of Andulay, a village close to ..read more

A few weeks ago our instructor Kyle and a group of dive masters in training (link described the training) had the pleasure of rising early and driving a few hours up coast to Bais city where they met up with a group of government employees who came down to MCP a few months prior to complete the open water diver course. That was the first step in training them to a point where they can  one day independently monitor the status of their own MPAs. Similar efforts are currently ongoing with other municipalities. The idea of this trip was to get the team back in the water, refresh some skills, and ..read more

Engaging the youth through MCP’s Sea Camp! This summer, after almost two months of preparation, MCP held two of our first ever, three-day Sea Camps! We opened the application process for the first Sea Camp to diverse, local youths who were interested in learning about the marine environment. Whilst for the second Sea Camp, we involved a local orphanage based in Dumaguete. In total, we had 32 amazing and energetic teenagers with us for the two consecutive Sea Camps! Most of the activities were the same between the two camps; however, in the second camp, we focussed more on alternative livelihoo ..read more