Climate change and need for proactive policy initiatives in Indian marine fisheries sector

Abstract

The paper involves addressing the potential complexities of climate change interactions and their possible impacts in mainstreaming the cross-sectoral responses into governance frameworks. The paper reviews the global and national climate change conferences and policies and with the available literature, using a livelihoods framework, this paper synthesizes the pathways through which climate variability and change impact fisher folk livelihoods at the household and community level. For an effective policy implementation balancing of results approach has to adopted where the current needs are identified and potential adaptation strategies are explored and the wider implications for local livelihoods, fisheries management and climate policies. The policy should be coupled to broader economic reform opportunities to maximise win - win opportunities and should consider funding mechanism which is relevant to the sector.