The North Philippine Sea: Complexity Illustration for Transdisciplinary Action Research Resilience and Sustainability.

Responding to the global priority for focus on socio-ecological small-scale fisheries, maps are used to link current resource status to change priorities, including chronic fisherfolk malnutrition. A ridge-to-reef approach to biodiversity connectivity is partitioned into ecosystem component depictions. Results demonstrate how the capacity to utilize cartographic technology is being extended to local communities through citizen science, institutions, and jurisdictions. A management and bioregional education outline for North Philippine Sea (NPS) marine resources is supported by illustrative approaches to coastal complexity, consideration of marine-based food security, and biodiversity erosion. This NPS development is described as a prototype for programs in the other five Philippine marine bioregions and establishment of a national program under the Philippine Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. Based upon completed research, emphasis is placed upon the consensus perspective of fisherfolk regarding their willingness to be involved in collaborative education program development that includes local and Indigenous knowledge. The community-based food security lens provides a foundation for Southeast Asia resource-use depictions, with emphasis on the NPS and description of prototype restoration programs at the Philippine local government unit levels of: province, municipality, and barangay. Action research outputs are reported for completed and current efforts in the eight municipalities of Aurora Province, with several examples down to the barangay level. Building off a local strategy that has a history of Indigenous use of 3-D map construction for development purposes, specific details are provided on the illustrative capacity of Story Maps to link communities to critical bioregional parameters such as pelagic fish stocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]