Page 50 - FAO Aquaculture News, May 2021 - No. 63

To make visible the challenge of climate
change and the need for adaptation of
fishing and aquaculture communities, the
project deployed the following training
initiatives, encompassing multiple actors.

Design and implementation of a ©FAO/Centro de Estudios de Sistemas Sociales (photo taken before the COVID-19 pandemic)
training programme on climate
change adaptation in fisheries and
aquaculture for public officials,
national experts and decision-
makers at the national, regional and
community levels
Aware of the importance of actively Group work for the formulation of a climate change adaptation project within the
involving decision-makers, this programme framework of training sessions. Caleta Coliumo, Biobío region. The participation of Aquaculture Updates by Region
contemplated two training areas and women was a prominent element in Coliumo and also at the national level, giving
target groups: (i) experts and regional and an account of the contribution and true role of women in coastal communities.
community authorities; and (ii) officials
linked to public institutions who manage fisheries and One hundred forty-seven fishers, aquaculturists, and
aquaculture at the central, regional and communal levels. mussel or clam collectors of the pilot coves participated in
For both groups, the programme addressed aspects of the programme, with special emphasis on the participation
the climate system, listed impacts, vulnerability and of women, who exceeded 50 percent of the attendees.
adaptation capacity of fisheries and aquaculture in the Of the total, 63 people achieved the minimum number
face of climate change, and noted governance systems to of sessions required (five), with women representing
address this phenomenon. 68 percent of this number. In addition, at least five trainers
were identified among the participants with the purpose of
In order to prepare public institutions at the national level to assuming a leading role in their respective coves to give
promote greater adaptation of artisanal fisheries and small- continuity to the process.
scale aquaculture to climate change, within the framework
of the project, the University of Concepción supported: Basic, local environmental monitoring
(i) the execution of seven workshops with experts from the programme to improve the adaptation of the
regions of the north, center and south, registering more fisheries and aquaculture sector to climate
than 120 attendees; (ii) carrying out eight face-to-face change
awareness/training workshops throughout the country, In each pilot cove, a local monitoring programme of
registering the attendance of 122 community authorities environmental variables related to climate change (for
and regional governments or their representatives; and example temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen) was
(iii) intensively training 159 public officials at the national, designed and implemented, with active participation of
regional and communal levels from Arica in the north to women and men. Scientific/technological information was
Punta Arenas in the south. The trained officials received communicated and expanded upon to increase participant
their diploma from the b-Learning course “Climate change knowledge of the coastal environment and allow attendees
adaptation in fisheries and aquaculture” on 13 August to sustain their own monitoring programmes in the future.
2020. The focus of this initiative was to complement the historical
knowledge of the coastal zone that these communities
Training programme on climate change already possess with tools that allow community members
adaptation for artisanal fishers and small-scale to record and systematize their own observations, thus
aquaculture communities facilitating decision-making related to their productive
Considering the need for artisanal fishers and small-scale activities. This pilot training experience was synthesized in
aquaculturists to have necessary skills for confronting the “Manual for a participatory environmental monitoring
the challenges of climate change, this programme was system that improves the capacity of adaptation to climate
carried out in the four pilot coves. Its design addressed change of fisheries and aquaculture communities in
the development of three types of training skills in ten Chile” and in three short videos that will support future
sessions: (i) understanding climate change and its effects implementations of this type of monitoring in other coves.
at the global and local level; (ii) correctly identifying the
,
risks associated with climate change applied to fishers’ and “Cove” an educational, collaborative and family
aquaculturists’ local realities; and (iii) proposing adaptation board game
actions to the possible effects of climate change at the With the aim of reinforcing the knowledge of the
local level. The contents and the strategies applied were communities regarding climate change, its effects and
synthesized in a Practical Manual for artisanal fishers and the different adaptation strategies that can be deployed
small-scale aquaculturists and a Guide for Trainers, which in response, the board game called “Cove – Together
seek to support their use and promote their replicability. we can adapt to climate change” was created; the game

FAO AQUACULTURE NEWS – Nº. 63 ■ MAY 2021 49