Project Story

CurrentShift believes that restoration begins with relationships, and the real currency in any work is not funding, but trust.

To usher everyone back home in their identity embedded with the ocean.

Oftentimes, we forget that marine degradation also manifest through the “invisible” realities that frontline communities face, such as fisherfolk, including displacement from their own home in parallel to loss of livelihood, harmful biodiversity effects, and ecological collapse.

We seek to shift the current realities of how we approach conservation and rebuild it from the perspectives of a vulnerable country like the Philippines.

Who Are We?

We are a community-led conservation initiative and nonprofit working across the Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape, often referred to as the “Visayan Triangle”, one of the Philippines' most ecologically and culturally significant marine landscapes. Home to coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows, migratory waterbirds, endangered marine species, and thousands of small-scale fisherfolk, the region reflects the deep interconnectedness between people and the sea.

The Challenge

Long before marine sanctuaries were written into data through management plans, or conservation projects had logframes, communities across the Panay–Guimaras–Negros islands, located within central Philippines were already stewards of the sea. Conservation here was not “conservation”, but simply a way of life.

For generations, communities across the region have carried traditions and cultures of ocean stewardship shaped by coastal and marine ecosystems.

From “uyang” production and “surambaw” fishing traditions in Panay island; to the centuries-old tradition of “tultul” salt-making in Guimaras combined with the restoration efforts of the Taklong and Tandog Group of Islands and Natural Parks; to the women-led post-harvest fisheries initiative we’ve been part of in Negros and the community-based efforts on mangrove restoration that supports Irrawaddy dolphins and migratory birds in the Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area, biodiversity and culture have long thrived together— for people and planet.

Yet this relationship is increasingly under threat.

The region has experienced some of the Philippines' most devastating environmental disasters. In 2006, the Guimaras Strait suffered the worst oil spill in Philippine history, devastating marine ecosystems and disrupting the lives and livelihoods of 20 000 fisherfolk, and even more coastal families. More recently, nearby waters were again threatened by the MT Princess Empress oil spill, highlighting the vulnerability of both biodiversity and livelihood of the communities that depend on it.

The region also remains on the frontlines of the climate crisis. In 2021, Super Typhoon Odette devastated coastal communities across Western Visayas, damaging homes, fishing infrastructure, coral reefs, mangroves, and community-managed conservation areas such as the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary. As ecosystems deteriorated, communities were forced to focus on immediate survival, often at the expense of long-term stewardship and conservation efforts.

At the same time, declining fisheries, biodiversity loss, habitat degradation, marine pollution, and climate impacts continue to threaten both ecosystems and livelihoods. Yet despite being among those most affected, many coastal communities remain underrepresented in conservation efforts despite possessing generations of ecological knowledge and stewardship traditions.

To add, Western Visayas region remain underrepresented in the larger lens of conservation platforms despite centuries of traditions and long term community-based conservation efforts.

This reality inspired the creation of CurrentShift.

Our mission

Our work is guided by a simple belief that the greatest environmental threat is not climate change, biodiversity loss, overfishing, or pollution, but disconnection.

Our solution is simple but it is not as easy as it sounds: we want to make people care. To foster a generation that has intentional community care, and people can actually afford to care, especially our fisherfolk communities.

We believe restoration begins by reconnecting people with place, knowledge with action, and communities with opportunities to lead.

Through our work with communities, we have learned that disconnect and apathy is rarely the absence of care. More often, it emerges when people lack the resources, opportunities, representation, or support to act on the care they already hold.

Our Solution

CurrentShift is built on three pillars:

Science, Stories, and Solidarity.

Science helps us understand what is happening to our ecosystems.

Stories help people see themselves within those ecosystems and as part of environmental solutions.

Solidarity ensures that communities are not asked to carry the burden of conservation alone.

Through community-based conservation, citizen science, ocean literacy, and fisherfolk-centered storytelling, we work alongside communities rather than imposing solutions upon them.

We ask a different, but more grounded, question:

How do we add value to the work communities are already doing, and how do we enable them to afford to care?

Rather than implementing conservation for communities, we create pathways for communities to lead it themselves.

Through intentional care, we co-create solutions with communities and sustain initiatives that are not only fit based on their needs, but are already being done on the ground and add positive value that will create a ripple of effects. These include:

SCIENCE
A. Biodiversity and Ecological Campaigns
- World Migratory Bird Day education and awareness campaigns connecting people to wetlands and migratory species;
- Save Lumba-Lumba, a community-centered initiative supporting Irrawaddy dolphin conservation in the Iloilo-Guimaras Strait
- Ecosystem Restoration, community-based restoration on coral reefs and marine sanctuaries using the locally-owned ALWAN method, pioneered in the Philippines as a low-cost citizen science monitoring tool where experts and communities can meet

STORIES

A. Sugid Dagat ("To Tell Stories from the Sea") Commservation Workshop, an immersive ocean literacy campaign which nurtures a growing network of “Commservationists” = communicators for community-based conservation;
B. Atin ang Kinse (“Defending the 15km municipal fishing zone”), which champions the rights of small-scale fisherfolk and the protection of municipal waters and traveling exhibit to reach far-flung communities and uphold spaces for discussion and important policy voices;

SOLIDARITY

A. Community-Based Restoration Efforts
- We support community-led stewardship and restoration efforts across the Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape, starting with the revival and rehabilitation of the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary and other locally managed coastal ecosystems. This project, piloted by The CORAL Initiative and the community’s fisherfolk association, is a rehabilitation effort we want to sustain.

We have also partnered with networks in Guimaras to restore coral reefs in Guimaras island, together with the only practitioner of “tultul” salt-making in the region.

- Women-led post-harvest fisheries and blue enterprise trainings, to create opportunities for communities to engage with conservation in ways that are meaningful, accessible, and locally relevant to their needs such as answering the gap of infrastructure and market losses.

Together, these programs bridge science, storytelling, and ocean stewardship and transforms care into action by equipping fisherfolk, youth, and local communities with the knowledge, opportunities, and confidence to become leaders in biodiversity conservation and coastal resilience.

The Opportunity

The real currency of our work is trust.

KPIs and numbers matter, but for us what matters more is what they represent:

Relationships that continue long after a project ends.

To date, through our community conservation initiatives and partnerships across Western Visayas and broader marine conservation networks, CurrentShift has directly engaged more than 1,086 community members, including fisherfolk, youth leaders, educators, conservation practitioners, and local stakeholders.

Our collective impact includes:

• 156 community members engaged in the rehabilitation and stewardship of the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary, supporting community-led conservation efforts pioneered by our partners at The CORAL Initiative.

• 120 fisherfolk and Bantay Dagat (Sea Guardians) members trained in marine conservation, citizen science, and coral reef restoration using the locally developed ALWAN Method ( The CORAL Initiative).

• 42 youth conservation leaders empowered through stewardship, environmental education, and community engagement programs.

• 50 women and youth trained in alternative livelihood and value-added fisheries enterprises through our team's contributions to the Tuloy Heroes initiative.

• 10 stakeholder consultations facilitated to strengthen community-led marine sanctuary management, local stewardship, and conservation planning.

• 860 individuals engaged across the Visayas through our traveling Atin ang Kinse exhibit and advocacy campaign, raising awareness on the importance of protecting the 15-kilometer municipal fishing zone for both small-scale fisherfolk and marine biodiversity.

Beyond these numbers, our work aims to scale deeper to the community-led revival and reopening of the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary, supporting conservation education, stewardship activities, citizen science training, and sanctuary rehabilitation efforts that strengthen local ownership of coastal resources.

Through our flagship Sugid Dagat ("To Tell Stories from the Sea") Commservation Workshop, we have trained and mentored a growing network of storytellers, educators, youth leaders, and conservation communicators who serve as multipliers for community-based conservation across the Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape.

Our World Migratory Bird Day initiatives have engaged coastal youth, community leaders, and conservation networks in immersive learning experiences that connect wetlands, migratory birds, fisheries, and coastal livelihoods while fostering greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of people and nature.

We have also strengthened public awareness and community participation in marine conservation through Save Lumba-Lumba, our campaign supporting the protection of Irrawaddy dolphins and their habitats, and Atin ang Kinse, which continues to mobilize support for sustainable small-scale fisheries and the protection of municipal waters.

Together, these efforts are helping cultivate a new generation of environmental stewards while strengthening the capacity of communities to lead conservation from the ground up and foster community ownership with stewardship.

Today, we are ready for the next chapter.

How We Will Intentionally Use and Sustain Funding

Funding from this campaign will help establish a community-led biodiversity monitoring and restoration network across priority coastal sites in the Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape. We will train fisherfolk and youth as citizen scientists, conduct baseline habitat and species assessments, strengthen sanctuary monitoring efforts, and develop accessible science communication tools that translate ecological data into stories communities can understand and act upon.

The goal is to transform local knowledge, care, and stewardship into measurable restoration outcomes. Monitoring tools such as the locally-owned and unique ALWAN method in reef restoration will be used.

Because we believe lasting restoration happens when the people closest to biodiversity are empowered not only to protect it, but to lead its recovery. By investing in communities, we are not only restoring ecosystems— we are restoring hope, agency, and the enduring relationship between people and the sea.

This intentional community care also sustains our efforts long-term because relationships are built on empowering and leaving space for each our stakeholder and champions to be more in order to do more, such as our growing community of Commservationists.

As a starting point, funding will support ongoing community-led restoration and stewardship efforts within the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary, one of the sites where we have been working alongside local fisherfolk, youth leaders, “Bantay Dagat”members, and community partners. Here, we will strengthen citizen science and biodiversity monitoring efforts through habitat assessments, species documentation, stewardship activities, and community-based data collection that helps local stakeholders better understand and manage the ecosystems they depend on.

Activities supported through this funding will include:

• Training fisherfolk, youth leaders, and Bantay Dagat members as citizen scientists and community biodiversity stewards;

• Conducting baseline biodiversity and habitat assessments within the Bantigue Marine Sanctuary;

• Supporting regular biodiversity monitoring, species documentation, and community-led ecological observations;

• Implementing coral reef monitoring and restoration activities using ALWAN Method;

• Organizing sanctuary stewardship and conservation action days, including clean-ups, maintenance activities, and habitat rehabilitation efforts;

• Conducting participatory mapping exercises to identify important habitats, species, threats, and community conservation priorities;

• Documenting local ecological knowledge and traditional stewardship practices held by fisherfolk and community elders;

• Facilitating Sugid Dagat ("To Tell Stories from the Sea") Commservation sessions that equip participants with storytelling, photography, and science communication skills;

• Developing community-friendly biodiversity profiles, visual story maps, and educational materials that translate ecological findings into accessible knowledge products;

• Establishing a pilot State of the Sanctuary Community Report Card, co-created by fisherfolk, youth, and local stakeholders to communicate biodiversity trends, stewardship actions, and restoration progress in ways that are accessible, meaningful, and useful for local decision-making;

• Showcasing community stories, lessons, and conservation outcomes through exhibits, learning exchanges, and outreach activities that inspire wider stewardship across the Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape.

Importantly, the goal is not simply to generate ecological data, but to build local ownership of conservation. Through training, mentorship, and storytelling, community members will become citizen scientists and stewards capable of monitoring biodiversity, communicating conservation issues, and inspiring action within their own communities. Lessons, tools, and stories generated through Bantigue will then be shared through our growing network of Commservationists and partners across the wider Panay–Guimaras–Negros seascape, helping strengthen community-led conservation efforts beyond a single site and contributing to a broader culture of stewardship throughout the region.

Tracking Impact

CurrentShift is committed to ensuring that restoration is both community-driven and measurable. Moving forward, we will track ecological and social indicators, including biodiversity observations, habitat conditions, sanctuary stewardship activities, citizen scientist participation, youth engagement, behavioural change through pre/post test questions, photovoices, and community-led conservation outcomes.

We believe restoration is not only about recovering ecosystems but also restoring agency, belonging, and hope amongst communities and people.

Our Vision

We envision a future where thriving ecosystems and thriving communities are recognized as one and the same.

A future where fisherfolk are seen not only as resource users, but as knowledge holders and conservation leaders.

A future where young people see themselves reflected in environmental solutions.

And a future where communities are empowered not only to protect biodiversity, but to lead its recovery.

Because when people care, and are given the opportunity to act on that care, restoration becomes possible, and more.

Together, let us shift the currents!