The ocean is everything. For Fredil Muid, a leader of the Tagbanua indigenous group in the Philippines, the sea is their survival. It’s where his community gathers food, earns a living, and carries forward traditions passed down through generations. But this lifeline is under threat. Illegal commercial fishing is invading municipal waters, harming the future of small-scale fishers like the Tagbanua and their families. The key law protecting these that are also their ancestral fishing grounds a is at risk in the Supreme Court. Fredil is speaking out to defend his people’s rights and the ocean they rely on. “Our ancestors said the lives of our indigenous fishermen depend on the quality of the environment. That is why our main work in the community is to protect the environment, especially in fisheries because this is the livelihood of the indigenous people ...I call on us to shoulder the responsibility of managing our fisheries, which are our source of livelihood” Oceana_ph s...