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Climate change is expected to profoundly affect key food production sectors, including fisheries and agriculture. However, the potential impacts of climate change on these sectors are rarely considered jointly, especially below national scales, which can mask substantial variability in how communities will be affected. Here, we combine socioeconomic surveys of 3,008 households and intersectoral multi-model simulation outputs to conduct a sub-national analysis of the potential impacts of climate change on fisheries and agriculture in 72 coastal communities across five Indo-Pacific countries (Indonesia, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, and Tanzania). Our study reveals three key findings: First, overall potential losses to fisheries are higher than potential losses to agriculture. Second, while most locations (> 2/3) will experience potential losses to both fisheries and agriculture simultaneously, climate change mitigation could reduce the proportion of places facing that double burden. Third, potential impacts are more likely in communities with lower socioeconomic status. Responses of agriculture and fisheries to climate change are interlinked, yet rarely studied together. Here, the authors analyse more than 3000 households from 5 tropical countries and forecast mid-century climate change impacts, finding that communities with higher fishery dependence and lower socioeconomic status communities face greater losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sawfish (Pristidae) are considered to be among the most threatened families of elasmobranch (sharks and rays). There is a need to gather information on the status of poorly known sawfish populations to assist in global recovery initiatives.This study used interviews with local fishers to investigate the presence of sawfish in southern Papua New Guinea (PNG) and their interactions with and uses and values for small‐scale fishers.A range of sawfish size classes are still encountered throughout southern PNG, while juvenile largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis were additionally reported in the freshwater reaches of all rivers surveyed. Reports of large size classes in estuarine and marine environments provide an optimistic outlook that sawfish populations persist throughout southern PNG.Most fishers that catch sawfish retain them for various uses including consumption and for the sale of meat, fins and occasionally rostra. Negative population trends including decreases in catch frequency and/or size classes were reported by 66% of interviewees, with the largest declines being reported in the Kikori River. The increasing technical capacity of small‐scale fishers, their preference for gillnetting and the emerging market for teleost swim bladder (a high‐value fishery product) present a major ongoing threat to sawfish in southern PNG. Furthermore, the tendency of fishers to kill or remove rostra from entangled sawfish results in high fishing mortality regardless of any use by the fisher.This study indicates that considerable community engagement will be necessary to manifest any legislative actions or increased enforcement on international trade regulations for sawfish in PNG. This is due to traditional land and waterway ownership values throughout PNG and the local perception of sawfish as a traditional food resource rather than an animal of intrinsic biodiversity value as perceived by global conservationists. Future research should consider exploring culturally appropriate conservation initiatives that are likely to achieve engagement and participation from local fishers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growing concerns about pressures of global change on small-scale fishing communities have resulted in a proliferation of livelihood diversification initiatives linked to tourism. Where the focus is often on the role of financial, physical, and human capital in influencing the uptake of new opportunities, we argue for more consideration of the role of social capital. We implemented 157 household-level surveys in small-scale fishing communities in Papua New Guinea and modelled the influence of social and other capital assets on people's perceptions of how easy it would be to become involved in sportfishing tourism. Social capital had a stronger influence relative to other forms of capital, with perceptions of reciprocity and satisfaction with leadership being the most influential aspects. Based on these results, we stress the importance of developing strategies aimed at understanding, building, and maintaining social capital and related social dynamics when implementing livelihood diversification initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]