Search AC2020

Moderator: Inger Miller

Canada’s Research Contributions to Climate Adaptation in the Global South

Presenter: Marie-Eve Landry and Jorgelina Hardoy

Over more than a decade, Canada has been at the forefront of efforts to cope with the effects of climate change across the developing world. This session will reflect and share concrete examples of the research contributions and learning in the Global South on topics, including climate resilient and inclusive urban and rural development, and on gender and social equity. Understanding that gender and social differences can be a source of resilience rather than simply indicators of vulnerability, the session will provide evidence that integrating social equity in climate research can lead to positive development impacts. These contributions suggest lessons for Canada and adaptation beyond 2020, which include moving beyond assessing bio-physical risk to addressing the root causes of social vulnerability, enabling collaborative research to fill existing knowledge gaps, and working across scales to connect the voices of local practitioners to national and global policy dialogues.

Climate Change Adaptation for Fisheries: Transferable lessons from capacity-limited fishing communities in the Caribbean

Presenters:  Jimena Eyzaguirre and Natascia Tamburello

In many coastal communities around the world, marine biodiversity, ecosystems, and fisheries provide sustenance and livelihood opportunities critical to human well-being. However, an increasing number of pressures including coastal development, pollution, overfishing, and now climate change are threatening the continued availability of these opportunities. The increasing availability of government or donor funds for supporting coastal adaptation presents an opportunity to develop systematic approaches to monitoring climate change impacts and implementing adaptation measures in coastal communities.

This presentation outlines key lessons from work on a climate-smart fisheries monitoring and management framework developed for the Caribbean region, including essential indicators for tracking climate change impacts on fisheries across different levels of capacity, decision-making frameworks for selecting and implementing adaptation strategies, and policy recommendations for mainstreaming adaptation in the fisheries sector. Drawing on these lessons, we highlight strategies transferable to climate change adaptation in capacity-limited fishing communities along Canada’s coastlines.