Financial Tools for Small Scale Fishers in Melanesia

Melanesia includes some of the world’s smallest countries surrounded by Exclusive Economic Zones many times larger than their land surface area. The region is heavily dependent upon oceanic and coastal fisheries for food security, livelihoods, revenue, employment and development. Climate change is already affecting the Melanesian region disproportionately through rising temperatures, sea-level rise, flooding, coastal erosion, an increase in extreme weather events. For low-lying atolls across PNG and Fiji, and many coastal communities on the main islands, even a small rise in sea level will have huge consequences in terms of lost land area and other impacts such as saltwater intrusion.

Fiji and PNG were selected for this project as they are exceptionally vulnerable to climate risk impacts and have good potential for impact and scaling, with relatively large populations of small-scale fishers. The project will utilize financial tools for small scale fishers in Melanesia to improve resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change, including major shock events, in vulnerable coastal small-scale fisher communities in Fiji and PNG.