WTW has launched a new financial initiative to help fishing communities in Fiji and Papua New Guinea (PNG) to be more resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change.
The firm plans to do this in collaboration with the WWF under the Global Environmental Facility’s (GEF) project named Financial Tools for Small-Scale Fishers in Melanesia. The project will help create ‘shock-absorbing’ products tailored for fishing communities in these areas.
Rowan Douglas, Head of the Climate and Resilience Hub at WTW, said: “Ocean-related risk means that coastal communities are especially vulnerable to climate change. For communities of low-lying atolls and coastal areas of main islands in the Melanesian region, adaptation to climate change is an essential priority, and we are pleased to be exploring how risk understanding tools and risk transfer products from the insurance sector can enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities.”
This project is funded by the GEF’s Special Climate Change Fund, a multilateral fund focused on enabling developing countries to invest in nature. It aims to contribute to this challenge in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions. It was formally launched with an inception meeting in which stakeholders from Fiji and Papua New Guinea discussed the activities planned for the first year of the project and provided inputs to ensure its success.
Subsistence fishing is commonplace in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. The Food and Agriculture Organisation estimate that between 250,000 and 500,000 of rural households in the region rely upon subsistence fishing.
