Small‐scale fisheries through the wellbeing lens Weeratunge, Nireka; Béné, Christophe; Siriwardane, Rapti ...
Fish and fisheries (Oxford, England),
June 2014, Volume:
15, Issue:
2
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Despite longstanding recognition that small‐scale fisheries make multiple contributions to economies, societies and cultures, assessing these contributions and incorporating them into policy and ...decision‐making has suffered from a lack of a comprehensive integrating ‘lens’. This paper focuses on the concept of ‘wellbeing’ as a means to accomplish this integration, thereby unravelling and better assessing complex social and economic issues within the context of fisheries governance. We emphasize the relevance of the three key components of wellbeing – the material, relational and subjective dimensions, each of which is relevant to wellbeing at scales ranging from individual, household, community, fishery to human‐ecological systems as a whole. We review nine major approaches influential in shaping current thinking and practice on wellbeing: the economics of happiness, poverty, capabilities, gender, human rights, sustainable livelihoods, vulnerability, social capital, and social wellbeing. The concept of identity is a thread that runs through the relational and subjective components of social wellbeing, as well as several other approaches and thus emerges as a critical element of small‐scale fisheries that requires explicit recognition in governance analysis. A social wellbeing lens is applied to critically review a global body of literature discussing the social, economic and political dimensions of small‐scale fishing communities, seeking to understand the relevance and value addition of applying wellbeing concepts in small‐scale fisheries.
Anthropogenic global warming has significantly influenced physical and biological processes at global and regional scales. The observed and anticipated changes in global climate present significant ...opportunities and challenges for societies and economies. We compare the vulnerability of 132 national economies to potential climate change impacts on their capture fisheries using an indicator‐based approach. Countries in Central and Western Africa (e.g. Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, and Uganda), Peru and Colombia in north‐western South America, and four tropical Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, and Yemen) were identified as most vulnerable. This vulnerability was due to the combined effect of predicted warming, the relative importance of fisheries to national economies and diets, and limited societal capacity to adapt to potential impacts and opportunities. Many vulnerable countries were also among the world’s least developed countries whose inhabitants are among the world’s poorest and twice as reliant on fish, which provides 27% of dietary protein compared to 13% in less vulnerable countries. These countries also produce 20% of the world’s fish exports and are in greatest need of adaptation planning to maintain or enhance the contribution that fisheries can make to poverty reduction. Although the precise impacts and direction of climate‐driven change for particular fish stocks and fisheries are uncertain, our analysis suggests they are likely to lead to either increased economic hardship or missed opportunities for development in countries that depend upon fisheries but lack the capacity to adapt.
There is increasing concern over the consequences of global warming for the food security and livelihoods of the world's 36 million fisherfolk and the nearly 1.5 billion consumers who rely on fish ...for more than 20% of their dietary animal protein. With mounting evidence of the impacts of climate variability and change on aquatic ecosystems, the resulting impacts on fisheries livelihoods are likely to be significant, but remain a neglected area in climate adaptation policy. Drawing upon our research and the available literature, and using a livelihoods framework, this paper synthesizes the pathways through which climate variability and change impact fisherfolk livelihoods at the household and community level. We identify current and potential adaptation strategies and explore the wider implications for local livelihoods, fisheries management and climate policies. Responses to climate change can be anticipatory or reactive and should include: (1) management approaches and policies that build the livelihood asset base, reducing vulnerability to multiple stressors, including climate change; (2) an understanding of current response mechanisms to climate variability and other shocks in order to inform planned adaptation; (3) a recognition of the opportunities that climate change could bring to the sector; (4) adaptive strategies designed with a multi-sector perspective; and (5) a recognition of fisheries potential contribution to mitigation efforts.
► A coupled physical-ecosystem model predicts future marine fisheries potential. ► A bioeconomic model evaluates fisheries sustainability against demand scenarios. ► Replacement of fishmeal in ...aquafeed will allow increasing fish consumption in 2050. ► Fisheries management will be critical.
Expansion in the world's human population and economic development will increase future demand for fish products. As global fisheries yield is constrained by ecosystems productivity and management effectiveness, per capita fish consumption can only be maintained or increased if aquaculture makes an increasing contribution to the volume and stability of global fish supplies. Here, we use predictions of changes in global and regional climate (according to IPCC emissions scenario A1B), marine ecosystem and fisheries production estimates from high resolution regional models, human population size estimates from United Nations prospects, fishmeal and oil price estimations, and projections of the technological development in aquaculture feed technology, to investigate the feasibility of sustaining current and increased per capita fish consumption rates in 2050. We conclude that meeting current and larger consumption rates is feasible, despite a growing population and the impacts of climate change on potential fisheries production, but only if fish resources are managed sustainably and the animal feeds industry reduces its reliance on wild fish. Ineffective fisheries management and rising fishmeal prices driven by greater demand could, however, compromise future aquaculture production and the availability of fish products.
Peru experiences recurrent ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation) events during which the Peruvian bay scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) undergoes substantial changes in its stock size. In the North of ...the country strong warm ENSO events are synonymous with floods and river discharges that negatively affect scallop biomass, while in the South increased sea surface temperatures lead to an increase in stock size. This paper explores how formal institutions respond to climate variability and resource fluctuations in the scallop fishery, and what role they play in the maintenance or erosion of resilience. The research shows that formal institutions are slow to learn, self-reorganize and respond to climate variability while fishermen's responses are spontaneous, ensuring a rapid process of individual adaptation. Institutional responses are mostly ex-post, and are not strongly shaped by past experience, thus eroding the resilience of the system. However, fishermen's responses sometimes lead to negative outcomes such as local stock overexploitation or 'invasion' of natural scallop habitats for scallop grow-out, and formal institutions play an important role in resilience building through the control of effort and entry in the fishery. In this paper causal loop diagrams are used to conceptualize the fishery system to highlight key variables and processes. The study thus provides the opportunity to explore the usefulness of causal loop diagrams and conceptual models combined with participatory approaches in the exploration of the resilience of a system. The case study also illustrates that individual adaptation, a feature of resilience, is occurring and will occur spontaneously, changing property right regimes and responding not only to climate variability but also market forces. In order to maintain and build resilience and engender positive management outcomes, formal institutions not only need to shape fishermen decision-making, they must also contribute to knowledge building as well as the adoption of innovative approaches.
The warm phase of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is characterized in Peru by positive sea surface temperatures and negative sea level pressure anomalies. Biotic responses to this event range ...from changes in species composition, abundance and biomass, changes in reproductive success, larval dispersal and recruitment, as well as changes in food availability, competition and predation. The thesis characterized fishermen livelihoods and how they responded to El Nino events in two sites in the North (Sechura) and South (Pisco) of Peru. Additionally, it explored how institutions enable or constrain fishermen livelihoods andresponses to El Nino. While both sites have different histories of ENSO related impacts, they share the fact that the artisanal fishing sector plays an important role in the local economy.Livelihood assets exhibit mixed patterns with Pisco possessing a stronger livelihood platform in terms of assets but lower incomes than in Sechura. This finding highlights the fact that income is not an accurate measure of resilient livelihoods and needs to be contextualized. Seasonal migration is a livelihood option practiced by fishermen in both sites depending on seasonality, the de facto open access facilitating fishermen mobility. The thesis also identified that fishermen are largely dependent on marine resources for their livelihoods, occupational pluralism being low at both sites. Diversification being considered a risk-reduction mechanism and a building block towards resilient livelihoods, the findings suggest that fishermen are vulnerable to external shocks due to their high reliance on fishing activities. Moreover, disturbances do not only include climate variability, but also market changes to which fishermen must adapt. El Nià ±o events engender negative livelihood outcomes in the North, where floods have a significant impact on households and the collapse of the scallop fishery considerably decreases incomes. Conversely, in Pisco the increase in scallop landings provides an economic bonanza for fishermen. An array of coping strategies can be observed in both sites, mainly prey-switching and migration. However, in Sechura, exiting the fisheries sector is also a favored strategy. Additionally, the damages of the devastating floods in the North poses considerable strain on livelihoods and disaster risk reduction initiatives in thesecommunities are needed. Current institutional arrangements in the artisanal fishery, with the de facto open access, enable migration, an important livelihood option and coping strategy during El Nià ±o in both communities. With the current chorus of dissatisfaction and trend towards regionalization of the fishery, changes in this property right regime should be carefully evaluated before being implemented. Finally, the thesis revealed that formal institutions negatively affect livelihood outcomes in both sites, the failure of decentralization, hence institutional interplay, hamperingfisheries management. With El Nino being a recurrent phenomenon on the Peruvian shores, expected to increase in frequency due to global climate change, adaptive managementstrategies focusing on diversification of livelihoods, migration and property rights are imperative. The livelihood framework combined with institutional analysis and the resilience perspective provided a useful insight into the complex range of assets and activities affected by climatic events as well as the responses of fishermen. This work is, hitherto, one of the few empirical studies exploring fishermen livelihoods in Peru and further research is warranted as well as the incorporation of the findings into ecological and biological studies looking at the dynamics of the artisanal fisheries, especially in the context of El Nino.
Most (84%) of the warming due anthropogenic climate change has been transferred to the oceans. This chapter outlines the causes and consequences of climate change and summarise future projections for ...ocean temperature rise, coral bleaching events and ocean acidification, and the associated uncertainties. This review largely focuses on marine ecosystems, as three quarters of capture fisheries landings come from the seas. However, it also presents key issues and examples from freshwater fisheries, as these fisheries provide important livelihoods and fish protein for some of the world’s poorest people. While the physical and biological effects of climate change are increasingly well understood, particularly for well-studied temperate shelf ecosystems, relatively little is known of the likely impacts for ecosystems elsewhere and their associated fisheries. Overall, on balance, climate change appears to have impacts on fish ecology and fisheries, but the strength and direction (positive or negative) of the effects vary from place to place. The social and economic effects are less clear; however it is likely that the economies of countries with the lowest levels of adaptive capacity will be most vulnerable to the effects of climate change on capture fisheries and less able to anticipate and capitalise on any advantages of climate impacts. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the direction and degree of the impact of climate change on marine and freshwater ecosystems, and the associated fisheries and fishing communities, the options for policy makers are relatively clear. Policy makers can respond by pursuing mitigation strategies (reducing CO² emissions), building socio-ecological resilience and capacity to enable fishing communities to cope with and adapt to the opportunities, challenges and potential dangers presented by climate change, and by integrating the management of natural resource sectors in a portfolio approach.
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