Lessons From The Apo Island Story
What it takes to achieve a turnabout from decline to restoration and sustainability
The central role of feedback loops in the Apo Island story
The negative tipping point occurred throughout the Philippines with the introduction of destructive fishing methods such as dynamite, cyanide, and small-mesh fishing nets. Two interlocking and mutually reinforcing vicious cycles were set in motion:
- The use of destructive fishing methods reduced fish stocks directly through overfishing. Destructive fishing reduced the stocks indirectly by damaging their coral habitat. With declining fish stocks, the fishermen were more and more compelled to use destructive fishing methods to catch enough fish, further degrading habitat and reducing fish stocks.
- As home fishing grounds deteriorated, fishermen traveled further and further to find less damaged sites where they could catch some fish. They used destructive fishing without restraint because places far from home were of no particular significance for future fishing. Sustainability of the island’s fishing grounds also became less important as fishing shifted away from the island.
The downward spiral of destructive fishing, habitat degradation, diminishing fish stocks, and fishing further from home continued until many places were virtually worthless for fishing.
The central role of catalytic actions and mutually reinforcing feedback loops
EcoTipping Points cascade through and between social system and ecosystem. A small change to either system leads to larger changes in both. A positive tip generates improvements in social and ecological systems that reinforce one another to turn both systems from deterioration to health.
The catalytic action – the EcoTipping Point – for Apo Island was establishment of the marine sanctuary, which set in motion numerous ecological and social changes. Most important was the fact that success with the sanctuary inspired local fishermen to devise and enforce regulations for their entire fishing grounds.
Every round of success after that inspired the fishermen to improve the management regime even further. More fish stimulated tourism, which in turn reinforced the need for a vibrant marine ecosystem to continue attracting tourists. The economic benefits from tourism, the positive experience of exerting control over their destiny, and recognition as a model community for fisheries management stimulated numerous changes in the island society, setting in motion additional feedback loops (“virtuous cycles”) involving island infrastructure, education, and family planning.
Vicious cycles – the feedback loops driving decline - are central to the Apo Island story (see Feedback Analysis of the Apo Island Story).
Positive change was set in motion when vicious cycles were reversed, transforming them into virtuous cycles that drove restoration with as much force as the vicious cycles drove decline. Reversing vicious cycles can be a tall order because they can be so powerful, but anything less is merely “swimming against the current.”
Key Questions
- What does it take to reverse vicious cycles and transform them into virtuous cycles?
- What does it take to create “spinoffs” that form additional virtuous cycles to reinforce and consolidate restoration?
Decline was turned around only when the vicious cycles driving decline were themelves turned around. Anything less would have been merely "swimming against the current"
Reversing the vicious cycles was not easy because the vicious cycles were so powerful. But it was the only way to change to a course of restoration. Once the vicious cycles were turned around, the very same feedback loops were transformed into "virtuous cycles" that mobilized nature and natural social process to work just as powerfully to bring about restoration and health. And new virtuous cycles created by "success breeds success" reinforced the restoration process and helped to lock in the gains.
Blue:Spin-offs and associated virtuous cycles.
The positive tipping point for Apo Island was creation of a marine sanctuary, setting in motion a cascade of changes that reversed the vicious cycles in the negative tip. In the diagram below the vicious cycles transformed to virtuous cycles are shown in black. Additional virtuous cycles that arose in association with the marine sanctuary are shown in green and red.
- The sanctuary served as a nursery, contributing directly to the recovery of fish stocks in the island’s fishing grounds.
- Success with the sanctuary stimulated the fishermen to set up sustainable management for the fishing grounds. A virtuous cycle of increasing fish stocks, accompanied by growing management experience, pride, and commitment to the sanctuary, was set in motion.
- As fishing improved around the island, fishermen were no longer compelled to travel far away for their work. Fishing right at home, where they had to live with the consequences of their fishing practices, reinforced their motivation for sustainable fishing.
“Lock In” To Sustainability Came With The Formation of Additional Virtuous Cycles:
- The increase in fish populations and the health of the reef ecosystem around the island led to tourism. Earnings from tourism provided a strong impetus to keep the marine ecosystem healthy. Although coral reef tourism is frequently not sustainable because tourists damage the coral, the experience of Apo Island’s inhabitants with managing their marine sanctuary and fishing grounds gave them the ability to manage tourism so it didn’t damage the coral.
- Positive results from the marine sanctuary stimulated the island community to develop a strong marine ecology program in their elementary school, so the new generation values the island’s marine ecosystem and knows how to keep it healthy.
- Income from tourism gave islanders the ability to send their children to high school and university on the mainland. A few have gone on to study marine science in graduate school. The high educational level of the island’s new generation will give it the ability to deal with unexpected future threats to their fishery and marine ecosystem.
- Enhanced ecological awareness has led to a family planning program aimed at preventing an increase in population that would overburden the island’s fishery in the future.
In summary, the Apo Island story shows how EcoTipping Points provide a paradigm of hope in a world of accelerating environmental deterioration by offering an alternative to micro-management. The information, material, and energy inputs to micromanage solutions for the myriad environmental problems that we face are simply beyond human capacity. EcoTipping Points are not magic bullets to solve environmental problems overnight. But in a world of limited resources and powerful social and ecological currents, they are efficient ways to help the self-organizing powers of nature and human nature to move environmental support systems toward greater health.
The marine sanctuary was the lever that reversed the vicious cycles driving decline and transformed them into virtuous cycles driving restoration. This lever combined an appropriate environmental technology (i.e., the marine sanctuary) with the social organization to put that technology effectively into use. The following “Ingredients for Success” summarize characteristics of the environmental technology and social organization that made the lever strong enough to set in motion the turnabout from decline to restoration.
1. Shared Community Awareness And Commitment
Strong democratic institutions and genuine community participation are prominent in EcoTipping Point stories. Of particular importance is a shared understanding of the problem and what to do about it, and shared ownership of the action that follows. Communities move forward with their own decisions, manpower, and financial resources.
At Apo Island, creation of the sanctuary, and subsequent community management of Apo Island's fishing grounds, came out of community discussion. The local barangay government took the lead, and Apo Island was able to draw upon its traditional procedure for community decision making by assembling representatives of all Island families at the primary school playground (along with an ample supply of roast pork and other amenities) to discuss the issue at hand until reaching agreement, even if it took days of intensive discussion to do so.
2. Outside Stimulation And Falicitation
Outsiders can be a source of fresh ideas. While action at the local level is essential, a success story typically begins when people or information from outside a community stimulate a shared awareness about a problem and introduce game-changing ideas for dealing with it.
The marine sanctuary was created after three years of dialogue between Apo Islanders and Silliman University staff – a dialogue that helped the fishermen and their families to take stock of what was happening to the fishery and what might be done about it. Marine biologist Angel Alcala took some of the fishermen to a small no-fishing reserve at another island, where they could see the dramatic impact of fish protection on fish stocks. Later, NGO assistance was critical for securing the Island's local (barangay) government legal authority to exercise control over the Island's fishery. Years later, another NGO helped the Islanders to set up a community family planning program.
3. Enduring Commitment Of Local Leadership
Trusted and persistent leaders inspire the deep-rooted and continuing community commitment and participation necessary for success. From the very beginning, a dynasty of barangay leaders was highly committed to the marine sanctuary. Their commitment was entwined with entrepreneurial involvement in the Island's tourist development and with their stewardship of educational initiatives for the entire community, made possible by tourist revenues. Although not all Islanders were convinced at the beginning that the sanctuary was a good idea, those who were committed persisted until the benefits became obvious to everyone, and long-term community commitment and action followed.
4. Co-adaption Between Social System And Ecosystem
Social system and ecosystem fit together, functioning as a sustainable whole. When Apo Islanders established their marine sanctuary, they set in motion a "social commons" to fit their "environmental commons" – their coral reef ecosystem and fishery.
The social commons began with community management of the sanctuary and evolved to managing the fishing grounds around the Island. Social cooperation was facilitated by the network of trust and obligation in Apo's tight-knit community, where everyone is related by blood or marriage to almost everybody else. The cooperation worked because they drew on community wisdom to devise effective rules for protecting their fishery, and the rules were practical to enforce (see "Overcoming social obstacles" below). The marine ecosystem responded by repairing itself and better meeting community needs.
Once the EcoTipping Point – the marine sanctuary and the social organization to implement it – set positive change in motion, normal social, economic, governmental, and ecological processes took it from there.
5. “Letting Nature Do The Work”
EcoTipping Points give nature the opportunity to marshal its self-organizing powers to set restoration in motion. As soon as fish were protected in Apo's marine sanctuary, their high reproductive capacity enabled them to quickly repopulate the sanctuary. When destructive fishing was no longer allowed around the Island's fishing grounds, nature set in motion a complex restoration process for the entire coral ecosystem – something that human micro-management of the ecosystem could never achieve.
6. Rapid Results
Quick "payback" helps to mobilize community commitment. Three years after establishing the sanctuary, the increase in fish stocks was so dramatic that it inspired Apo Islanders to embark on managing their fishing grounds outside the sanctuary.
Full recovery of fish catches outside the sanctuary took longer, but there were visible improvements from the beginning.
- The spectacular recovery of the Island's coral-reef ecosystem attracted tourism, reinforcing the commitment of Islanders to a healthy marine ecosystem.
- A substantial portion of the income from tourism went back to the community in the form of infrastructure (e.g., water supply, electrification, renovation of the Island's primary school) and community development projects (e.g., a local bakery, micro-financing, and marketing cooperatives), further reinforcing commitment.
7. A Powerful Symbol
It is common for prominent features of EcoTipping Point stories to serve as inspirations for success, representing the restoration process in a way that consolidates community commitment and mobilizes community action. The marine sanctuary is a sacred site for Apo Island inhabitants. It is the centerpiece of a shared story of pride and achievement. They say that the sanctuary saved the island's marine ecosystem, the fishery, and their way of life. It is unthinkable to violate the sanctuary or what it represents.
8. Overcoming Social Obstacles
The larger socio-economic system can present numerous obstacles to success on a local scale. For example, people may have so many demands on their time, it is difficult to find the time for community enterprises. The Island community devised ways to manage its marine ecosystem without making excessive demands on people's time. The sanctuary's no-fishing rule was easily enforced by a single person watching from the beach, a task rotated among Island families. Similarly, fishermen at work on the Island's fishing grounds could easily see if other fishermen didn't belong there or were using illegal fishing methods.
Another common obstacle is government authority that stands in the way of a local community doing what is necessary. This is an issue of local autonomy. Apo Island's local government encountered this issue when it decided to exclude other fishermen from the Island's fishing grounds (with no precedent in Philippine law or tradition) and enforce a ban on destructive fishing methods (when the enforcement of existing fisheries laws was the domain of higher levels of government). Fortunately, the Islanders were able to negotiate approval from higher levels of government to embark on these innovations.
Finally, the establishment of a national network of marine sanctuaries, called the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS), which was inspired by Apo Island's success, posed a serious challenge to local autonomy. Before, management decisions for their fishery resided solely with Apo Islanders themselves, but now the NIPAS management board has final authority.
One practical consequence has been that tourist fees, which went directly to the Island's local government before, now go to the national organization and return to the local government after considerable delay and reduction of the funds. The Islanders are still in the process of dealing with these challenges of national integration.
9. Social And Ecological Diversity
Diversity provides more choices, and therefore more opportunities for good choices. Ecologically, the species richness (i.e., diversity) of Apo Island's marine ecosystem has enhanced its capacity for self-restoration. Socially, the Islanders created their sanctuary, and undertook the many innovations that followed, only after expanding (i.e., diversifying) their social horizons beyond the village to include dialogue with scientists from Silliman University. This helped to diversify their awareness of choices for action. Then, the rich diversity of the Island's coral reef enhanced its attractiveness for tourism, and tourism provided a more diversified base for the Island's economy.
Before, the main sources of income were fishing, part-time farming, mat-weaving, and boat service for people and supplies to and from the island. Tourism brought other sources of income, such as working at the Island's two small hotels, providing services to the hotels (e.g., catering), selling T-shirts and sarongs to tourists, "home-stay" accommodation to backpackers, and expanding boat services to and from the island. Education has allowed some of the younger generation to pursue professional careers outside the Island, diversifying income sources even further and providing additional income for the local economy.
10. Social And Ecological Memory
Learning from the past adds to the diversity of choices, including choices that proved sustainable by withstanding the "test of time." Social memory had a key role after Apo Islanders banned destructive fishing. The fishermen returned to traditional fishing practices such as hook-and-line, fish traps, and large-mesh gillnets, which they knew to be functional and more sustainable than destructive fishing practices. The ecological memory of the coral ecosystem was found in nature's design for sustainability through the intricate co-adaptations among the ecosystem's natural inhabitants, and this "memory" for sustainable design, built into the ecosystem, was the key to its recovery as a valuable resource for the Island.
Social and ecological memory played a key role in deciding where to locate the sanctuary. The Islanders selected a highly degraded part of the Island's fishing grounds, which they considered to have the greatest potential for recovery, because they recalled it had the Island's richest coral ecosystem in the past. Finally, when the Islanders decided how many fish they should harvest as fish stocks recovered, they were able to fall back on their traditional value of "taking only what they need from the sea." With larger fish stocks, they could have increased their catch (and income) by continuing to fish "dawn to dusk" (as depleted fish stocks had forced them to do before).
But instead, as fish stocks increased, they reduced the intensity of their fishing, keeping their total fish catch about the same as before – a wisely sustainable strategy. While devoting some of their "newfound" time to diversifying economic activities, the fishermen devoted much of it to family and community, which traditional values told them are most important for quality of life.
11. Building Reslience
"Resilience" is the ability to continue functioning in the face of sometimes severe external disturbances. The key is adaptability. Apo Islanders showed their adaptive capacity when tourism became so heavy that diving and snorkeling were damaging the coral and interfering with their fishing.
Their experience managing their fishery gave them the insights and confidence necessary to impose restrictions on snorkeling and diving, even if it conflicted with short-term income from tourism. In the long term, spinoffs from the sanctuary, such as tourist income, local women's associations, general strengthening of community solidarity, quality education, and professional careers for some family members on the adjacent mainland have reinforced the ability of the island community to sustain its success in the face of unknown future challenges.
EcoTipping Points principles can be applied not only to environmental problems but also to social problems where the environment is not center stage. Communities brainstorm to diagram vicious cycles driving decline and incorporate Ingredients for Success into their actions:
- Make a negative tip diagram by sketching the chains of cause and effect responsible for the problem.
- In the negative tip diagram, identify the vicious cycles that are driving decline.
- Examine the negative tip diagram to see what could be modified to set positive change in motion. Brainstorm possible actions for leveraging the change, actions that can build up with their own momentum, connecting to key elements of the vicious cycles with sufficient force to turn them around.
- Running through the list of Ingredients for Success, think how each ingredient might contribute to making the actions more effective.
Authors & Contributors
Author: Gerry Marten
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