-
Climate change and livelihoods: perspectives from small-scale fishing communities in India
01.02.2013
This summary paper presents the outputs from a study undertaken by the author for the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) to highlight the perspectives of selected marine fishing communities in India on climate change and its implications on their lives and livelihoods. The paper highlights the weakening livelihood context in marine fisheries and how this has a direct bearing on the causes and consequences of climate change as well as on the capacity of the fishers to undertake appropriate adoptive/mitigating strategies. It summarizes the factors of climate change and variability that have a relevance to the marine fishers, their causes and consequences, and the strategies adopted by the fishers to deal with them. It emphasizes the importance of community-based consultative processes to develop and implement climate change adaptation and mitigation measures, and suggests some measures to improve the current policy and institutional responses to cope with climate change.