Saba Javed

Formulating and effectively implementing climate-smart fisheries policies is the need of the hour to help protect aquatic ecosystem and increase the aquaculture productivity in Pakistan. According to Ahmad Nadeem, Director of Marine Fisheries Lasbela, Balochistan, Pakistan’s aquatic ecosystem is vulnerable to climate change due to its high sensitivity to changes in temperature, salinity and acidity. As a result, livelihoods dependent on fisheries and aquaculture are also significantly impacted by climate change.

Talking to WealthPK, he said climate-smart fisheries and aquaculture practices include a variety of policy and governance actions, technical support or capacity-building activities. “Finding species resistant to salinity and temperature fluctuations and putting in place adequate onshore storage facilities can help prevent loss or damage from storms and extreme events.”

He said aquaculture and fisheries sectors were facing many challenges and constraints, both internally, including overexploitation of resources, discrimination in access to resources, and poor management; and externally, including pollution and habitat degradation.

Ahmad Nadeem said the fisheries sector in Pakistan played a substantial role in alleviating poverty and ensuring food security. “Pakistan has enormous potential for aquaculture development, which can lead to export-oriented economic growth, but poorly planned aquaculture development has led to serious damage to freshwater and marine ecosystems.”

He said Pakistan ranked 28th among aquaculture-producing countries, but its aquaculture growth rate of approximately 1.5% per year over the past five years was considerably lower than its neighbouring countries. He said that post-harvest processing in Pakistan, characterised by poor quality control and outdated technologies, was also under-developed, contributing to relatively low value addition in the sector. “This is the reason why inland capture fisheries produce only 132,500 tonnes and aquaculture 151,000 tonnes annually despite the potential to produce much larger tonnage.”

Ahmad Nadeem said the vulnerability of aquaculture-based communities was caused by their exposure to extreme weather events. He called for undertaking measures to minimise the impact of climate change on the inland capture fisheries, such as improving the quality of water, land, seed, feed, and oxygen supply. “This will help improve the aquaculture systems and species, as well ensure economic growth and social development.”

Ahmad Nadeem also called for increased and sustained investments to minimise the impact of climate change on fisheries. He said such investments could lead to development of market infrastructure that supports sustainable fisheries to avoid post-harvest and income losses. “Such investments would strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacities of poor and vulnerable communities and enhance food security.” He said the ministry of maritime affairs was taking measures to help minimise the potential impact of climate change on fisheries in Pakistan.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk