The Climate-Resilient Fisheries Planning Tool is a product of the Science for Nature and People Partnership (SNAPP) working group on Climate-Resilient Fisheries. This team was part of a cohort funded by the generosity of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation Grant #2018-68222 to address the theme of Oceans, Climate and Equity.

SNAPP was founded in 2013 to develop evidence-based, scalable solutions for global challenges affecting nature conservation, sustainable development, and human well-being. With approximately three billion people relying on fisheries for their main source of protein, the sustainable management of these fisheries in the face of climate change has become one of the most urgent climate challenges of our time. To help address this pressing issue, the SNAPP working group on Climate-Resilient Fisheries formed in 2020 to advance approaches for assessing and operationalizing climate resilience in marine fisheries across the globe.

Using experiences and data from around the world, this team identified attributes of fisheries that support resilience in the context of climate change. The group analyzed case studies to evaluate the benefits of these attributes in fisheries that have already experienced climate impacts. This research has now been translated into the Climate-Resilient Fisheries Planning Tool to provide practical support for people interested in developing fishery climate-resilience plans.

What’s Next?

Assessing climate risks and identifying opportunities to improve climate resilience will become increasingly important for achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals. The work started by the SNAPP Climate-Resilient Fisheries working group will continue through a decadal program, Fisheries Strategies for Changing Oceans and Resilient Ecosystems by 2030, or FishSCORE. FishSCORE was endorsed by the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development to build a global network of scientists, stakeholders and practitioners to identify approaches to sustain marine fisheries, protect ocean ecosystem health and secure equitable benefits for fisheries in the context of climate change (Mills et al., 2022). Ultimately, FishSCORE will apply the Climate-Resilient Fisheries Planning Tool to operationalize climate resilience in local and regional fisheries while also continuing to advance information, tools, and approaches for resilience assessment and planning.