Abstract
There is increasing concern over the consequences of environmental change for people and communities that depend on already fragile marine resources, given the mounting evidence of sustained over-exploitation and climate change impacts on marine systems. In order to explore the potential social resilience of marine-dependent livelihoods to environmental change, interviews with fishers and marine-based tourism operators in the Caribbean island of Anguilla were undertaken, to identify the impacts of hurricane events on marine livelihoods, the perceptions of resource-users and their potential adaptability to future change. For both sectors of resource-users, there is evidence that they have diversified livelihoods to achieve financial security, which may provide resilience to future climate related impacts or resource variability. In addition, specific behavioural changes that have been developed following previous hurricane events, e.g. removal of fish pots during hurricane months, or bringing boats to shore, indicate fishers' flexibility to changing conditions. However, strong personal and cultural attachment to occupations, particularly among fishers, may hinder resilience. Additionally, the reliance of all of these marine resource-users on the climate-dependent tourism industry may undermine their capacity to cope with future environmental change. Many of these problems are common throughout the Caribbean, as thousands of marine-dependent livelihoods are vulnerable to marine degradation and climate change impacts. Urgent attention is therefore required to support the development of adaptive, sustainable management of marine resources that may enhance resilience to environmental change.
Highlights
Natural resource-dependency describes the direct association between the livelihoods of individuals, sectors or communities, and a natural resource and its local economy [14]
The aim of this study is to explore the social-resilience of marine resource-dependent livelihoods on the Caribbean island of Anguilla to environmental stressors by (1) identifying the characteristics of marine and coastal resource-dependent users and livelihoods, (2) assessing the impacts of previous hurricane events on these resource-dependent livelihoods, and (3) investigating resource-user perceptions of future environmental change on the resource and livelihood security
Fishers and tourist operators in Anguilla are highly dependent on marine and coastal resources. The capacity of these marinedependent livelihoods to use resources is significantly affected by hurricane impacts and marine resource degradation
Summary
Natural resource-dependency describes the direct association between the livelihoods of individuals, sectors or communities, and a natural resource and its local economy [14]. Close links between social and ecological systems, of which coastal resourcedependent users and industries are a prime example, can have major implications for managing and adapting to environmental change [4,15]. Investigations of individual perceptions of environmental change have commonly used a livelihoods approach see [13,23] This approach focuses on local-scale assets (land, stock, savings etc.), capabilities and activities of resource-dependent people, and assesses how different livelihood strategies can affect the ability of people or groups to withstand disturbance or change [23]. A livelihoods approach is used to assess the resilience of marine and coastal resource-users to environmental change on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, a country highly dependent on marine and coastal resources, with no other significant economic industries [26,27]. Hurricanes have considerable impacts on Caribbean islands and the increasing prevalence of these extreme events is a major concern for the region [28,33,34]
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