Nature-based practices and aquaculture adaptation to climate change in Thailand and Vietnam

 

Small-scale aquaculture farms in Thailand and Vietnam are facing climate change challenges and are in need of sustainable options to continue. Nature-based climate solutions (NbCS) to evolving climatic, ecological and social conditions, such as protecting habitats or expanding natural carbon sinks like wetlands, have great potential. However, they are often promoted without detailed knowledge of either their aquaculture efficacy or how their benefits and risks will be negotiated and shared between genders and across underrepresented groups that are affected by aquaculture development.

This project will engage private and public stakeholders to assess existing and proposed NbCS against more conventional practices. It will involve large surveys of practices, interdisciplinary case studies, scenario-building, cost-benefit analysis, market analysis and lifecycle approaches. It will also use a political-economy-ecology framework to improve understanding of how to best introduce NbCS practices and to suggest how aquaculture development can become both people-centred and nature-based. To this end, this project applies a gender equality and social inclusion lens to its research processes, including research teams’ and boundary partners’ attitudes and practices. The project’s findings will inform strategic planning in the aquaculture sector in both countries.

This project is part of the Nature-based Climate Solutions in Aquacultural Food Systems in Asia-Pacific initiative (AQUADAPT), which is co-financed by Global Affairs Canada and IDRC. AQUADAPT is a four-year, CAD23-million initiative aimed at driving research action toward inclusive nature-based aquaculture solutions and at better understanding how such solutions can contribute to climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation and food security across the Asia-Pacific region.