Should we hang up our nets?

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Should we hang up our nets? Adaptation and
conflict within fisheries - insights for living
with climate change
Dr Sarah Coulthard School of Environmental
Sciences Ulster University
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• Why fisheries and climate change?
• International concern for increasing the
  visibility of fisheries in climate change debates
  (FAO)
• 2. Fisheries in crisis - an opportunity to
  capture learning?
• The current fisheries crisis necessitates
  adaptation in fishing
• societies what shapes adaptation and whether it
  takes
• place?
• Coping with or adapting to?
• What shapes decisions and thresholds within the
  family?
• 3. Adaptation in fisheries evidence of
  conflict?

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• Increasing the visibility of fisheries in climate
  change
• debates

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1) High dependency on fisheries Fisheries and
aquaculture directly employ over 36 million
people worldwide 98 per cent of whom are in
developing countries There are 520 million
fisheries-dependent people (ancillary
occupations) 1/3 of the global population rely
on fish produce for 1/5 of their annual protein
intake (FAO) 2. Resource collapse
(overfishing) Worm et al (2006) predict we will
run out of commercial fish stocks by 2048
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3) Collapse exacerbated by climate
change Changing fish migration, habitat
destruction and ocean acidification 4) High
vulnerability of coastal fishing people
Flooding, storms, sea level rise
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5. Unequal vulnerabilityThe vulnerability of
national economies to potential climate
changeimpacts on fisheries (Allison et al 2009)
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Fisheries in crisis and pressures to adapt.

• Livelihood threats
• Less fish
• Less fishing access (increasingly restrictive and
  generalist global fisheries policy)
• e.g. IUCN Road map to establish a global network
  of marine parks by 2012
• Creates pressure on fishermen and women to adapt
  / change their
• livelihoods....
• alternative livelihoods
• to move out of fishing

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• Adaptation pressures are often highly unfair
• e.g. West African fisheries
• Highly vulnerable to climate change impacts on
  fisheries
• Often have under-developed fisheries (small
  scale)
• High focus for conservation interests (e.g.
  Marine Protected Area networks)
• Currently overfished by EU fishing fleets (legal
  agreements / poor enforcement)
• Hands off my fish! (SelFISH Europe report) Action
  Aid (Senegal) 2008
• (Impacts on women fish traders)

Action Aid 2008
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2. Fisheries in crisis - an opportunity to
capture learning?

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• A focus on the difference between coping
  strategies and adaptation
• Mixed terminologies adaptive coping strategies
  .
• Fishers as experts in coping but many have
  reached the outer range of their coping capacity
• Coping short term, flexible, livelihood
  diversification
• Adaptation longer term and more permanent
  moving out of fisheries completely
• Positive adaptation of choice and
  reversibleconcerned with risk reduction
• Negative adaptation irreversibleforced to adapt
  when coping with short term shocks is no longer
  possible (Davies and Hossain 1997)

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• In fisheries a move from diversifying
  livelihoods (coping) to moving out of fisheries
  completely (adapting) is a complex decision
• Key questions
• How are decisions negotiated within structures
  of society, household, needs, and aspirations?
• What is the threshold between coping and
  adapting?
• Is adaptation to be chosen or policy induced?
  agency in adaptation

?
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3. Adaptation in fisheries evidence of conflict
around thresholds in South Indian fisheries
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Evidence 1. Conflict between the promotion of
livelihood alternatives (moving out of
fisheries) vs. a strong attachment to a fishing
way of life
When I hear the words alternative livelihoods I
feel a fire in my stomach. For whom will you
provide alternatives? Do you have jobs for all
fishermen here?
Fishermen meeting with academics, India 2007
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• A man may leave his wife but never
• his fishing spot
• (local Tamil saying,
• South India)

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Divisions between fishing youth and elders
(potential for conflict?)
Interview with fishing youths (2007) Q How do
you see the future of this area? A We want
jobs to come here. There is no future in fishing.
We want industry and tourism here Q Wont
this affect your fathers fishing practice? A
you have to lose a little to gain a little.
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Evidence 2 conflict around policy induced
adaptation the Coastal Zone Management
notification (CMZ) in India

• Pre Tsunami CRZ Act 1991 (conservation of
  habitat at the coast through different
  classifications for coastal use
• Post tsunami vulnerability of coastal human
  population was centralized in coastal policy
  making (UNEP Cairo meet 2004)

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• Amendments to the Coastal Zone regulation Act in
  order to protect the human
• Coastal Zone Management notification draft
  (2008) included a set back / Hazard line
  scientifically defined with Remote sensing (GIS)
  by its physical vulnerability to flooding and sea
  level rise.
• Coastal Zone Management Better of Bitter fare?
  (Menon et al 2007 EPW)
• Outcry from the fishing community and civil
  society during a 2 month consultation period
  (May-June 2008)

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While it is not our case that fishermen should
be allowed to make indiscriminate use of the
coastal space, a proper provisioning for the
development of the fishing community needs to be
made and this can only be in the coastal space.
The CMZ notification is basically a
discriminatory document that allows a number of
new stakeholders to enter the coast while
ignoring the claims of those who have been
traditionally linked to the sea and have been the
real owners and protectors of the
coast(V.Vivekanandan SIFFS)
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Toothless tiger and cringing dragon Also about
ineffective legislation against other, more
powerful claimants of coastal space The State
Coastal Zone Management Authority is completely
ineffective and a toothless tigerThe MoEF,
despite all its powers, has preferred to be a
dragon that cringes before the powerful moneyed
interests and has allowed anarchic development to
flourish on the coast.
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July 5th 2009 The Hindu newspaper CMZ draft to
be reviewed to protect fishermen Parliamentary
panel asks Centre to put CMZ notification on
hold NEW DELHI The Environment and Forests
Ministry has decided to review discrepancies in
the draft on Coastal Zone Management (CMZ) 2008
notification, which is in its final
stages. Opposing the notification,
non-governmental organisations and fishing
communities alleged that it would encourage and
legalise industrial activities along coasts in
the garb of management methodologies, while
curtailing the local communitys access to sea
resources.
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• Conclusions - parallel challenges between
  fisheries and
• climate change research
• An adaptation fund for fisheries - sector
  specific (FAO)
• How to recognise, and work with, decision process
  to adapt at personal, societal and government
  levels wellbeing?
• Where is adaptation working / failing in
  fisheries (and other sectors) can this inform
  expectations in climate change (and other)
  debates (e.g. Marine Bill UK)?
• Adaptation and agency? deliberative forums to
  discuss and negotiate trade offs in adaptation to
  change
• E.g. CMZ (consultancy approach vs. open and
  informed debate forum?)
• For more info contact s.coulthard_at_ulster.ac.uk