Fishing and socio-economic change in the Calamianes Islands

[Extract] Fishing has long been the primary means by which residents of the Calamianes group of islands in northern Palawan have been socially and economically connected more generally to other parts of the country and the region. Like elsewhere in Palawan, many people have been drawn to the area primarily because of the opportunities provided by the natural resources of the region. In the case of the Calamianes, the most abundant natural resources are marine. The opportunity afforded by fishing-and a lack of opportunity in home provinces-has driven migration to thearea, and the ensuing sale and distribution of these marine resources has linked the islands to larger economic networks from Manila to China and beyond. As such, fishing has been central to the ways in which the islands have been connected to other places, and central to many of the social, economic, and environmental changes occurring in the Calamianes itself