The Climate-Resilient Fisheries Toolkit can help you build resilience now

By Jeff Young

Climate change and overfishing are increasingly straining fisheries and marine ecosystems, putting marine biodiversity, the nutrition of people in coastal communities and global food supply at greater risk. Fishers, community leaders and practitioners worldwide are poised to take action, but often grapple with uncertainty, limited data or insufficient resources. Meanwhile, the journey of building resilience can often feel daunting and overwhelming. These leaders and change-makers are not alone in their experiences and tangible solutions to these major challenges are within reach.

Today we are delighted to share the new release of EDF’s Climate-Resilient Fisheries Toolkit, bringing together the best available knowledge, research and experiences from around the world to serve you in your efforts to build a brighter future for the marine environment and coastal communities. Whether you are a fisher, a fishery researcher, manager, NGO representative, community member, academic or government official, the Toolkit features participatory assessment and decision-making tools to utilize what you have available, and help you take action now to build climate-resilient fisheries and communities.

EDF’s staff of scientists, economists, finance specialists and fishery managers have worked with countless partners and communities around the world, learning from their expertise and co-creating solutions that help fisheries, ecosystems and communities thrive. In parallel, the Fishery Solutions Center has worked tirelessly to capture those learnings and processes along the way, integrating experiences from places like Indonesia, Cuba, Chile, Mexico and Peru, and inviting expertise from fishers, local communities, industry representatives, scientists and managers. The Fishery Solutions Center is pleased to share these experiences and learnings through our Toolkit, containing:

• Participatory and innovative tools that help you assess conditions and prioritize interventions
• Analytical tools to examine governance gaps, climate impacts, ecosystem threats, food and nutrition security needs
• Decision making frameworks to integrate available data and knowledge into management action
• Manuals and guides to support the design and implementation of fishery solutions
• Inspirational stories and case studies highlighting experiences from around the world
• Immersive e-courses on fisheries topics and foundations for building climate resilience
• Additional learning resources including reports, whitepapers, webinars and infographics

The Toolkit’s participatory approach will allow you to work closely with local stakeholders and will enable you to utilize the best available knowledge, inclusive of technical science and traditional and ecological knowledge, to inform management strategies, decisions and actions. Watch the video above to learn more about the Toolkit and begin your exploration by visiting https://fisherysolutionscenter.edf.org.

We look forward to continuing to serve and learn from you as you continue your journey to build a brighter future.