Summarizing the Philippines’ experience with marine protec- tion, Arceo et al. (2013) explain that the first response of the government in the 1970s to confront the decreasing fish catches was to increase fishing efforts. This measure evidently did not yield the expected results, so in the 1990s the government moved to protection strategies and decentralized fisheries management. Advances comprised: the enactment of a Local Government Code, transferring the jurisdiction over marine resources to local governments; a Fisheries Code, defining municipal waters; and the formation of local councils for aquatic resources management with the participation of different sectors. Although not compul- sory, the councils are morally supported and local fisheries legislation needs to go through these councils. One characteristic of the Fisheries Code is that it explicitly acknowledges no-take MPAs as part of its fisheries management strategy and local governments are encouraged to allocate 15% of municipal waters as no-take areas. The authors observe that the initial success of the community-based management in the Philippines has been difficult to sustain. However, the collaboration between govern- ment and communities through co-management proved to be more effective than management by only the government or the community.