Apo Island, Philippines to levy new fees on tourists

The fees, agreed upon by the Pro­tec­ted Area Man­age­ment Board (PAMB), would include moor­ing fees for boats used by tour­ists; for diving, swim­ming, snorkel­ing and oth­er activities.

Jose Bry­an Arranguez, Com­munity Rela­tions Officer of the Apo Island Pro­tec­ted Land­scape and Sea­scape (AIPLS) of the Com­munity Envir­on­ment and Nat­ur­al Resources Office (CENRO) said the new fees were to “main­tain and sus­tain” Apo Island.

Nev­er­the­less he lamen­ted that some tour­ists already com­plain about what they describe as “unreas­on­able fees” being charged when vis­it­ing Apo Island. Each vis­it­or is charged a PHP 100 (USD 2) gen­er­al admis­sion fee; PHP 25 for a Negros Ori­ent­al res­id­ent; PHP 10 for Dauin res­id­ents and stu­dents from Negros Ori­ent­al; and PHP 5 for seni­or citizens.

Apo Island. Source: map inset (Wiki­me­dia / Mike Gonzales); image (Wiki­me­dia / macoy.meijia)

Arranguez said this money goes back to the com­munity via PAMB in a 75 – 25 split with the nation­al gov­ern­ment. PAMB, which is made up of rep­res­ent­at­ives from gov­ern­ment, the private sec­tor, and non-gov­ern­ment organ­isa­tions, spends its three-quarter share on util­ity pro­jects on the island, such as sol­ar light­ing, dies­el-powered elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion, and water supplies.

In addi­tion, Apo Island res­id­ents “thrive” on the year-round incomes gen­er­ated from eco­tour­ism activ­it­ies, such as diving or snorkel­ing with sea turtles; boat­ing; fish­ing; wages earned from resorts on the island; and oth­er busi­nesses, such as selling souvenirs.

Income derived from all activ­it­ies has helped the more than 1,000 indi­vidu­als or around 197 house­holds on Apo Island improve their liv­ing stand­ards, con­tin­ued Arranguez.

Apo Islanders now enjoy a more var­ied diet than the tra­di­tion­al catch-of-the-day. They have gained access to bet­ter edu­ca­tion and health ser­vices. Some can even afford to send their chil­dren to private schools on the main­land of Negros Ori­ent­al. And many own motor ban­cas (motor­ised out­rig­ger canoes), which they rent out.

While all this has benefited Apo Island, there are many chal­lenges for the PAMB and the res­id­ents to deal with to strike a bal­ance between eco­nom­ic gains and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment for future gen­er­a­tions, Arranguez concluded.

Rare and fragile

Sea turtle ‘pawik­an’ off the shores of Apo Island. Source: Wiki­me­dia / Jun V Lao

Arranguez said Apo Island earned an annu­al income of about PHP 6 mil­lion (USD 120,000) fol­low­ing its declar­a­tion as a pro­tec­ted area (72 hec­tares ter­restri­al and 619 hec­tares mar­ine) in 1994 by then Pres­id­ent Fidel V. Ramos.

When two strong typhoons in 2011 and 2012 dam­aged cor­als in the bio-diverse mar­ine sanc­tu­ary, the island’s income dropped for a while. The mar­ine sanc­tu­ary was sealed off to the pub­lic to allow regrowth and recov­ery of its cor­al reefs and fish population.

After the island’s pop­u­la­tion of endangered sea turtles or pawik­an became the next big thing, tour­ist arrivals surged and the island’s income rose to about PHP 12 mil­lion (USD 240,000) a year, accord­ing to Arranguez.

Pre­sum­ably after real­ising how fra­gile and rare its primary attrac­tions the reef and sea turtles were, islanders set up the Apo Island Scuba Equip­ment Rent­al and Guid­ing Asso­ci­ation (AISERGA) to ensure that rules and reg­u­la­tions and oth­er policies were followed.

Arranguez said that a vis­it­or who wants to swim with the sea turtles must do so at the des­ig­nated area and pay for a guide (PHP 300 for a max­im­um of five people), as well as rent a mask and snorkel (PHP100) and a life jack­et (PHP 200) in case vis­it­ors do not bring them.

A guide is required to ensure that vis­it­ors do not viol­ate rules such as touch­ing sea turtles, step­ping on cor­als, or stray­ing into restric­ted areas.