Before dusk, about 20 people had already gathered at the beach fronting the Pawikan Conservation Center in Brgy. Nagbalayong, Morong, Bataan, to witness the release of baby sea turtles that had hatched the day before.

A makeshift enclosure prepared by volunteers temporarily housed the hatchlings while, just a few feet away, gentle waves lapped the shore. 

Without much ceremony, one of the volunteers removed the wooden plank separating the hatchlings from the sea. The baby turtles scrambled to the shore, the waves gently welcoming them toward the embrace of the sea, set against a pink and indigo sky.

Earlier, someone had played an audiovisual presentation as part of the tourist orientation. It said that sea turtle hatchlings have a survival rate of less than one percent due to various natural and human-caused factors.

This situation underscores the need for measures to protect these endangered marine creatures and the environment that sustains them.

The Pawikan Conservation Center, a community-based conservation initiative, not only offers an ecotourism alternative to the mass tourism experienced elsewhere in Morong but also provides fisherfolk with an alternative livelihood and mindset, helping dissuade them from poaching sea turtle eggs for food or income.

The center provides tourists with various activities they can engage in, including educational tours, night patrols, and hatchling releases.

Researchers of the project “Natural Capital Accounting of Coastal and Marine Ecosystems in the West Philippine Sea” or RE-INVEST WPS Project 2 have been attending these hatchling releases after a long day of work.

They interviewed local tourists—including visitors to the Pawikan Conservation Center—as part of the project’s recreation demand survey conducted from January 29 to February 2, 2025.

RE-INVEST WPS Project 2 is implemented by the UPLB Interdisciplinary Studies Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Environment Management and funded by the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic, and Natural Resources Research and Development.

For this phase of the fieldwork, the research team was joined by the focal team from the Bataan Peninsula State University, led by faculty member Jonna Abistado-Biong, with members Marianne N. Gonzales, Elmar P. Egarta and Alfie M. Agas.

The recreation demand survey is part of a menu of fieldwork activities implemented in the municipalities of Morong and Mariveles. It aimed to collect data on the recreation services provided by coastal and marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, mangrove forests, and open waters.

The data gathered will be used to estimate the economic value of cultural services provided by the ecosystems.

An important distinction of the project’s valuation efforts compared to prevailing methods to quantify the tourism sector’s contribution to the national economy is that they explore the interplay between the extent and condition of ecosystems and the services or benefits that they provide.

This makes nature more “visible” as a critical consideration in economic planning and decision-making, ensuring that the link between environmental health and economy across space and time is clear and sufficiently monitored.

The tourism industry’s economic contribution has been measured using parameters such as tourism receipts, expenditures, and employment, omitting the crucial role of ecosystems in sustaining the supply side of the market. By extension, this omission also renders invisible the impacts of human activities that can either impair or repair these ecosystems.

For instance, while mass tourism could provide immediate economic benefits to Morong and its surrounding areas, this may not be sustainable in the long run if tourism development comes at the expense of the integrity of ecosystems.

Natural capital accounting provides the necessary concrete evidence—in monetary terms—to support protecting the environment as an invaluable economic asset. For this reason, it is a powerful and effective tool for managing natural resources and as an input to policies and plans, including investment and tourism development plans.

Through natural capital accounting, programs that aim to protect the environment can now be seen as indispensable mechanisms to ensure that economic development is achieved sustainably and not only as standalone conservation efforts.

Results of the recreation demand survey conducted by RE-INVEST WPS Project 2 can contribute to this by ensuring that the recreational value of ecosystems figures prominently in Bataan’s economic and tourism planning and policymaking.

This provides grounds for incentivizing various stakeholders – such as the local government, the private sector, academe, and local communities – to increase their engagement in and support for environmental protection programs and initiatives, such as the Pawikan Conservation Center’s efforts to save sea turtles and their habitats.

And maybe then, the pawikan would have more than a fighting chance at survival. (Christian Ray C. Buendia)

This article was first published on the UPLB website and can be accessed through this link.