In the Philippines, coastal habitats are degraded and the resources therein depleted both directly (i.e. through destructive fishing practices) and indirectly by massive siltation from deforested upland areas and poor agricultural practices and inappropriate land use activities in coastal watersheds. Over exploitation of the coastal areas is aggravated by rapid population increase. Legal and institutional weaknesses handicap the implementation of coastal resources management projects. It is noted that the Philippines has the most comprehensive set of environmental laws in Asia, but few of these laws are adequately implemented. Most of the environmental and resource utilisation issues in the coastal zone are partly caused by non-enforcement of laws. Participatory approaches have become increasingly widespread in development programs in the past decades. In the Philippines, primary health care, communal irrigation development, integrated rural development, marketing cooperatives and communal farming systems, social forestry and until recently coastal resources management are all examples of government and non-government programs that are based on participatory approaches. The paper describes a number of coastal management initiatives that have been started in the Philippines. The last two decades have been marked by an increasing number of institutions, agencies and organisations which have focused attention on the coastal zone. Acting individually or cooperatively, these groups have evolved unique strategies for addressing the numerous management issues affecting the coastal areas in the Philippines. The various strategies and efforts may be woven into a unified approach often referred to as Community-Based Coastal Resources Management (CB-CRM). This participatory, integrated and multi-sectoral approach is fast becoming an accepted and viable approach to coastal zone management. The paper concludes with a list of lessons learned over the years in this area.