PHILO Project : Strengthening the monitoring of the Philippines EEZ

The Philippines are pursuing a very active policy for improved monitoring of fisheries and marine environment.

Through the PHILO project, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources plans to strengthen its decision-making capacities for exploitation of marine resources, coastal management and safety at sea.

PHILO combines three types of functions :

- Oceanographic and marine environment monitoring;

- The production of weather forecasts with push-mode "alert" function in case of major events such as storm, typhoon or tsunami.

- Monitoring and controlling activities of 3,500 fishing vessels through modern technologies (VMS and ERS).

PHILO mixes acquisition and processing of information from earth (radar; optical) observation satellites, vessels positioning networks (AIS; LRIT; Sat-AIS) and numerical modeling through a complex technological architecture.

PHILO will be based in a newly-built FMC in Manila, and deployed throughout the country through 16 regional FMCs.

The French Ministry of Finances (Direction Générale du Trésor) and AFD contracted F&S to assess the institutional, technical and financial components of the project.