Marine Protected Areas in Guiwanon & Taguihon

Overview

Marine Protected Areas in Guiwanon & Taguihon refers to the coastal and marine conservation zones established in the barangays of Guiwanon and Taguihon in Baclayon municipality, east of Tagbilaran City. Baclayon’s coastal waters lie along Bohol Strait and are part of the Bohol Sea marine corridor. Beyond that, detailed figures — protected area in hectares, coral cover status, recorded fish species, and the specific management body — aren’t available in published sources and are best confirmed with the Baclayon municipal tourism or fisheries office before a visit.

Guiwanon is also home to Baclayon’s Oldest Dug Well, the site local tradition connects to the 16th-century chieftain Datu Sikatuna, and Taguihon carries the Old Deep Well and Talibungan Spring among its features. That combination of a working MPA, a freshwater spring, and colonial-era wells within two adjoining barangays is a reminder that these small coastal barangays typically carry several small, undocumented sites rather than one headline attraction.

Municipal-level MPAs like this one are typically established and co-managed by the barangay council, the municipal fisheries office, and sometimes a provincial or NGO partner, following the framework the Philippine Fisheries Code sets out for local government units to designate and enforce no-take zones. The economic logic is straightforward even where the specific figures for Guiwanon and Taguihon aren’t published: reef fish populations that are allowed to spawn undisturbed inside a no-take core zone spill over into the surrounding waters, replenishing the catch available to small-scale fishers working the buffer zone and beyond — a fisheries-management trade-off that asks fishing households to accept short-term restriction in exchange for a more resilient catch over time.

Location

Barangays Guiwanon and Taguihon, Baclayon, Bohol. Baclayon is approximately 6 km east of Tagbilaran City along the coastal highway.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran City, take a jeepney or multicab heading east toward Baclayon — approximately 15 to 20 minutes. The exact access point — whether entry is by boat or directly from shore — isn’t documented; ask locally in Guiwanon or Taguihon, or check with the barangay, once you arrive.

Practical Info

• Currency: PHP
• Language: Cebuano, Filipino, English
• Entry fee, permit requirements, warden contact, and snorkeling gear rental aren’t documented for this site — confirm current arrangements with the barangay or municipal tourism office before planning a visit.

What to Expect

As a marine protected area, fishing restrictions apply and reef recovery is the primary goal — the standard pattern for Philippine municipal MPAs is a no-take core zone ringed by a buffer where limited, regulated fishing continues, though the exact zoning here is unconfirmed. Visitors interested in snorkeling or diving should confirm access rules with local officials before entering.

Current coral condition, underwater visibility, and whether guided tours are available aren’t documented — these are worth asking about locally, since conditions in small municipal MPAs can vary and change over time. Fishing households in Guiwanon and Taguihon depend on the same reef the MPA is meant to protect, so the visible marker of the zone — buoys, a sign, a designated boundary — is also, in effect, a marker of a local livelihood arrangement: whatever fish stock recovers inside the boundary is meant to eventually support the same small-scale fishers whose grounds it restricts.

Boholano coastal households commonly prepare the day’s reef catch as kinilaw — fish or seafood cured in vinegar and calamansi rather than cooked over heat — a preparation found across the province’s fishing barangays and one that depends on a catch fresh enough to eat raw-cured the same day it’s landed, which is itself an argument for keeping the inshore reef healthy enough to fish close to shore rather than having to travel further out.

Notes

• Listed in BPTO inventory under Nature / Coast and Landscape
• Baclayon is also home to one of the oldest stone churches in the Philippines (Baclayon Church, 1595)