Abstract

In recent years, Laguna Lake has deteriorated significantly due to agricultural, domestic and industrial waste. This paper examines local residents’ fish consumption behavior in the Laguna Lake watershed area in the Philippines. The data utilized in this study was collected through the “LakeHEAD” household survey (n=389), conducted by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature and University of the Philippines at Los Baños in 2012. How socio-demographic (location and education) and cognitive factors (for example, the perceptions of Laguna Lake pollution caused by domestic waste and/or heavy metals) affect consumers’ behavior regarding fish consumption was examined by distributing questionnaires to the local households. According to the descriptive statistics, most of the local residents (over 80%) considered Laguna Lake as polluted by domestic waste and/or heavy metals. However, the majority of residents (over 70%) still consumed fish; bangus (Chanos chanos), tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and kanduli (Arius dispar) from the Laguna Lake. In addition, there is a strong relationship between the geographical distribution of the residents and their respective fish consumption behavior (p <0.001), as residents living the nearest to the lake were more likely to demonstrate a significant increase in fish consumption which is mostly due to easier access to the fish resources. It is therefore, necessary to promote public education programs focusing on food safety and illness mitigation.

Key words: Education, fish consumption behavior, food safety, Laguna Lake, perception, water pollution.