Regional Coordinator for East Austronesia & the Pacific Islands, on behalf of LMMA Network International
Based in the Philippines. Jovelyn (“Jovy”) has worked in community fisheries and partnered with coastal communities since the late 1980s, when she started working at the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD), Inc. As CERD’s Executive Director, she developed programs and projects around community-based coastal resource management, livelihood development, and gender and development in the fisheries sector. She believes that men and women fishers should lead the protection, conservation, and management efforts of coastal and marine resources and benefit from their efforts. She has also been involved in fisheries advocacy efforts and community-level work to empower women fishers. She is a founding member of and co-coordinated the LMMA Network in the Philippines since the mid-2000s. Through the Locally Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network International, she supported the seven Country Network members across Asia and the Pacific to enable coastal communities and Indigenous Peoples to exercise their rights over their land and marine territories. Her involvement in the LMMA Network, both at the country level in the Philippines and at the regional level, led to her joining the ICCA Consortium Secretariat in 2022 as part of the regional coordination team for East Austronesia and the Pacific Islands along with her colleague Jimmy Kereseka. She is also currently engaged in mainstreaming fisheries and gender and development issues in disaster risk reduction in selected areas in the Philippines.
