URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGIES OF LAGUNA LAKE AQUACULTURE A Dissertation by KRISTIAN ...

310 Pages·2013·4.5 MB·English

FISH FOR THE CITY: URBAN POLITICAL ECOLOGIES OF LAGUNA LAKE
AQUACULTURE

A Dissertation
by
KRISTIAN KARLO CORDOVA SAGUIN

Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of
Texas A&M University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Chair of Committee, Christian Brannstrom
Committee Members, Norbert Dannhaeuser
Wendy Jepson
Kathleen O’Reilly
Head of Department, Vatche Tchakerian

December 2013

Major Subject: Geography

Copyright 2013 Kristian Karlo Cordova Saguin
ABSTRACT

The dissertation tells the story of the production of socionatures through the
development of aquaculture in Laguna Lake. The state introduced lake aquaculture to
supplement fisherfolk livelihoods and improve fish production in part to provide nearby
Metro Manila with its fish requirements. Half a century of aquaculture in the lake,
however, has transformed ecologies, landscapes and livelihoods. Flows of fish to the city
encounter socioecological contradictions in lake production and urban consumption.
This dissertation examines these transformations and how state policies, livelihood
activities and fish demands produce particular socionatures. Using the urban political
ecology concept of urban metabolism, the dissertation frames the production of Laguna
Lake socionatures as a city-lake dynamic. It employs qualitative and multi-sited
ethnographic methods to follow Laguna Lake fish from sites of production to
consumption and to identify actors, relations and practices that shape access to these
flows of fish. The state embarked on projects aided by scientific institutions and foreign
donors to enable aquaculture production through simplification of complex lake
socioecological processes. These resulted in capitalist fishpen aquaculture expansion that
transformed lake ecologies and village livelihoods. Capitalist aquaculture continues to
confront nature’s materiality in water-based production, which provides constraints and
opportunities for aquaculture expansion. Village producers, intermediaries and urban
consumers also continually work with the materiality of nature to secure livelihood and
sustenance benefits from fish as they flow from the lake to the city. However, the
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distribution of access to fish flows is uneven, with urban-based fishing corporations that
own the largest fishpens and fish market brokers deriving the most benefit as a result of
their political and economic power. Other commodity chain actors attempt to gain access
to these fish flows through formal and illicit strategies. By following the flows of
Laguna Lake fish, the dissertation weaves stories of the urban metabolism as producers,
traders, consumers, laborers and the state transform and produce lake and urban
socionatures.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am indebted to several people in the US and the Philippines who made this
research possible. In College Station, I thank Christian Brannstrom, my advisor, for his
unwavering support of this project from our initial discussions about Laguna Lake to the
final stages of editing the manuscript. I am grateful for his guidance in the development
of both my research project and my professional career. Wendy Jepson, Kathleen
O’Reilly and Norbert Dannhaeuser similarly provided invaluable insights at various
stages of the research. I thank Fiona Wilmot for the conversations, food and the road
trips, which were crucial in the formation of the theoretical frameworks I developed in
the dissertation. I received plenty of encouragement from my Texas A&M University
Department of Geography cohort, especially from Souyeon Nam, Craig Hutton, Audrey
Joslin and the Human-Environment Research Group. Four years in College Station were
memorable thanks to the company of Jesselyn and Alnald Javier, Ligaya Rubas, Bjorn
Santos, Jewel Capunitan, Kat Castillo, Aldrin Lugena, Monet Maguyon, Samae and JC
Reyes, Rene Arazo, Fred Briones, Gally Veluz, Paul Narciso, Joan Hernandez, Madz
Maglinao, and Roy and Faye Estrada.
In Laguna Lake, I am grateful to Marcial Valdez, Baby Valdez, Carlos Paralejas
and their families for their warmth, generosity and hospitality during my stay, even if
2012 was one of their toughest years. Lito Reyes, Virgilio Cerda, Rosita Ramirez and
other barangay and municipal officials greatly facilitated the early stages of my field
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research. I thank the people of Navotas and Kalinawan for unstintingly sharing their time
and stories with me.
In Manila, Gil and Manny Prim helped me with my field research at the urban
fish markets. Several members and officials of organizations and government agencies
opened their doors and entertained my request for assistance. These include FIAN-
Philippines (through Kate and Rodney), Pamalakaya (through Gerry Corpuz), Southeast
Asian Fisheries Development Center, Laguna Lake Development Authority,
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Public Works and
Highways, Bureau of Fisheries and the Navotas Fish Port Complex. I thank friends and
colleagues at the University of the Philippines Department of Geography for their
support: Darlene Gutierrez, Yany Lopez, Trina Listanco, Andre Ortega, Ony Martinez,
Hazel Dizon, Louan Ocampo, Emman Garcia, Vangie Katigbak, Meliton Juanico, Trina
Isorena, Marco Lagman, Cathy Liamzon, Pryor Placino and many others. I am also
grateful to Justin and Lyn Fernandez for offering me a temporary home while I was
doing fieldwork in Manila.
I had the opportunity to study in the United States through a Fulbright grant. I
thank Esmeralda Cunanan, Gigi Dizon, Marj Tolentino, Yolly Casas and the rest of the
Philippine-American Educational Foundation Secretariat. The Texas A&M University
Dissertation Writing Fellowship funded the writing stage of this research.
I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Helma and Arsenio Saguin, and to my
siblings, Kidjie and Kristine. Lastly, I thank Jake Soriano for his steadfast support,
unpaid labor, and unfaltering patience.
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NOMENCLATURE

ADB Asian Development Bank
BAS Bureau of Agricultural Statistics
BFAR Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources
GCC Global Commodity Chain
GIFT Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia
GMT Genetically Male Tilapia
GPN Global Production Network
GVC Global Value Chain
LDBDP Laguna de Bay Development Plan
LDBFDP Laguna de Bay Fishpen Development Plan
LLDA Laguna Lake Development Authority
NHCS Napindan Hydraulic Control Structure
NSCB National Statistical Coordinating Board
PFDA Philippine Fisheries Development Authority
SEAFDEC Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center
SOGREAH Societe Grenobloise d’Etudes et d’Application Hydrauliques
UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UPE Urban Political Ecology
ZOMAP Laguna de Bay Zoning and Management Plan
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………….. ii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ……………………………………………………………… iv
NOMENCLATURE ……………………………………………………………………. vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……………………………………………………………… vii
LIST OF FIGURES …………………………………………………………………….. xi
LIST OF TABLES ……………………………………………………………………. xiii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………………1
1.1 Fish, the lake and the city …………………………………………………. 1
1.2 Conceptual frameworks …………………………………………………... 5
1.2.1 Urban political ecology …………………………………………. 5
1.2.2 Urban metabolism ……………………………………………....14
1.2.3 Commodity flows ……………………………………………… 18
1.2.4 Materiality of nature …………………………………………….23
1.3 Research objectives and strategies ………………………………………. 26
1.3.1 Which socioecological transformations enable and result from
aquaculture in Laguna Lake? …………………………………... 26
1.3.2 How does the materiality of nature shape aquaculture
production in the lake and fish flows to the city? ………………28
1.3.3 Which social relations constitute fish flows from lake to city
and how do actors benefit from these flows? …………………..30
1.4 Organization of the dissertation …………………………………………. 33
CHAPTER II STUDY AREA AND RESEARCH METHODS ..……………………... 37
2.1 Situating the study area …………………………………………………. 37
2.1.1 Laguna Lake and Metro Manila ……………………………….. 37
2.1.2 Major actors and the study sites ……………………………….. 43
2.2 Methods …………………………………………………………………..45
2.2.1 Following the fish through multi-sited ethnographic methods … 45
2.2.2 Interviews ……………………………………………………… 46
2.2.3 Participant observation ………………………………………… 50
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2.2.4 Document collection and secondary data ……………………… 52
2.2.5 Data analysis …………………………………………………… 53
2.3 Situating the research ………………………………………………….... 53
CHAPTER III PRODUCING FISH COMMODITIES BY REWORKING LAKE
SOCIONATURES ………………………………………………….. 58

3.1 Introducing and improving aquaculture: 1966 to 1982 …………………. 59
3.1.1 Introducing aquaculture ………………………………………... 59
3.1.2 Improving aquaculture …………………………………………. 66
3.2 Boom-and-bust aquaculture: 1983 to 1990 ……………………………... 77
3.2.1 Boom: capitalist aquaculture and fishpen sprawl …………….... 77
3.2.2 Conflicts: displacement, violence and resistance ……………… 79
3.2.3 Bust: crisis in pen aquaculture …………………………………. 81
3.3 Regulating aquaculture: 1983 to 2012 ………………………………….. 84
3.3.1 Governance by regulation ……………………………………... 84
3.3.2 Addressing displaced livelihoods …………………………….... 86
3.3.3 Controlling water and wastes …………………………………... 89
3.3.4 Shifts in governance ………………………………………….... 92
3.4. Summary ………………………………………………………………... 93
CHAPTER IV NATURE’S MATERIALITY AND AQUACULTURE’S DUAL
TRAJECTORIES IN LAGUNA LAKE ……………………………. 97

4.1 Thinking and working with materiality …………………………………. 99
4.2 Dual trajectories of aquaculture: fishpens and fishcages ……………… 102
4.3 Materialities of production in a fluid environment ……………………. 108
4.3.1 Saltwater intrusion and lake fluidity …………………………. 110
4.3.2 Plankton abundance and lake fluidity ………………………… 115
4.3.3 Fish as fugitive biological commodities ……………………… 119
4.4 Discussion: materialities of produced natures ………………………… 125
4.4.1 Which materialities matter? …………………………………... 125
4.4.2 Materialities and dual trajectories ……………………………. 127
4.4.3 Toward materialities of produced natures ……………………. 132
CHAPTER V ECOLOGIES OF AQUARIAN TRANSFORMATIONS IN TWO
LAKE VILLAGES …………………………………………………136

5.1 Fishing and aquaculture in two villages ……………………………….. 137
5.1.1 The lake villages of Navotas and Kalinawan ………………… 137
5.1.2 Relations of production in capture fisheries ………………….. 142
5.1.3 Relations of production in aquaculture ……………………….. 145
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5.2 The state, pen-fisher conflicts and fisherfolk responses ………………. 160
5.2.1 Territorializing fish access ……………………………………. 160
5.2.2 Fisherfolk responses to territorialization of fish access ………. 163
5.3 Reworking production with reworked lake socioecologies ………….... 167
5.3.1 Fluctuating water conditions …………………………………. 168
5.3.2 Typhoons ……………………………………………………... 172
5.3.3 Knife fish invasion …………………………………………… 177
5.4 Discussion and summary ………………………………………………. 178

CHAPTER VI FOLLOWING METABOLIC FLOWS: COMMODITY CHAINS
OF LAGUNA LAKE FISH ………………………………………182

6.1 Commodity chains …………………………………………………….. 183
6.2 Flows of Laguna Lake fish and the commodity chain ………………… 186
6.2.1 Material flows of fish ………………………………………… 188
6.2.2 Aquaculture and fisheries in context …………………………. 192
6.2.3 Actors and organizations in the commodity chain …………… 194
6.2.4 Elites in the commodity chain ………………………………... 199
6.3 Relations, access and power in the commodity chain …………………. 202
6.3.1 Producers, agents and traders in Laguna Lake ……………….. 203
6.3.2 Brokers, buyers and retailers in the urban fish market ……….. 209
6.3.3 The commodity chain in place: labor in the urban fish market.. 213
6.4 Discussion and summary ……………………………………………… 222
CHAPTER VII METABOLIC FLOWS OF CHEAP FISH: BIOGRAPHIES OF
BIGHEAD CARP …………………………………………………. 227

7.1 Cheap fish for the megacity …………………………………………… 229
7.2 Social biographies of the bighead carp ………………………………... 234
7.2.1 The bighead carp as “Imelda”: a socionatural fix to
unpredictable lake production ………………………………..234
7.2.2 The bighead carp as “freshwater red snapper”: practices of
smothering urban circulation ………………………………… 240
7.3 Discussion: flows of carp, substitution and social reproduction ………. 247
7.3.1 Bighead carp flows, substitution and aquaculture-capture
fisheries relations …………………………………………….248
7.3.2 Cheap fish flows, social reproduction and urban-rural
relations ………………………………………………………251
7.4 Conclusion …………………………………………………………….. 253

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CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………. 255
8.1 Summary of research findings ………………………………………… 255
8.1.1 Objective 1: producing Laguna Lake through aquaculture …... 256
8.1.2 Objective 2: materiality of nature in aquaculture production ... 258
8.1.3 Objective 3: access to commodity flows ……………………... 260
8.2 Contributions to urban political ecology ………………………………. 262
8.3 Laguna Lake’s urban futures …………………………………………... 264

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………. 266
APPENDIX A ………………………………………………………………………… 293
APPENDIX B ……………………………………………………………………….... 295
APPENDIX C ……………………………………………………………………….... 297

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