Perceptions and local adaptation strategies to climate change of marine capture fishermen in Bengkulu Province, Indonesia

Abstract

Adaptation is a key strategy to reduce the severe impacts of climate change on the fishery. Adaptation strategies are unlikely to be effective without an understanding of the fishermen’s perception on climate change. This paper explores fishermen’s knowledge on climate change perceptions and their climate change adaptation in response to the perceived impacts of climate change. A survey by interviewing randomly selected 90 marine capture fishermen was conducted in Bengkulu from March to June 2018. The results indicate that most fishermen understand climate change as a change of east and west monsoon that directly affect their fishing activities. In terms of climate change defined as a continuous change of temperature, humidity, and rainfall, most fishermen have no sufficient knowledge on climate change. The important adaptation strategies include diversification of household economic activities, augmenting of fishing gear, change the fishing ground, mobilization of family members to work, and fishing time adjustment.