Livelihood Vulnerability of Fishery-based Communities in Context of Climate Change: Insights From and Around Selective Fishing Grounds of South 24 Parganas, West Bengal

The 4th Assessment Reports prepared by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007 reported serious concerns which directly affect the livelihoods of millions of coastal habitants and fishing communities. This study mainly concentrates on the awareness regarding the climate variability and vulnerability exposed by climate change on the marine fishing communities based on their Socio-Demographic Profile, Livelihood strategies, Social Networks, Health, Water, Natural disasters and Climate Variability and Knowledge and Skills; which are divided into three main components of vulnerability (IPCC): Exposure, Sensitivity and Adaptive Capacity. Here, we have chosen the three major functioning fishing harbours of this district are Lakshmipur Abad of Namkhana, Kalinagar of Kakdwip and Sultanpur of Diamond Harbour with their respective fish landing centers. The primary data used is based on a purposive sampling survey of 150 household of fishing communities and the secondary data about recent climate variability and extreme events was collected from official records. This study used the participatory tools and methods in order to generate qualitative and quantitative information about climate change impacts and community based adaptation strategies to climate change.

The study reveals that the most important climate-related elements of exposure are the storms and cyclones. We have also found that studied villages are highly populated and competing for limited resources, furthermore lack of economic opportunities like agriculture in coastal areas making these communities already vulnerable along within higher sensitivity and lower adaptive capacity combine to create higher vulnerability.