Protected Area Conservation Measures and Practices of Community The Case of Biri LAROSA Protected Landscape and Seascape, Philippines

Biri LAROSA Protected Landscape and Seascape BLPLS is a marine protected area in the Province of Northern Samar and is one of the countrys protected areas facing biological degradation because of human exploitation. Thus, this study assessed conservation programs implementation and community awareness to propose a policy redirection. Using qualitative descriptive research design, data revealed that BLPLS spans 33,492 hectares encapsulating 36 barangays with 18 known implemented conservation programs. The conservation programs investigated in this study covered ecological, economic, social, and cultural functions that aimed to benefit communities. Notably, the programs were well planned, but the problem was generally on the implementation. Some of the conservation programs succeeded because of strong legal basis and proper execution, forged partnership and linkages, prioritization, constant program monitoring and evaluation, and research based decisions, while other programs failed due to lack of commitment, lack of political will, lot of inconsistencies, Filipino negative traits, implementer's incompetence, lenient monitoring and evaluation, political intrusion, lack coordination, and people's passive and inadequate knowledge. Therefore, it is certain that successful conservation programs are advantageous to the integrity of the protected area, while failure poses a risk of increased vulnerability to degradation. Ergo, all successful programs must redound for the benefit of both BLPLS and the community people as it champions BLPLS's ecological integrity. Thus, there researchers highly recommended that various agencies connected with the protected area may imposed a stringent and harmonized implementation of conservation policies, institutional reform, strengthen the capacity of the implementers, community empowerment, creation of reward system, context based environmental education, institutionalization of program impact, and evaluation studies, and data based decision making for program development and plan of BLPLS. Escal, Rene John B. | Malabarbas, Gerald T. "Protected Area Conservation Measures and Practices of Community: The Case of Biri-LAROSA Protected Landscape and Seascape, Philippines" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-1 , December 2021, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd49120.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/other-scientific-research-area/other/49120/protected-area-conservation-measures-and-practices-of-community-the-case-of-birilarosa-protected-landscape-and-seascape-philippines/escal-rene-john-b