Advancing the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries for Resilient Caribbean Coastal Communities and Livelihoods

Coastal communities, including fisherfolk, in Saint Lucia, SVG and T&T are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climatic hazards including coastal erosion, storms, storm surge and flash flooding, and the frequency and intensity of climatic hazards are projected to increase with climate change. Climate-related impacts compound existing stresses due to pollution and habitat degradation.

This project will promote mainstreaming of EAF to support ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA), recognising that fisheries are social-ecological systems and taking an integrated, risk-based approach to fisheries management to ensure ecological integrity, human well-being and good governance (FAO 2013). Using EAF, it will design and deliver adaptation and stewardship actions to address risks from climate change and land-based pollution and degradation in six target communities and their surrounding coastal ecosystems across Saint Lucia, SVG and T&T. It will also enable conservation and sustainable management of the key mangrove, seagrass and coral reef ecosystems that local fisheries and related livelihoods depend upon, and ensure sustainable fisheries and local livelihoods. This will involve strengthening capacity and coordination among fisheries and other coastal resource managers and users to integrate EAF in their management planning and implementation and to support local stewardship. Knowledge mobilization on best practices and innovations for EAF will further support scale-up and replication.