2020: Strategies for Climate-Ready Fishing Communities: Optimal Fishing Portfolios for Changing Ocean Ecosystems (TNC)
Climate change is shifting where marine species can live, particularly in high latitude oceans. As a result, fishing communities face increasing threats to their economies and cultural heritage while they also risk losing fishing access under changing marine management. How can communities maintain access to commercial fishing resources in the face of climate-driven ocean changes? Focusing on Alaskan fisheries, this team will seek to assess the amount of climate risk facing fishing communities, identify balanced community fishing rights portfolios that are responsive to climate-driven fishery changes, and create innovative finance opportunities to support climate adaptation strategies for fishing communities. The project will integrate ongoing conservation finance efforts at Cornell and TNC, in hopes of attracting capital for community-based lending programs to assist fishing communities with climate adaptation.
Cornell Investigators: Suresh Sethi, Natural Resources; Alex Flecker, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Carla Gomes, Computer Science; John Tobin-de la Puente, Dyson School
TNC Investigators: Adrianna Muir, TNC Alaska; Kate Kauer, TNC California; Rich Bell, TNC North America