Planning for Change

The need for adaptation

As climate impacts on marine fisheries materialize or become of greater concern, adaptation planning increases in importance. Adaptation helps to temper exposure through buffering impacts and reducing risk.

Adaptation encompasses a range of actions and strategies that can help moderate harm or capitalize on beneficial opportunities associated with climate change (IPCC, 2022). Adaptation actions can span a spectrum of complexity at multiple time scales. Intentional, planned adjustments to changes that have been experienced or are expected can support adaptation within current fishery systems. In some cases, more transformative responses are necessary to change the current system so it can support greater responsiveness or resilience, or to achieve different goals. Implementing transformational strategies often requires institutional or cultural changes that extend beyond the fishery system, and occur at regional, federal and international levels as appropriate.

Adaptation actions and options

There are a wide range of adaptation strategies and actions available that will depend on individual goals, regional relevance, community context, and management or governance frameworks. Some of these may be easier to implement than others, depending on the scale at which they need to occur, their time frame, cost, and number of actors involved. Adaptation responses are needed throughout all levels of the fishery system and cannot fall on individuals alone. Coordinated planning and action that involves community partners, municipal agencies, and fishery management bodies will most effectively build climate resilience for fishing communities. Importantly, adaptation has no end point. As the climate continues to change, new impacts will occur, which means that adaptation actions will need to be re-evaluated and revised.

Through a combination of stakeholder conversations, literature reviews, and signposting of additional tools, we outline examples of overarching strategies and actions fisheries stakeholders may wish to consider.

We've aggregated the adaptation actions outlined below in this report. These actions should not be viewed as an exhaustive list, rather they represent a selection of potential ideas. Many other examples are not listed, and original approaches may arise within the context of community planning processes.

Example adaptation approaches and strategies

Fishing changes

• Shifting fishing locations
• Shifting harvested species (as existing permits/allocations allow, or through seeking out new permits)
• Diversifying livelihoods (alternative fisheries, aquaculture, non-fishing jobs)

Industry actions

• Improving product handling
• Developing supply chain capacity
• Diversifying marketing and building consumer demand

Community actions

• Maintaining and securing shoreside infrastructure and access
• Improving transportation networks
• Developing local seafood initiatives
• Conducting vulnerability and resilience assessments
• Using early warning monitoring
• Engaging communities in adaptation and resilience planning

Management measures

• Reassessing quota allocations
• Altering permit access and availability
• Developing adaptive reference points
• Applying dynamic and ecosystem-based management

Selecting and prioritizing adaptation options

A number of considerations shape the selection of adaptation actions. Importantly, their effectiveness in meeting pre-defined goals, and their ability to reduce impacts of concern should be central to decisions of which actions to prioritize. It is also necessary to consider whether appropriate resources–financial, knowledge, skills, and capacity–are available to implement specific options. A critical part of selecting and prioritizing adaptation options entails examining the cost-benefits and trade-offs that arise in selecting particular strategies. Trade-offs can be ecological, social, economic or institutional in nature.

Additionally, attention to the equity implications of different adaptation actions is important to minimize harms and avoid (further) marginalization or disenfranchisement of particular groups of people, including Indigenous communities. All types of knowledge, including for example scientific information, local ecological knowledge and Indigenous knowledge, should be used to guide adaptation decisions, but depends on participation and permission from these groups. Transparency in how options are selected and prioritized is critical to help promote buy-in and reduce conflict among different stakeholders. As such, participatory and collaborative decision-making processes are well-suited for selecting and implementing adaptation strategies.

Useful resources and tools

• Adaptation Approaches and Strategies Resource
• Climate Resilient Fisheries Planning Toolkit
• EDF Climate-Resilient Fisheries and Oceans Toolkit

Go back to Climate Adaptation Planning for Fishing Communities homepage.