Yahoo News 5 Feb 09;
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) – Climate change poses a grave threat to dozens of countries where people depend on fish for food, according to a study published Friday that said catches are imperilled by coastal storms and damage to coral reefs.
The WorldFish research centre identified 33 countries as "highly vulnerable" to the effects of climate change because of their heavy reliance on fisheries and limited alternative sources of protein.
Many of the group, which takes in the African nations of Malawi, Guinea, Senegal, Uganda; Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam in Asia; and Peru and Colombia in South America; are among the world's poorest countries.
"Low-lying highly populated countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia will face major inundations of crop land with rising sea levels and this will cause a loss of productive land and impact their economies badly," the study's lead author Edward Allison told AFP.
"As fish is central to many economies and diets, people in the tropics and subtropics will be affected as they have a limited ability to develop other sources of income and food in the face of such change," he added.
"The damage will be greatly compounded unless governments and international institutions like the World Bank act now to include the fish sector in plans for helping the poor cope with climate change."
Global fisheries provide more than 2.6 billion people with at least 20 percent of their average annual protein intake, the study said, citing UN data.
The report, prepared by the Malaysia-based WorldFish and a number of universities and research groups, said climate change threatened to destroy coral reefs, push salt water into freshwater habitats and produce more coastal storms.
It said that the 33 "highly vulnerable" countries produce 20 percent of the world's fish exports and that they should be given priority in efforts to help them adapt to climate change.
Two-thirds of the most vulnerable nations are in Africa, where fish accounts for more than half of the daily animal protein consumed and where fish production is highly sensitive to climate variations.
In South Asia, the report said potential problems including bleaching of coral reefs and changes in river flows as a result of reduced snowfalls present a danger to freshwater habitats.
Allison said the next step would be to investigate the impact climate change will have on these countries and the cost of adapting to the new environment.
He said a lack of data meant researchers were unable to include 60 nations including the tiny Pacific states of Kiribati and the Solomon Islands, and the military dictatorship of Myanmar, that were likely to be highly vulnerable.
Climate Change To Hit Africa Fisheries Hard: Study
Alister Doyle, PlanetArk 6 Feb 09;
OSLO - African nations will be the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change on fisheries, ranging from damage to coral reefs to more severe river floods, according to a study of 132 nations on Thursday.
Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo were most at risk, according to the report which said it was the first to rank nations by their ability to adapt economically to projected impacts of global warming on fisheries.
"Countries of the developing world are going to find it most difficult to cope," said Stephen Hall, head of the Malaysia-based WorldFish Center which led the study by an international team of scientists.
Two-thirds of a group of 33 countries judged "highly vulnerable" were in Africa with most others in Asia and Latin America. Russia, with heavy reliance on fisheries, was the main exception in third place in the ranking.
"Although warming will be most pronounced at high latitudes, the countries with economies most vulnerable to warming-related effects on fisheries lie in the tropics," according to the report, published in the journal Fish and Fisheries.
Shifts could include damage to corals, which are nurseries for many fish. Inland, droughts or floods can disrupt fish supplies in lakes or rivers. "Vulnerability is not limited to coastal states," Hall said.
Those most at risk included Mauritania, Senegal, Sierra Leone and landlocked Mali in Africa, Peru and Colombia in South America and Bangladesh, Pakistan and Vietnam in Asia.
"Vulnerability was due to the combined effect of predicted warming, the relative importance of fisheries to national economies and diets, and limited societal capacity to adapt to potential impacts and opportunities," it said.
FOOD
Worldwide, more than 2.6 billion people rely on fish for at least 20 percent of their protein intake. Rates of dependence on fish were higher in many of the vulnerable nations.
But the study lacked data for dozens of nations, including many small island developing states in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Hall said they were also likely to be at risk.
Hall said the study could prompt nations to think about how to safeguard fisheries. The U.N. Climate Panel says greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, will bring more heatwaves, disruptions to rainfall, and rising seas.
"The key measure is to invest in ensuring that the fisheries resources they have are well managed," he said. Countries should also try to diversify their economies.
The study was by scientists at the WorldFish Center, the University of East Anglia, Britain's Center for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Canada's Simon Fraser University, the University of Bremen and the Mekong River Commission.
(Editing by Janet Lawrence)
