Assessing vulnerability of wetland fisheries to climate change: a stakeholders' perception-based approach

Floodplain wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems. It is highly vulnerable to climate change, affecting the wetland ecosystem and its associated fisheries. In the face of data deficiency, this article presents an alternative approach to assess the vulnerability of wetland fisheries to cli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Climate and development 2022-08, Vol.14 (7), p.600-616
Main Authors: Naskar, Malay, Sarkar, Uttam Kumar, Mishal, Puthiyottil, Karnatak, Gunjan, Saha, Suchismita, Bandopadhyay, Arnab, Bakshi, Snigdha, Das Ghosh, Bandana, Das, Basanta Kumar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Climate change
Data analysis
Fisheries
Floodplain wetland
Floodplains
hybrid index
Indicators
Mitigation
Principal components analysis
Species richness
stakeholder perception
Vulnerability
Wetlands
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Summary:Floodplain wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems. It is highly vulnerable to climate change, affecting the wetland ecosystem and its associated fisheries. In the face of data deficiency, this article presents an alternative approach to assess the vulnerability of wetland fisheries to climate change. A total of 15 wetlands from a wetland-fisheries-rich area of West Bengal, India, were selected to illustrate the methodology. The proposed method mainly relies on stakeholders' perceptions of the wetland fisheries vulnerability. Elicitation stakeholders' response iteratively screened the indicators of fisheries vulnerability. The hybrid method of index-based vulnerability comprises two types of indicators: climate indicators with long-term quantitative data and stakeholder perceived vulnerability indicators specific to wetland fisheries. The high level of consensus (92%) among respondents provided strong evidence of climate change in last 15 years, which has also been validated through long-term data analysis. The Principal Component Analysis extracted five synthesized vulnerability indicators, explaining 83.35% variability of the original 14 indicators. The wetlands were further grouped according to differential vulnerability for prioritizing the wetlands for strategic planning. Climate change, reduction in species richness and adaptive capacity were the key components responsible for differential vulnerability. The study also revealed some indigenous climate-smart mitigation strategies of wetland fisheries to climate change.
ISSN:1756-5529
1756-5537
DOI:10.1080/17565529.2021.1956410