Different but Similar? Exploring Vulnerability to Climate Change in Brazilian and South African Small-Scale Fishing Communities

Martins, Ivan Machado; Gammage, Louise Carin; Jarre, Astrid; Gasalla, Maria A.

doi:10.1007/s10745-019-00098-4

Cited by 22 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Considering that the frequency of incidences for small crafts along the south coast is very low, even under bad weather conditions (de Vos & Rautenbach, 2019), it is unlikely that the fishers here are vulnerable to incidences based on weather alone, in line with Gammage et al (2017a) and Martins et al (2019). For example, many fishers observed a faster increase in operating costs compared to the value of the fish (e.g., Gammage et al, 2017a).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

An analysis of high‐resolution modelled wave heights along the South African south coast suggests recent deterioration of sea state

Lyttle

Rautenbach

Backeberg

et al. 2021

Fisheries Oceanography

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Understanding climate variability and change together with fishing activities through high‐resolution scientific information and local observations can help implement and sustain improved coastal marine management strategies. Ethnographic data collected between 2010 and 2016 during previous studies with traditional handline fishers on South Africa's south coast suggest that fishers recently observed a deterioration in sea state and a reduction in sea days. Many fishers attributed this deterioration to increased climate variability. The fishers also suggested experiencing increased difficulty when leaving the nearshore through river mouths due to higher waves and stronger winds. The current study investigated these oceanic changes in terms of wave height variability and trends, using high resolution modelled wave data of the south coast for the period 1997–2013. Considering the fishers' perspectives, wave heights near their main launch sites during their main fishing season (austral summer) were focussed on. During the mid‐to‐late 2000s, a positive regime shift of summer nearshore wave heights occurred along the south coast and a statistically significant positive trend in summer nearshore wave heights occurred during the study period. These results support the local fishers’ observations suggesting that the sea state had been deteriorating, in terms of higher summer nearshore waves. While the magnitude of the observed change is not critical to small‐boat fisheries in the area at present, it may contribute to the decrease in available sea days and hence, adds to the stressors in the commercial and small‐scale sectors, further increasing their vulnerability to change.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

An analysis of high‐resolution modelled wave heights along the South African south coast suggests recent deterioration of sea state

Lyttle

Rautenbach

Backeberg

et al. 2021

Fisheries Oceanography

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“…Poverty alleviation, ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods are some of the policy principles, and thus the SSFP indirectly addresses the need to improve the resilience of the sector to adapt to the potential impacts of climate change but their direct relationship to climate change is not stated. This is a critical point since evidence indicates that small-scale fishers are among the most vulnerable groups to climate change impacts (Hampton et al, 2017b;Martins et al, 2019).…”

Section: Climate Change Adaptation In Fisheries Documentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing South Africa’s Potential to Address Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector

et al. 2021

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The marine fisheries sector is one of the most important income sectors in South Africa and plays an important role in food security for small-scale and subsistence fishers. Climate-driven impacts have resulted in distribution shifts and declines in abundance of important fisheries targets, with negative consequences to the users dependent on these resources. The sustainability of the sector depends on its readiness to adapt to climate change. The inclusion of climate change impacts and adaptation in fisheries management documents in South Africa is essential to ensure adequate climate adaptation responses are implemented at the short- and long-term. This study aims to 1) determine if the relevant fisheries national management documents address climate change and adaptation, 2) determine if the relevant national climate change documents address climate change and adaptation in the fisheries sector and 3) evaluate the extent to which fisheries management documents address climate change and adaptation. A content analysis of fisheries management and climate change documents was carried out to determine if they incorporated information on climate change impacts and adaptation and marine fisheries respectively. Fisheries management documents were then screened against nine pre-determined criteria (or themes) based on climate change adaptation to determine the level of inclusion of best practice for climate change adaptation. Results indicate that climate change impacts and adaptation are rarely incorporated in the main fisheries management documents, except for the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Plan for the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors. However, this document is still waiting to be adopted. The only direct reference identified in all the fisheries documents that supports climate change adaptation was ‘conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity’. With regards to indirect references to climate change adaptation, ‘equity,’ ‘participatory management,’ and ‘capacity building’ were most frequently incorporated in fisheries management documents. There is a need to explicitly incorporate information on climate change impacts and adaptation in South African fisheries management documents and increase the human and financial capacity at national institutions to ensure that the fisheries sector can adequately adapt to climate change.

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“…The framework used to evaluate coastal fishing community vulnerability to climate change has been developed to address different marine-dependent coastal communities in an internationally comparative effort across Southern Hemisphere coastal zones (Aswani et al, 2018;Martins et al, 2019). The framework was proposed by a multilateral scientific team from different countries and disciplines aiming at improving fishing community adaptive capacity by characterizing, assessing and predicting the future of coastal-marine resources and by codeveloping adaptation options through the provision and sharing of knowledge across fast-warming marine hotspot regions (Hobday et al, 2016;Popova et al, 2016).…”

Section: Social Vulnerability Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A key component of the vulnerability framework is to collect rich, local-level, social vulnerability data to provide a detailed understanding of the local-scale processes influencing community vulnerabilities while allowing for the data to be scaled up to regional, country, and global levels (Aswani et al, 2018). Here, the framework was used to understand the local process influencing the social vulnerability of coastal areas at a community level, but the same framework is also being used to scale up to regional and global analyses (Aswani et al, 2018;Martins et al, 2019). The framework consists of a four-step process that is described in the sections below (Figure 2).…”

Section: Social Vulnerability Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Capacity Level Shapes Social Vulnerability to Climate Change of Fishing Communities in the South Brazil Bight

Martins

Gasalla

2020

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Understanding the social vulnerabilities and community strategies to adapt to environmental changes are crucial for the development of actions to enhance both community conservation and survival. With the aim to identify the drivers of vulnerability to climate change among different coastal communities a comprehensive multiscale vulnerability framework was here adopted. Eight selected fishing communities representative of the South Brazil Bight (SBB) area were surveyed at the household level. A total of 151 fishers were interviewed. Quantitative indicators were calculated at the community-level, and their drivers identified, allowing for comparisons of the overall vulnerability score. Findings revealed that remoteness and the lack of climate changerelated institutional support increase vulnerability among fishing communities in the region. On the other hand, community organization, leadership, research partnerships, community-based co-management, and livelihood diversification reduce vulnerability. Our analysis focused on social vulnerability to climate change in regional fishing communities and provides a better understanding of these effects in coastal zones, the factors explaining vulnerability and some perspectives on resilient and adaptable systems. Learning from comparisons at the ecosystem level may be applied to coastal regions elsewhere.

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Different but Similar? Exploring Vulnerability to Climate Change in Brazilian and South African Small-Scale Fishing Communities

Cited by 22 publications

References 34 publications

An analysis of high‐resolution modelled wave heights along the South African south coast suggests recent deterioration of sea state

An analysis of high‐resolution modelled wave heights along the South African south coast suggests recent deterioration of sea state

Assessing South Africa’s Potential to Address Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the Fisheries Sector

Adaptive Capacity Level Shapes Social Vulnerability to Climate Change of Fishing Communities in the South Brazil Bight

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