of the Verde Island Passage, Philippines - weADAPT

Conclusions and recommendations
chapter 2 • human well-being and climate change: conclusions and recommendations
Performing a vulnerability assessment and suggesting
adaptation and mitigation strategies is not a one-time
activity. All previous studies and guidebooks point to
the need to treat this as an iterative process, involving
as many stakeholders as possible. Baselines as
starting point in vulnerability assessment have been
crafted opportunistically in the research. Whether
through accessed agency data sets or generated from
participative methods, benchmarks that are expected
from governance units revealed huge gaps that could
provide concerned agencies with a sound basis for a
comprehensive vulnerability assessment and planning
adaptation measures.
In the course of profiling foreshore areas, for health
and disaster as well as risk mitigation, it was noted that
many of the issues are institutional in nature and can
be resolved even without having to factor in climate
change. As consensus, participants in the project
recommended the following cross-cutting measures
that may be implemented immediately at the LGU level
to facilitate vulnerability assessments:
• Draft municipal profiles that are climate change
smart and efficiently used, systematize baseline and
M&E inclusive of CC.
• Establish a database system for use in synergy by
mandated agencies.
• Review existing environmental policies and
ordinances related to ecosystem-based adaptation
goals, framework and strategies, have policy
reforms and mechanisms for these (across
household, community, institutional level).
Follow-up activities are best pursued immediately,
to document and assess the process and lessons
learned along the way. More importantly, the identified
adaptation and mitigation options should be given
priority in implementation by the stakeholders and
partners if conclusions of the vulnerability assessment
exercise indicate the area is highly vulnerable to climate
change.
Scores of recommendations are presented to
management units to address climate change impacts
across sectors. Institutional problems and development
issues are recognized as serious constraints that
efforts in adaptation and mitigation have to overcome,
as well as challenges such as competing directions in
development; corruption; lack of political will; priorities
in the use of public funds; destructive, unregulated use
of natural resources (mining, over fishing, etc.); and
conflicting laws or their non- or weak enforcement.
Fisheries
The exercise confirmed that climate change affects
different types of fisheries as source of livelihood and
domestic food in various ways but mostly negatively
due to decline in production and productivity as well
as shifting operational regimes. Virtually all types of
capture fisheries in Verde Island Passage are vulnerable
to climate change due to its direct impacts resulting
from increase in sea surface temperature (small
pelagics and seaweed culture) and indirect impacts
on coastal habitats that provide nursery grounds for
important fish and invertebrates.
Aquarium fishing is one of the more vulnerable sectors
in the fishery because the reef fish are highly dependent
on reef health. An aggravating factor is the general
prohibition imposed by the LGUs on this activity due to
its historical association with cyanide. Tuna fishing and
fishing of small pelagics are vulnerable, particularly in
the municipal sector which may not adapt immediately
to changing operational regimes. Mechanization and
changing gears is an option for adaptation but this may
not be very prudent in the light of overfishing, and may
negate efforts to rehabilitate coastal habitats. Maximum
Sustainable Yield (MSY) or its best approximation
should be estimated to enable informed decision
making.
• Prepare most vulnerable fishing activities by training
in alternative livelihood.
• Implement coastal habitat protection as short term
but sustained adaptation methods.
• Gear adaptation or mechanization as pelagic fish
shall move farther offshore provided that level of
fishing effort does not exceed sustainable limits and
that carrying capacity is first determined.
• Educate seaweed farmers on appropriate methods
least impacted on by increase in sea surface
temperature.
• Generate area based/site based data and improve
catch statistics collection.
• Maintain logbooks or data collection at landing sites
(specifically on areas fished) may contribute to the
overall understanding of climate change impacts
on fisheries, in particular, and to overall fisheries
utilization, in general.
• Confirm, through focused research, impacts of
increasing sea surface temperature and accelerated
sea level rise on commercially important species.
• Diversify livelihoods of coastal communities.
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