Potential impacts of climate change on agriculture and fisheries production in 72 tropical coastal communities

Long-term educational intervention to promote ocean literacy

The ocean plays a critical role in sustaining society and global biodiversity. However, a range of environmental impacts has led to its degradation. In response, initiatives promoting the sustainable use of marine environments, such as educational programs on ocean literacy, have gained importance. Despite these efforts, the short duration of many interventions has limited their ability to address the diverse relationships that social groups have with the ocean. This limitation often excludes marginalized segments, such as students experiencing school retention. One proposed solution to engage these groups is the integration of the ten dimensions of ocean literacy into educational interventions. This study describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a long-term educational intervention comprising 30 sessions with students in situation of school retention from a public school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The findings revealed that while students initially resisted engaging with the knowledge dimension, this resistance was not insurmountable. By aligning the principles and concepts of ocean literacy with the students' realities and incorporating the other nine dimensions of ocean literacy, knowledge acquisition was facilitated. These results are particularly relevant for educational interventions that aim to work holistically with the ten dimensions of ocean literacy, emphasizing the adaptation of global issues to local contexts as a strategy to engage students resistant to formal schooling.

The impact of climate change on child nutrition in Indonesia: a conceptual framework and scoping review of the available evidence

BACKGROUND

Climate change is expected to significantly impact child nutrition, worsening global health inequities. Indonesia, a country highly vulnerable to climate change, also faces substantial child malnutrition challenges. However, comprehensive knowledge on climate change's impacts on child nutrition in Indonesia is limited. This study addresses this gap through a scoping review of the scientific evidence on the effects of climate change on child nutrition in Indonesia.

METHODS

We developed a conceptual framework based on global literature to guide our systematic search, linking climate change to child nutrition and its determinants in Indonesia. Systematic searches were conducted in English and Indonesian on Scopus, Web of Science and PubMed, supplemented by Google Scholar and citation screening. We included peer-reviewed, Scopus-indexed studies focused on Indonesia, examining either direct or indirect impacts of climate change on child nutrition. A narrative synthesis was performed, structured around outcomes identified in our framework: (1) nutrition-associated conditions, (2) diets and disease, (3) social dynamics and (4) food system shocks.

RESULTS

From 3025 records, 134 studies met the inclusion criteria. Studies were either multicountry including Indonesia (23%, n=31), Indonesia-specific across multiple regions (26%, n=35) or region-specific, mainly focused on Java (22%, n=29), Sumatra (11%, n=14), Kalimantan (7%, n=9) and Sulawesi (7%, n=9). Other regions were under-represented (5%, n=7). Most studies used quantitative methods (87%, n=116). Few studies assessed direct links between climate change and nutritional outcomes (n=5), food security or dietary quality (n=7); more focused on indirect pathways such as disease (n=49), social dynamics (n=18) and food system disruptions (n=55).

CONCLUSIONS

Evidence suggests significant impacts of climate change on child nutrition in Indonesia, highlighting the need for urgent action. Further localised studies that consider contextual factors, and actions focused on strengthening health and nutrition systems, are critical, especially in regions most vulnerable to both climate change and child malnutrition.

Genome editing in Sub-Saharan Africa: a game-changing strategy for climate change mitigation and sustainable agriculture

Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural sector faces a multifaceted challenge due to climate change consisting of high temperatures, changing precipitation trends, alongside intensified pest and disease outbreaks. Conventional plant breeding methods have historically contributed to yield gains in Africa, and the intensifying demand for food security outpaces these improvements due to a confluence of factors, including rising urbanization, improved living standards, and population growth. To address escalating food demands amidst urbanization, rising living standards, and population growth, a paradigm shift toward more sustainable and innovative crop improvement strategies is imperative. Genome editing technologies offer a promising avenue for achieving sustained yield increases while bolstering resilience against escalating biotic and abiotic stresses associated with climate change. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR-associated protein (CRISPR/Cas) is unique due to its ubiquity, efficacy, alongside precision, making it a pivotal tool for Sub-Saharan African crop improvement. This review highlights the challenges and explores the prospect of gene editing to secure the region's future foods.

Climate-adaptive strategies for enhancing agricultural resilience in southeastern coastal Bangladesh: Insights from farmers and stakeholders

Climate change impacts crop production worldwide, and coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects. Given the projected rise in temperature and shifting precipitation patterns, it is crucial to examine the current challenges faced by farmers in coastal Bangladesh. Using Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), we assessed the perceptions and experiences of farmers and stakeholders regarding the existing agricultural practices, the challenges they face in crop cultivation, and the adoption of climate-adaptive practices in 2 sub-districts in the southeastern coastal region of Bangladesh. Moreover, using the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) and the Standardized Terrestrial Water Storage Index (STI), we assessed the frequency and intensity of different climatic conditions in these two sub-districts. Results show that 100% of the respondents reported an increase in dry climatic conditions, the occurrence of untimely precipitation, and a decline in irrigation water during the cropping season. All the respondents in the FGDs expressed a loss of crop production because of these climate-induced disturbances. Despite these challenges, farmers have been implementing several climate-adaptive practices. Among the 9 mentioned climate-adaptive practices, 50% of FGD respondents utilize organic fertilizers, 42% cultivate heat- and drought-resilient crop varieties, use improved irrigation and harvest rainwater, and 25% cultivate integrated crops. The results of quantitative analysis of 3- and 6-month SPEI and STI values show that this region experienced frequent and intense dry climatic conditions during the growing-season, which supports the farmers' and stakeholders' concern about the increasing occurrence of droughts during crop growing periods. The results suggest that despite adopting climate-resilient practices under increasing growing-season droughts, farmers require support from the government and NGOs in capacity-building training and input support (e.g., stress-resilient seeds). This study holds practical implications for government, NGOs, and policymakers for ensuring sustainable agricultural productivity in the coastal region of Bangladesh.

Industrial fisheries have reversed the carbon sequestration by tuna carcasses into emissions

To limit climate warming to 2°C above preindustrial levels, most economic sectors will need a rapid transformation toward a net zero emission of CO2 . Tuna fisheries is a key food production sector that burns fossil fuel to operate but also reduces the deadfall of large-bodied fish so the capacity of this natural carbon pump to deep sea. Yet, the carbon balance of tuna populations, so the net difference between CO2 emission due to industrial exploitation and CO2 sequestration by fish deadfall after natural mortality, is still unknown. Here, by considering the dynamics of two main contrasting tuna species (Katsuwonus pelamis and Thunnus obesus) across the Pacific since the 1980s, we show that most tuna populations became CO2 sources instead of remaining natural sinks. Without considering the supply chain, the main factors associated with this shift are exploitation rate, transshipment intensity, fuel consumption, and climate change. Our study urges for a better global ocean stewardship, by curbing subsidies and limiting transshipment in remote international waters, to quickly rebuild most pelagic fish stocks above their target management reference points and reactivate a neglected carbon pump toward the deep sea as an additional Nature Climate Solution in our portfolio. Even if this potential carbon sequestration by surface unit may appear low compared to that of coastal ecosystems or tropical forests, the ocean covers a vast area and the sinking biomass of dead vertebrates can sequester carbon for around 1000 years in the deep sea. We also highlight the multiple co-benefits and trade-offs from engaging the industrial fisheries sector with carbon neutrality.

A participatory multicriteria decision analysis of the adaptive capacity-building needs of Jordan's agribusiness actors discloses the indirect needs downstream the value chain as “post-requisites” to the direct upstream needs

Climate adaptive capacity-building initiatives and activities in developing countries, particularly those implemented by developmental agencies and international organizations, commonly focus on the upstream direct adaptive capacity-building needs of targeted vulnerable sectors. However, overlooking a holistic climate-adaptive capacity-building of a vulnerable sector down to the last link of its value chain renders inadequate contribution, jeopardizes the adaptation intervention, and prevents achieving a high level of buy-in of the chain actors for the results of the sought capacity-building programs. Thus, this study developed a hybrid system-wide and participatory (focus groups-based) multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to conduct adaptive-capacity needs assessments for the actors of the agribusiness value chain of the developing country of Jordan. Our holistic approach enabled highlighting the sector's climate vulnerability along the value chain, conducting self-regulated adaptive training needs assessment (TNA) of the sector's actors and identifying and prioritizing their real adaptive capacity-building needs. This approach proved to be uniquely advantageous in comparison to the sector's commonly used questionnaire-based surveys that are limited-participatory, researcher-regulated, and subsystem-oriented approaches. The advantages of this hybrid hands-on and wide-ranging MCDA–TNA approach are evident from its revelation of unique results. The approach enabled actors of such a highly vulnerable sector to spontaneously identify and prioritize the indirect downstream climate adaptive capacity-building needs surprisingly over the direct needs. This is because the actors considered the indirect needs more important to their businesses and livelihoods than the direct needs, thus considering the indirect needs as “post-requisites” of the fate of the direct upstream needs. The hybrid approach also enabled the beneficiaries to formulate the intervention outcomes, unveil the factors ignored by the conventional researcher-controlled approaches, secure high buy-in of the self-attained results, and prioritize the actual adaptive capacity-building demands. This robust combination of qualitative research methods and tools could be straightforwardly applied to design and conduct efficient and cost-effective adaptive capacity-building programs, especially during time-restricted and resource-limited interventions. The results of such types of quick and cost-effective qualitative investigations of adaptive capacity-building needs could be considered a preliminary and a first step toward deeper and more extensive quantitative studies, if needed.

The ecological impact of plastic pollution in a changing climate

Assessing three interlinked issues, plastic pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss separately can overlook potential interactions that may lead to positive or negative impacts on global ecosystem processes. Recent studies suggest that threatened species and ecosystems are vulnerable to both plastic pollution and climate change stressors. Here we consider the connectivity and state of knowledge between these three environmental issues with a focus on the Global South. Nine out of top ten Long-Term Climate Risk Index (CRI) (2000-2019) ranked countries are located within the Global South, yet research is focused in the Global North. A literature search for the top ten Long-Term Climate Risk Index (CRI) (2000-2019) ranked countries matched a total of 2416 (3.3% of global publications) search results on climate change, with 56 (4% of the global publications) on plastic pollution, and seven (7.7% of the global publications) on both climate change and plastic pollution. There is a strong correlation between the Global South and high biodiversity hotspots, high food insecurity and low environmental performance. Using Bangladesh as a case study, we show the erosion rates and sea level rise scenarios that will increase ocean-bound plastic pollution and impact high biodiversity areas. Poverty alleviation and promoting renewable energy and green practices can significantly reduce the stress on the environment. We recommend that these connected planetary threats can be best addressed through a holistic and collaborative approach to research, a focus on the Global South, and an ambitious policy agenda.