Abstract

Climate change adaptation planning is often constrained by a lack of information on vulnerabilities and impacts. The recent completion of detailed vulnerability and impact assessments for Caribbean fisheries as part of the Caribbean track of the Pilot Program on Climate Resilience now provides a stronger foundation for a more systematic and informed approach to climate change adaptation planning in the region’s fisheries sector. This presentation summarizes key outcomes from work on a ‘climate-smart’ fisheries monitoring and management framework for the Caribbean region, including indicators for tracking climate change impacts on fisheries, a compilation of the most promising adaptation measures currently in use across the globe, and decision-making frameworks for selecting and implementing adaptation measures. This work stresses the importance of linking monitoring data to decisions on adaptation and highlights areas in which public-private stakeholder partnership and cooperation could play vital supporting roles. It thus emphasizes the need to leverage existing programs and partnerships to increase capacity for climate change monitoring and impact reduction in the face of limited adaptation resources. By adopting the monitoring guidance provided in the toolkit, regional stakeholders will be in a position to provide a “line of sight” between adaptation measures and vulnerability reduction, which is also important for accessing global climate finance. This work culminated in the delivery of a regional training workshop where fisheries management representatives from six pilot countries learned about frameworks and participated in exercises to apply these tools to their own fisheries management settings. The presentation will also include insights and lessons learned throughout the development and dissemination process.

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