In this article, we will be looking at fisheries mainly small-scaled fishing in Malaysia, a country located in Southeast Asia. Fisheries is significant to the Malaysian economy as it provides employment; contributes to the country’s GDP; and offers a source of animal protein to the population. As reported by the United Nations, the number of people who suffer from hunger and poverty continue to surge around the world including in Malaysia. Although Malaysia is working on the pathway to achieve SDG’s Zero Hunger and Zero Poverty by 2030, it is estimated in 2019 that there are 900,000 Malaysians living in poverty and hunger due to income inequality and food insecurity.
Seafood is the highest consumed protein for Malaysians; almost twice that of Thailand and China. Artisanal fishing plays an important role in securing food within coastal community in the country. However, the landscape of this type of fishing has seen tremendous changes throughout the years particularly due to global climate change. In this article, we’ll be focusing on the impacts of climate change to Malaysian fishing communities. Small-scaled fisheries constitute 65 percent of fishermen in Malaysia. The effects of climate change on Malaysian fishing communities are occurring and have been documented. The impacts such as increasing sea-level; warming sea surface temperatures causing severe storms and typhoons, extreme wind speeds, extreme rainfall; and coastal erosion – putting the artisanal fishermen’s working condition at severe risk and causing substantial drop in catch and income for them.
Reference:
Rahman, S. (2022). 2022/60 “The Endangered Malaysian Artisanal Fisherman: Battered by Climate Change and Covid-19. Retrieved July 5, 2022 from https://www.iseas.edu.sg/category/media/op-eds/page/44/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/
