Climate change vulnerability and perceived impacts on small-scale fisheries in eastern Mindanao

Abstract

The reef fisheries in the Philippines are highly affected by various anthropogenic stressors including climate change, marine pollution and fish depletion arising from overfishing. There is a need for continuous monitoring of the fisheries to identify relevant factors that influence the economic and ecological vulnerability of fishers concerning climate change impacts. This study addressed the question: “What are the perceived impacts of climate change on small scale fisheries in relation to fishing communities in eastern Mindanao?” A combination of semi-structured survey of fishers in Cantilan and Mati (N = 222) and eight focus groups were used for data analysis to answer the question. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce the number of factors examined, and multiple linear regression was used to examine the factors that influence the catch per unit effort of the fisheries. The fisheries factors examined include age, years fishing, years in community, worst, normal, and best catches, boat power, fishing cost and monthly income. In addition, the study examined various sources of vulnerabilities and climate change impacts to the fisheries. The results show that fishing costs, monthly income and weather and coral bleaching influenced the CPUE of the reef fisheries (df = 4, MS = 0.342, F = 5.23, P = 0.001). Past historical catches show that the reef fisheries reached its highest catches in the 1970s (131 kg/trip) and thereafter begun its decline to 14 kg/trip today. Management intervention involves non-fishing based-livelihoods, stricter law enforcement in the fishing grounds and other financial access given to fishers.