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Sagay Marine Reserve
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BRIEF HISTORY
Sagay City is one of the major fishing coastal communities in the province of Negros Occidental, Philippines.
Man’s wanton abuse of Sagay’s marine environment resulted to massive destruction of coral reefs and other marine habitats in the area. In the late 1970’s, the then municipal mayor and later Congressman Alfredo G. Marañon, Jr. initiated action for the conservation and management of the dying coral reefs with the help and technical expertise of Silliman University Marine Laboratory then headed by Dr. Angel Alcala. Early in 1980, a marine sanctuary was established in Carbin Reef which was proclaimed as a protected area through a municipal ordinance and was extended to Panal, Maca and the fringing reefs of Molocaboc Islands.
In 1995, the passage of Presidential Proclamation 592 declaring approximately 32,000 hectares of Sagay’s Territorial Waters as Protected Seascape under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) Act was a major milestone for the fishing communities. Later, a landmark legislation providing for stricter enforcement of the laws at the protected areas was authored by Congressman Alfredo G. Marañon, Jr. and passed by Congress as Republic Act. No. 9106, “An Act for the Establishment and Management of Sagay Marine Reserve, defining its Scope, coveraged and for other purposes” which was subsequently signed into law by the President in April 14, 2001. It is being managed by Protected Area Management Board.
Sagay Marine Reserve is now recognized nationally and internationally as one of the most successful marine conservation programs in the Philippines and has won for Sagay in 1997 the prestigious Gawad Galing Pook Award which declared it one of the Ten Most Outstanding and Innovative Government programs in the Philippines. In 1997, SMR won Sagay the prestigious Gawad Galing Pook Award which declared it as one of the Ten Most Outstanding & Innovative Government Programs in the country and was also awarded in 2006 as Best Eco-Tourism Destination in Western Visayas.