Seaweed Producers Adapt to Climate Change
Daisy, a 40-year-old mother of five is one of the most enthusiastic community leaders in the Philippines. She is the president of Agdaliran Women’s Rural Improvement Club Association (AWRIA), a women-led community organization in a coastal village in the town of San Dionisio, Iloilo province, Philippines.
AWRIA received a cash grant from CARE Philippines to start a seaweed production enterprise after Typhoon Yolanda’s catastrophic devastation.
Many of the women members were not used to working as they were housewives. But the livelihoods program provided income opportunities for them when they started harvesting fresh seaweed and selling the dried ones. AWRIA has also received trainings from CARE and its partner Taytay sa Kauswagan Inc. on enterprise management, financial literacy, productivity, and marketing. AWRIA’s seaweed production was also badly affected by the 2018 El Niño but they continued working to recover.
Daisy has become one of CARE’s Community-based Development Facilitators (CBDF) after displaying great interest in sharing knowledge and serving other vulnerable people affected by Typhoon Yolanda in 2013. She became instrumental as she conducted the same training she received from CARE in other remote villages. Her expertise in the local dialect, as well as familiarity with the town’s culture, helped in effectively conveying important messages to CARE’s project participants.
But what exactly happened?
“One peaceful night before going to bed, my family and I heard strong waves from the sea. We knew that it was strange. The waves were louder compared to what we usually hear every evening. But we still ignored it and went to sleep,” said Daisy.
Daisy visited the seaweed plantation early in the morning but to her surprise, everything was destroyed. Their seaweed and stilts supporting monolines were washed away. The women members gathered in dismay, all staring blankly at the endless stretch of water in front of them.
According to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), the coastal villages of San Dionisio experienced a wave surge (locally known in Iloilo as ‘pugada’) that night. A wave surge is a weather disturbance associated with above normal rise of water level in open coasts due to wind stress on the water surface.
“There was no storm, it wasn’t even raining so we were shocked to see that almost 95% of our seaweed was gone. Our production intensely decreased. Our members were obviously frustrated and asking me what would be our next step.” shared Daisy.
Daisy realized that they shouldn’t remain hopeless and could still do something about it.
“I told my members that we would replant. We were able to save some seaweed and we could start from the remaining 5%. But I knew it wouldn’t be an easy ride,” said Daisy.
CARE connected AWRIA to BFAR for technical assistance. The association even received additional planting materials from BFAR. The Municipal Agriculturist also came to the rescue to help the affected coastal villages.“CARE also helped us to avail our crop insurance from the government. At least now we are less worried whenever we experience these weather disturbances,” shared Daisy.
The women of AWRIA are aware of the changing climate. They said they experience stronger waves during rainy season, and long dry spell also affects their seaweed when seawater becomes warmer.
“We learned from the previous El Nino when our seaweeds were affected by the ‘ice-ice’ disease and now we also learned from this recent experience. We are very thankful for all the knowledge and techniques we’ve got from technical experts,” said Daisy.
Daisy and her members have learned from BFAR and CARE various agricultural techniques and practices to adapt to the changing climate and mitigate the impact of disasters. They continued replanting and working all together to recover.
“It was a good decision to never give up. For us, resilience doesn’t always mean succeeding in every action. It means being able to stand when situations cripple you for a moment,” said Daisy.