Linking Food Security with Coral Reefs and Fisheries in the Coral Triangle

Abstract

Maintaining ecosystem services of coral reefs, sustainable fishing, and improved food security are the three higher level outcomes of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF). Food security is an obvious concern of the CTI-CFF because of 130 million people dependent on fish resources for food, income, and livelihoods, and also because it provides 11.3% (19.1 million tons) to global fisheries production from capture fisheries and aquaculture. Yet, anthropogenic stressors, especially overfishing, threaten the ecosystems that support food production. Fish supply deficits and undernourishment are observed in varying degrees across the CTI-CFF countries to be further exacerbated by increasing populations, increasing demand for fish from developed economies, unabated coastal development, and climate change. Short-term and urgent strategies to improve food security focus on arresting continued deterioration of coral reefs and fisheries to improve availability of fish, stabilize ecosystem services, and improve incomes at the local level. Wealth-focused and welfare-based approaches to achieve food security at various governance levels are proposed.

Keywords:

• coral reefs
• Coral Triangle Initiative
• CTMPAS
• fisheries
• food security
• LMEs

Acknowledgments

We thank Alan White for inviting us to contribute to this special issue as well as his constructive comments and suggestions on the earlier draft of this article. We also thank the Asian Development Bank Knowledge Management Project and the anonymous external reviewers for their useful comments.

Notes

1. The 2013 total population estimate for the CT6 is 395 million (CIA 2013). It is commonly assumed that one third of the population in the CT6 countries (130 million) live within a close proximity of the coast and depend, at least partially, on coastal and marine resources.

2. The April 2012 (Manila) and October 2012 (Jakarta) Meetings of the MEWG were held jointly with the meetings on the Regional State of the Coral Triangle Report. Another meeting of the MEWG was held in April 2013 in Manila.

3. Exchange rate was SI$7.28 = $1.00, November 2011.

4. Calculated from World Bank inflation database: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG