Building resilience & reducing vulnerabilities to climate change in the fisheries and aquaculture

sector

Cassandra De YoungFisheries and Aquaculture Department

FAO

Outline

1. What is at stake?

2. How can we respond?

3. What are risks and vulnerabilities?

4. Examples of adaptation and mitigation in FI&AQ

Over 500 million people depend –directly or indirectly – on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods

Aquatic foods provide essential nutrition for 4 billion people and at least 50% of animal protein and minerals to 400 million people in the poorest countries.

Fish products are among the most widely-traded foods, with more than 37% by volume of world production traded internationally.

1. What is at stake?

Biophysical changes

from GHG

accumulations

Ocean currents

ENSO

Sea level rise

Rainfall

River flows

Lake levels

Thermal structure

Storm Severity

Storm frequency

Acidification

Effects on:

Production

Ecology

Fishing &

Aquaculture

operations

Communities

Livelihoods

Wider society &

Economy

Impacts on:

Species composition

Production & yield

Distribution

Diseases

Coral bleaching

Calcification

Safety & efficiency

Infrastructure

Loss/damage to assets

Risk to health & life

Displacement & conflict

Adaptation & mitigation costs

Market impacts

Water allocation

CC impacts on fisheries and aquaculture

Badjeck et al, 2010

Predicted effects on fisheries’ catch potential

Cheung et al. 2010

Economic costs to fisheries

The costs of inactionSEI 2012

Australia - net economic effect on fisheries due to

climate change for the year2030

Norman-Lopez et al 2011

Climate change impacts on fisheries in West Africa: implications for economic, food and nutritional

security

2050 versus 2000Lam et al 2012

Understanding vulnerabilities: applied fisheries example

Global mapping of national economies’ vulnerability to climate change impacts on fisheries

Allison et al, 2009

Understanding Vulnerabilities: Evolving the IPCC model

Cinner et al (2013)

Understanding Vulnerabilities of fisheries-depending communities

Cinner et al (2013)

Plot of the vulnerability of coastal communities to the impacts of coral bleaching on fisheries

3. What can be done?

Preparing and responding to the impacts: adaptation to climate change through broader vulnerability reduction

• Ecological, Economic and Social Resilience

– implementation of ecosystem approach to fisheries and aquaculture, the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries

– livelihood diversification, flexible access rights, public and private insurance

• Technological innovation

• Planned adaptation –policy coherence across sectors (water, agriculture, forestry, CZM, DRR/DRM)

A few FI&AQ adaptation examples

• Diverse and flexible livelihood strategies– Diversification of patterns of fishing/fish farming activities with respect to

the species exploited, location of fishing grounds/farms and gear used

– Changes in post-harvest techniques/practices

– Switching between rice-farming, tree-crop farming and fishing in response to seasonal and inter-annual variations in fish availability

– Migrating along the coast or between islands

– Integrated agriculture (e.g. rice-fish)

– Selected strands of species in aquaculture

– Investing in aquaculture (e.g. mud crab, seaweed, cage)

– Culture-based capture (stocking of aquatic systems)

• Flexible and adaptable institutions

– Incorporating uncertainty into fisheries management

– Incorporating CC into policies, investments and development plans

– Allowing for flexible temporal and spatial planning to permit stock recovery during favorable climatic periods

– Permitting flexible redistribution of fishing rights among neighboring municipalities, according to needs and surpluses

– Applying transboundary stock management that takes into account changes in distribution

– Implementing flexible co-management frameworks including participatory information systems

• Risk reduction initiatives– Reinforcing natural bariers, such as sand dunes, mangroves and

coral reefs, to dampen wave or storm damage

– Reinforcing cage and ponds

– Cage and pond siting to minimize environmental risks

– Integrating DRM into fisheries and aquaculture

– Using portable telephones to share weather related information as part of an early warning system

– Improving saftey at sea and coast programs for small-scale fishersand transformers

– Insurance – private, social, social-private

– Improving post-harvest processes and infrastructure to minimizelosses

Mitigation - Oceans, aquatic ecosystems

Removing emissions:

Carbon capture and storage (sea beds, phytoplankton, and blue carbon) – BIG NUMBERS 93% carbon storage and 30% sequestration

Halt the disruption of carbon sequestration in aquatic ecosystems by, e.g., habitat destruction

Implement mangroves and floodplain forests in REDD+ and develop blue carbon funds

Avoiding or displacing emissions:

Renewable energy potential – tides, currents, waves, wind, hydropower, aquatic biofuels (algae, fish oil)

Reducing emissions:

Emissions reductions from aquatic food production systems and maritime transport (feed and fuel hotspots in primary production, fuel use and waste/loss in post-harvest)

Thank you!

Join us for the Global FishAdapt Adaptation on the Ground Conference,

8-10 August 2016Bangkok, Thailand

www.fishadapt.com