Assessing the adaptive capacity of Galician shellfisheries

Francesca Barazzetta, student of the Master of Science (MSc) in Climate Change at the University of Copenhagen, presented her thesis on the 23^rd of August about “Fishers livelihoods and climate change: the adaptive capacity of shellfish gatherers”. Francesca developed her work in collaboration with the Future Ocean Lab under the supervision of Elena Ojea.

During her two months in Vigo, Francesca assessed the vulnerability and the adaptive capacity to the effects of increasing ocean temperatures of six shell-fishers’ communities along the Southern Galician coast. This work has been possible thanks the cooperation with Xunta and DX Desenvolvemento Pesqueiro for sharing the available information.  The assessment only focused at the activity of on-foot gatherers and considered four of the most socio-economic valuable species of clams harvested in the region. The study, through the socio-ecological vulnerability framework, managed to rank the different level of adaptive capacity and vulnerability of the six communities and analyzed potential adaptation strategies that could be applied to increase local adaptive capacity to the present and future climate change impacts.

From FOL, we want congratulate Francesca on her excellent work and for getting the top grade in her Master Thesis defense