Philippine Fisheries Code The Philippine Fisheries Code (RA 8550) was passed in 1998, after years of lobbying by civil society organizations working with the fisheries sector. The Code sets food security as the overriding consideration in the utilization, management, conservation and protection of the fishery resources. Among the Code’s multiple objectives are: (1) conservation, protection and sustained management of fishery and aquatic resources; (2) poverty alleviation and the provision of supplementary livelihood among municipal fisherfolk; and, (3) improved productivity in the industry through aquaculture, optimal utilization of offshore and deep-sea resources, and upgrading of post-harvest technology. Fishery tenure reforms. In terms of instituting tenure reforms, the Fisheries Code has certain provisions that need to be highlighted: n Local governance over municipal waters. LGUs are given jurisdiction over municipal waters as defined by the Code. LGUs in consultation with the Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Management Councils (FARMCs) are given responsibility for the management, conservation, development, protection, utilization, and disposition of all fish and fishery/aquatic resources within their respective municipal waters. FARMCs are to be formed by fisherfolk organizations and NGOs in the locality and assisted by the LGUs and other government entities. In the case of bays and lakes which straddle several municipalities and cities, the LGUs which share or border such resources may group themselves and coordinate with each other to achieve the objectives of integrated fishery resource management. n Preferential access. The Code limits access to fishery and aquatic resources in the country to Filipino citizens and gives small fisherfolk and their organizations the preferential use of municipal waters. Municipal waters are defined to include not only streams, lakes, inland bodies of water and tidal waters within the municipality which are not included within the protected areas as defined under RA 7586 (NIPAS Law), public forest, timber lands, forest reserves or fishery reserves, but also coastal marine waters within 15-kilometer from the shore. Commercial-scale fishing is not allowed in municipal waters, except in special cases where they are given municipal permits, and only in waters over 10 kilometers from the shore with a depth of at least seven fathoms (12.8 meters). n Fisherfolk organizations/cooperatives whose members are listed in the registry of municipal fisherfolk, may be granted use of demarcated fishery areas to Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) 91