Working for climate justice

Supporting coastal communities to navigate the climate crisis

By Blue Ventures

November 11^th, 2021

The challenge

Coastal fishing communities living in the tropics are among those most impacted by the climate crisis.

As our oceans warm and acidify, fisheries catches will decrease, threatening the livelihoods of those communities who depend on them for food and income. This decline is predicted to be most dramatic in the tropics.

Rising sea levels and accelerated coastal erosion risk exposing these communities to floods, saltwater intrusion and the loss of land.

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events threatens the safety of these communities, exposes them to disease and infrastructure damage and interferes with their ability to fish.

DEEPENING VULNERABILITY

Not only are these communities being disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, they are among the most vulnerable and underserved people on the planet

Fisheries are collapsing throughout the tropics as a result of decades of overexploitation, compounded by the loss of mangrove forests and other coastal habitats. These fisheries cannot meet the demands of growing coastal populations that depend heavily on marine resources.

Many coastal fishing communities in the tropics are located in extremely remote and under-served areas, often lacking access to basic health services.

A HOLISTIC APPROACH

We recognise that vulnerability to climate change is complex and multifaceted, reflecting the interconnected challenges of degrading ecosystems, narrow livelihood options, food insecurity and poor community health.

Our work addresses several key drivers of climate change vulnerability by integrating community-based marine resource management with family planning and other community health services. This empowers fishing communities to sustainably manage their marine resources, and women to choose freely the number and spacing of their births.

Community meeting for the Locally Managed Marine Area of Velondriake | Photo: Gabriel Diamond

Community-based marine resources management | Photo: Gabriel Diamond

Community health clinic | Photo: Gabriel Diamond

We also support mangrove conservation and restoration initiatives, harnessing carbon financing to incentivise community-led mangrove management. As well as protecting and reforesting mangroves as key carbon storage and mitigation strategy, this will help safeguard the vital services that the mangroves offer their dependent communities, such as coastal protection from storms, building materials, water filtration, and supporting important fisheries.

To enable communities to better respond to climate related extreme weather events, we are supporting community-based disaster risk management. This includes providing communities with early weather warning systems and supporting the development of risk management plans. We are also advocating for better integration of national disaster responses with community-led responses to climate related crises so that responses can better harness local expertise and build on local social capital.

Seaweed aquaculture | Photo: Gabriel Diamond

Sea cucumber aquaculture is an alternative livelihood that increases the resilience of coastal communities

Drying and smoking fish for storage or sale

Mangrove fisheries offer vitally important food for coastal communities

Women lining up to replant mangrove saplings with the correct spacing

Crab fattening: crab fisheries are an alternative livelihood for mangrove communities

Selecting and preparing the mangrove propagules for planting

Fiherena river brings sediment-laden water to the sea due to erosion caused by inland deforestation, suffocating vital coral reef fisheries

This holistic and interdisciplinary model builds both social and ecological resilience to climate change by enabling communities to manage their fisheries more sustainably, nurture and safeguard healthy ecosystems, improve their health and better manage the risks associated with the climate crisis.

“This approach represents a pragmatic response to the challenge of rebuilding fisheries with coastal communities against a backdrop of a changing climate. Convinced of the value of this way of working, and having witnessed some dramatic changes in weather in areas that we work, we are committed to sharing what we have learned with coastal communities throughout the tropics.” Dr Vik Mohan, Director of Community Health

The previous ten years have been the hottest on record. Communities living in the coastal tropics are among those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

We need to act now to ensure that as many of these communities as possible benefit from this holistic approach to conservation, and are able to build greater resilience to climate change.