Localizing and integrating coastal resources education in the Department of Education-Basic Education curriculum: the Sagip Lingayen Gulf [Bolinao, Pangasinan, Philippines] experience

Since the 1990s when the Coastal Resource Management (CRM) went on full implementation across the Philippines, strategies meant to ensure sustainability of efforts have continuously evolved. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) strategies is a pillar of CRM intended to raise awareness on, imbibe knowledge about, and change behaviours towards the sustainable use of coastal and marine resources. Generally, IEC campaigns target the most immediate resource users, through a variety but often informal means, placing a premium on reaching out to the younger set of audience expected to carry out the advocated CRM principles well into the next generation. However, because of the fragmented nature of these campaigns, much of the inputs are often lost beyond the campaigns. By working through the more formal system of primary and secondary schools, it is expected that an unbroken chain of future stewards of coastal resources will be systematically targeted. The Sagip Lingayen Gulf Project (SLGP), an Integrated Conservation and Development/Coastal Resources' Management (ICD/CRM) project developed models for co-management of the coastal environment leading to sustainable coastal resources, water quality and livelihoods. One of these models was the integration of CRM education into the formal school curriculum. Based on the lessons from past related initiatives and through Conservation partnership Agreements, the SLGP developed and implemented localized and integrated curricula in 29 public elementary and high schools involving 40 Science teachers and more than 2,000 students, an over achievement from the initial target of pilot testing in 10 schools. Further, this effort was legitimated by the Department of Education, strongly supported by mother LGUs [local government units] who both committed to expand to other schools and to continuously localize the curricula. Based on a review of past and current related initiatives, it appears that this experience is the farthest any CRE effort has gone to date.