Linkage between natural resources, ecosystems and disaster resilience in changing climate is recognized fact. In India, fisheries sector is one of the major sources of livelihood and especially for those who are living in the coastal area contributing to around 0.91% to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. Fisheries has the prospects to meet many of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) viz., poverty, hunger and feed security; reconstruction management of inland water resources, ecosystem and biodiversity; economic growth, employment and decent work; consumption and production; etc. However, this sector is being challenged by climate change and disaster impacts such as cyclones, floods, droughts, tsunami, sea level rise, etc. As such appropriate mitigation strategy and adaptation measure is needed which will help in minimizing the negative impacts and increase the resilience of the fisheries sector. This paper enumerates the effect of changing climate in fisheries sector and delineates the mitigation and adaptation strategies towards resilient fisheries system and resources in a holistic framework.
Key findings:
This paper examines the impact of climate change on India's fisheries sector, highlighting its significance for livelihoods and the economy. It discusses the sector's vulnerability to disasters like cyclones and floods, emphasizing the need for mitigation and adaptation strategies. The findings emphasize the importance of resilience-building measures for sustainable fisheries management.
What is known and what is new?
This paper presents the known impact of climate change on India's fisheries sector, emphasizing its importance for livelihoods and the economy. What's new is its focus on specific mitigation and adaptation strategies to enhance the sector's resilience in the face of climate-related challenges.
What is the implication, and what should change now?
The implication is that urgent action is needed to implement the proposed mitigation and adaptation strategies to enhance the resilience of India's fisheries sector. Changes should include policy reforms, investment in sustainable practices, and community engagement to ensure the sector's long-term viability in a changing climate.
Of late, climate risk has attained key considerations in sectoral planning and related development policies. Natural resource management linkage with disaster risk management is one of the most important areas of current research especially in the developing country settings. Loss of lives of livestocks, increased in crop losses, reduced crop yields, etc., are some of the effects induced by the changing climate [1]. Likewise, climate change is affecting the fisheries sector also. In our country, fishery is one of the major source for livelihood and especially for those who are living in the coastal areas. This sector also contributes 5.23%to the GDP of the agriculture sector & 0.91% to the total GDP of the country [2]. Fisheries has the prospects to meet many of the SDGs viz., poverty, hunger & feed security, ecosystem and biodiversity; economic growth, employment and decent work; consumption and production; etc. However, this sector has been challenged by climate change and disaster impacts of cyclones, floods, droughts, tsunami, sea level rise, etc. making it vulnerable to climate change. The changing temperature, rainfall pattern and wind are the major factors that are affecting the fish production. Particularly fish spawning is affected by change in temperature since fishes are known to spawn in a particular temperature. The fish farmers who are depending on this sector are also vulnerable and there also have been reports on loss of lives and properties. Therefore, these issues need to be addressed and addressing the aquatic biodiversity crisis requires coordinated engagement across all relevant agencies and organizations [3]. This paper focuses on analysis of impact of climate change to the rural livelihood and the fisheries sector as a whole, identification of the adaptation measures and to provide recommendations or proposal in the context of climate change policies and programmes.
Impact of Climate Change on Fisheries
Climate change has been affecting the fisheries sector directly or indirectly by the variable climate including extreme events like upwelling failures, cyclones (see Box. 1), flooding and tsunamis (see Box. 2) thereby exploiting the commercial fish stocks. The changing climate may lessen the availability of some fish species while increasing the availability of other species. Climate change will bring change in fish prices, harvest time, social stresses, etc. It is therefore, needed to analyze how fished react to climate fluctuation and how they are adapting to it.
BOX 1 Cyclone Fani in Orissa in 2019
Orissa was the worst hit state by the Cyclone Fani in 2019. More than 10 million people were affected, around 2 million people were rescued and 35 people deceased. The cyclone damaged the rural and urban areas of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Puri. The stored and standing crops were all destroyed by the cyclone and all the communication services was disrupted. A study conducted by ICAR team on the cyclone hit areas reported that the kutcha houses, fishing boats, nets and other household materials had been severely damaged. Down to Earth, 2019 reported that fishing was the worst hit profession which is supporting more than 6 lakh households and out these, 2 lakhs had been affected. Many of the household was left without any houses and boats. Source: Senapati, 2019. |
BOX 2 Tsunami in Kerala in 2004
The destruction caused by Tsunami in 2004 is recorded as one of the worst tragedy. Children and women had been reported to be majority of the victims in Kerala. The fisherman whose livelihood is dependent on fisheries sector was the most affected segment. Around Rs. 117.8 worth damage were caused by the tsunami (Joint Assessment Mission Report, 2005). There was reduction in fishing trips and decline in fish catches which made a shift in demand and price crash in the marketing system, the income levels of boat owners operating and non-operating as well as the crew members showed a steep decline. Around 1, 54,000 houses were destroyed (JAM Report, 2005). In this area, fisheries sector provides a main source of income. However, the damages caused by Tsunami were accentuated by the increase in input price which was hampering the profitability of small boat owners. Source: Sathiadas and Prathap, 2005 [4] |
Effect on fish habitat
The change in rainfall pattern, temperature, wind speed, climate change & direction will disturb the production cycle of the aquatic species esp. fishes. There may be decadal variation of the fish population and also affecting its growth development and other organism. The intrusion of sea water and fresh water will also affect fish habitat [5].
Effect on fish stock
Even a little difference in the temperature affects the distribution and life cycle of fishes. There are already reported cases of extinction of regional fish species and shifts in the spawning period of fishes. There is also reported case of migration pattern of the Indian Sardine and Indian Mackeralm in the past 50 years [6].
Effect on harvesting sector
One potential effect of changing climate is the damage caused to the fisheries sector by the increasing extreme weather events. A study conducted on sea surface temperature and fish catch per unit showed a positive correlation which means that with the rise in temperatures, large amount of energy is needed for harvest a particular amount of fish.
Effect on fishing communities
The fishing community living around coastal area is prone to, cyclones, tsunamis, etc. India’s east coast, due to its flat terrain, are more vulnerable to such hazards. Reports say that erosion is also another problem that is leading to decrease in coastal areas and thereby affecting the houses of the fishing communities. Cyclonic weather also avert the fisher folks in doing fishing operations [4].
Effect on market and trade
The other important impact of climate change is the increase in prices of fish & fish products. The production of commercial fishes is also expected to be affected due to the shifting of distribution of fish stocks. These will create food insecurity to the regions that are depending on fisheries sector.
Adaptation and Mitigation Options
Proper adaptation and mitigation strategies are a must towards sustainable and resilient fishery. Mitigation strategy should be aimed towards sustainability. There should be mutual understanding, efforts and cooperation between the stakeholders. The most important part of mitigation is the capacity development of the communities and providing long term action plans. Adaptation strategies are specific to location and location and such strategies are based on the past events and initial risk assessment. Like mitigation measures, stakeholders from all level must contribute towards the changing climate. The ability of the fishing community needs to be strengthened to make them more adaptive to climate change. Disaster response and disaster risk mitigation for fisheries sector requires different and specific actions. Some of the adaptation options are tackling overfishing develop knowledge base for climate change and fisheries; adopt code of conduct for responsible fisheries, etc. Steps that are taken as part of long term integrated management planning for extreme events on fisheries and allied infrastructure and dependent communities are likely to be more efficient in general [7]. Ecosystem approaches to fisheries (EAF) should be adopted so as the resilience of fisheries is increased. For climate change impacts, improved management practices and aquaculture practices that has been improved and modified have been reported as the best immediate form of adaptation. The best immediate form of adaptation would be improved management practice and modified aquaculture practices, in most cases and for most climate change-related impacts [8,9]. For effective management of fisheries sector, adaptive capacity should be increased instead of aiming at increasing yield. Integration of aquaculture with other practices like rice cultivation should be promoted.
Suggestions/Recommendations
Conduct vulnerability assessment taking account of present and future dynamic contexts.
Take up ecosystem approaches for better management of fisheries sector towards sustainable disaster risk reduction (DRR) remedies.
Check overfishing, and integrate the principles of conservation for holistic sustainable resource management.
Education and awareness to the fish farmers on disaster management.
Facilitate early warning systems that are vulnerable to disasters.
Train the communities on how to prepare and cope up with changing risk disasters.
Encourage the private sector to provide technical support and manpower for DRR, especially for keeping infrastructure systems resilient and long lasting functional.
Promote environmental friendly fishery practices and blend with green growth opportunities.
Restore wetlands and to implement scientific fish farming practices.
Improve the national policy and planning of fisheries sector mainstream disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climatic changes.
Climate change is causing enormous adverse effect on fishes and the fishing community. There is a need to improve the resilience and increase the adaptive capacity of the vulnerable community to cope with certain hazards like floods, cyclones, etc. A such, it is recommended to develop policies, programs to increase the resilience of the natural resources though vulnerability and risk assessment, increasing awareness of the impacts of climate change, etc. Possible adaptation measures identified by FAO may also be adopted. The ecosystem approaches to fisheries (EAF) should be adopted so as the resilience of fisheries is increased. Improved management practice and modified aquaculture practices would be the best immediate form of adaptation. All levels of stakeholders and Government agencies should significantly contribute for adaptation towards the changing climate. In India, all the local administrative units, i.e. Districts, are now required by law, to prepare and implement two important strategies viz., Environmental Action Plan and Disaster Management Plan, and align these also with the State level climate action plans. This will offer significant opportunity for synergies and integration among natural resources, adaptation and resilient development objectives.
Disclosure Statement
No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.
Funding: No funding sources
Conflict of interest: None declared
Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee of National Agriculture Disaster Management, National Institute of Disaster Management.
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