Saying that vulnerable fishing and coastal communities around the world will bear the brunt of climate change’s impacts, a group of 16 international organizations have urged climate negotiators to ensure that fisheries and aquaculture are not neglected in ongoing discussions regarding a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
A policy brief issued by the group (click here to download the policy ftp://ftp.fao.org/FI/brochure/climate_change/policy_brief.pdf) warned that millions of fishers, fish farmers and coastal inhabitants will experience less stable livelihoods, changes in the availability and quality of fish for food, and heightened risks to their health, safety and homes as a result of climate change.
Many fishing and coastal communities subsist in precarious and vulnerable conditions because of poverty and rural underdevelopment, and their well-being is being further undermined by overexploitation of fishery resources and degraded ecosystems.
This situation risks being drastically worsened by climate change if immediate adaptation and mitigation measures are not effectively put in place, the brief says.
“Our aim here is to ensure that climate change negotiators and decision makers in their deliberations don’t forget our freshwaters, seas and oceans and those who depend on them,” said Kevern Cochrane of FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. “They must address these aquatic environments and the fishing, aquaculture and other coastal communities whose livelihoods and even survival will be threatened by climate change. Through their decisions and actions, they need to avoid policies that would damage already stressed aquatic resources and human lives and, instead, implement measures that take full advantage of the environmental and food security services that healthy aquatic resources offer.”
About 520 million people – around 8 percent of the world’s population – depend on fisheries and aquaculture as a source of protein, income or family stability. For 400 million of the poorest of these, fish provides half or more of their animal protein and dietary minerals.
Multiple impacts
The build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is known to be changing air and sea surface temperatures, rainfall and wind patterns, ocean acidity, sea levels and the intensity of tropical cyclones. Research has found that climate change is already modifying the distribution and productivity of marine and freshwater species, affecting biological processes, and altering food webs.
Adaptation strategies, research and action needed
Adaptation and mitigation measures are needed to improve the management of fisheries and aquaculture and the integrity of aquatic ecosystems, respond to the threats to food and livelihood security posed by climate change, seize possible opportunities that arise with change, and help fisheries and aquaculture emit less greenhouse gas, according to the brief.
Research is required to understand the complex biological and chemical processes of aquatic ecosystems that, for example, determine the ocean carbon cycle and the currents and eddies that generate cyclones.
The brief identifies a number of steps that should be taken to protect aquatic ecosystems, fisheries and aquaculture:
• Adopt environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient fishing and aquaculture practices.
• Eliminate subsidies that promote overfishing and excess fishing capacity.
• Undertake assessments of local vulnerability and risk.
• Build local-level ocean climate models.
• Strengthen knowledge of the dynamics of biogeochemical cycles in aquatic ecosystems, especially of carbon and nitrogen.
• Encourage sustainable, environmentally friendly biofuel production from algae and seaweed.
