Thesis (BS Agribusiness Economics) -- University of the Philippines Mindanao, May 2019

Coastal degradation has been rampant to the coast of the Philippines resulting to the displacement of the coastal resources in the area and the backlash to the livelihood of the coastal communities relying heavily on fishing. Coastal Resources Management (CRM) was devised to counter such issue, however, this is highly dependent to the willingness of the coastal communities in participating CRM initiatives. The general objective of this study is to evaluate the significant factors that affect the willingness of the coastal communities towards CRM initiatives in the municipality of Malalag, Davao del Sur. Particularly, the study tries to assess the socio demographics and the awareness to policies, resources? status coastal resource and management efforts, and perception on effectivity of the policy. Ninety-two respondents were included in the study and binary logit regression was employed to analyze the different factors that potentially affect the participation. Different models were devised to estimate the different factors that affect the coastal management and coastal restoration efforts. Results showed that the significant variables that affect the coastal management efforts are sex, age, income from fishing, awareness on closed season awareness of location as part of Davao Gulf, awareness on solid waste disposal, awareness to protection and conservation of coastal resources policy, awareness on establishment of MPA policy, and perception on the effectivity of policy implementation. Results also showed that there was noticeable variation of significant variables in both model; the main driver on the coastal resources management are the awareness to CRE efforts and policy variables. Furthermore, it was observed that there were shortcomings in the policy and information dissemination in the coastal area of Malalag.