For three years NACA worked with a consortium of partners on a project to strengthen the adaptive capacities of small-scale farmers to climate change. The aim of the “Aquaclimate” project, funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), was to identify the likely medium-term impacts of climate change on important aquaculture systems and to develop adaptation strategies that will help farmers to cope with the changes.

The project has focused on five case studies that are important from a livelihood and/or food security perspective: Catfish farming in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam; milkfish farming in the Philippines; low intensity shrimp farming in India; improved extensive shrimp farming in Vietnam; and culture based fisheries in seasonal reservoirs in Sri Lanka.

The project has mapped farmer perceptions of climate change through an extensive series of stakeholder consultations and developed climate change scenarios for the case study areas through local downscaling of mainstream climate change models. The final Partners Meeting was held from 14-16 May 2012, to present the findings of the project in preparation for a Regional Workshop on the Impacts of Climate Change on Fisheries and Aquaculture.