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Abstract

This study aims to examine the influence of individual differences on the small-scale fishermen’s climate change adaptation practices toward climate change. This is a descriptive correlational study on 400 small-scale fishermen living in four climate change–affected areas in Malaysia, which were selected based on a multistage cluster sampling. In conclusion, it was found that age, income, and fishing experience recorded a significant relationship with climate change adaptation practices, whereas their household size did not yield any relationship with the adaptation practices. Furthermore, a number of small-scale fishermen who use fisheries technologies, have alternative jobs, and possess higher education have recorded better climate change adaptation practices compared with nonusers, full-timers, and less educated fishermen. Several recommendations were made to assist the concerned parties in developing better adaptation strategies that are fitted to the fishermen’s needs, interests, and abilities.

Keywords

climate change adaptation rural development individual factors small-scale fishermen community development

Introduction

The small-scale fishermen in Malaysia (SSFM) has been facing climate change such as rising temperatures, unstable North-East monsoon patterns, sea level rises, and extreme winds and waves (Shaffril, Abu Samah, D’Silva, & Yassin, 2013). Understandably, these threats could disrupt their daily socioeconomic routines whether directly or indirectly. Scholars across the globe have continued to look from different perspectives on how people respond to climate change, and one way is looking from the perspective of individual differences. People from different demographic backgrounds were proven to have different adaptive capacity due to different individual abilities (D’Silva, Shaffril, Samah, & Uli, 2012; Islam & Sallu, 2014; Ramli, Abu Samah, & Shaffril, 2018; Salik, Jahangir, & Zahdi, 2015; Senapati & Gupta, 2017; Shaffril, D’Silva, Kamaruddin, Omar, & Bolong, 2015; Saroar & Routray, 2012). Difference lies within the individual’s quality, which might have influenced their adaptation ability or capacity. To this end, some demographic factors such as age, income, experience, and education status were found to influence the community’s climate change adaptation practices (D’Silva et al., 2012; Shaffril et al., 2015).

Despite great efforts, our review on past studies has concluded that a huge portion of climate change studies were mostly scientific in nature. Most of them focused on the aspects of environmental science related to temperature rise, sea level rise, extreme weather occurrence (e.g., extreme winds, waves, and flood), unstable rain patterns, and unstable monsoon patterns (Kwan, Tanggang, & Juneng, 2011; Mori, Shimura, Yasuda, & Mase, 2013; Wan Azli, 2010; Zubaidi, 2010). Meanwhile, others have focused on the biological impacts of climate change on marine sources such as fish, coral reef, and water quality (Chiu, Pan, & Lin, 2017; Dasgupta et al., 2017; Jin, Whitehead, Rodda, Macadam, & Sarkar, 2018; Monroe et al., 2018; Ninawe, Indulkar, & Amin, 2018). These past studies’ focus in turn left a big gap for social studies. Furthermore, most of the existing community’s adaptation studies only concentrated on specific groups such rural community, small-holder farmers, highland farmers, crop farmers, and deep sea fishermen (Anyoha et al., 2013; Dumenu & Obeng, 2016; Hamdan, Man, Yassin, D’Silva, & Shaffril, 2014; Mugi-Ngenga et al., 2016). The existing gap eventually results in few studies conducted on another specific group such as the SSFM. There are also rooms for improvement for the existing policy. The National Policy on Climate Change (NPCC) was established in 2009 by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; however, most of the actions suggested in the policy rather focus on community in general. In this policy, the strategic thrust labeled as ST9-P explains how to increase awareness and community’s participation to promote behavioral response to climate change, but then again, the thrust targets the community in general and did not put emphasis on SSFM, although their fishing operations are formidably affected by climate change impacts. This will eventually mount the needs to further strengthen the climate change adaptation practices on this particular group.

With regard to the above, this study investigates the influence of individual differences on their adaptation practices toward climate change. The individual differences refer to the demographic factors such as age, experience as a fisherman, income, household size, fishermen’s category, users and nonusers of fishing technologies, and education status, which have all been postulated to have influence on their adaptation practices. All of these factors were proven by previous studies to have affected the fishermen’s climate change adaptation practices (D’Silva et al., 2012; Krishnan, Debnath, & Ananthan, 2016; Shaffril et al., 2015).

The Malaysian Small-Scale Fishermen

According to previous studies, there are several common characteristics of SSFM (Abu Samah, Hamdan, Abu Samah, Hamzah, & Shaffril, 2016; Bolong et al., 2013; Hamdan, Samah, Samah, Azril, & Shaffril, 2017; Mazuki, Omar, Bolong, Silva, & Hassan, 2013; Muhammad et al., 2012; Omar, Shaffril, Bolong, D’Silva, & Abu Hassan, 2012; Ramli, Omar, Bolong, Silva, & Azril, 2013; Shaffril, Hamzah, D’Silva, Abu Samah, & Abu Samah, 2017). The SSFM are categorized as Zone A fishermen and would usually conduct their fishing activities within the range of five nautical miles. In Malaysia, each registered fishermen will be given monthly allowance of US$75 and subsidized petrol. Six studies have consistently confirmed that the average age of fishermen is 40 years and above, a majority (>95%) of them are male, and have completed their primary school level of education (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Hamdan et al., 2017; Mazuki et al., 2013; Muhammad et al., 2012; Ramli et al., 2013; Shaffril et al., 2017). Most of them are married (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Hamdan et al., 2017) and have four or more household members (Shaffril et al., 2017). Most of them earned more than US$167 a month (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Hamdan et al., 2017; Omar et al., 2014; Ramli et al., 2013; Shaffril et al., 2017). The SSFM community is usually led by their village leaders, jetty leaders, or the skippers—these people are looked upon due to their influential status within the fishermen community (Shaffril et al., 2013). It is a common culture for the fishermen in Malaysia to conduct their social activities in the evening (e.g., chatting and repairing fishing nets) at a small shelter called Waqf (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Shaffril et al., 2013).

Most of these SSFM have acquired more than 20 years of experience fishing at sea (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Bolong et al., 2013; Hamdan et al., 2017; Mazuki et al., 2013; Ramli et al., 2013; Shaffril et al., 2017). They commonly relied on fishing-related activities to generate income and usually spent between 16 and 20 days a month on fishing (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Hamdan et al., 2017; Mazuki et al., 2013; Omar et al., 2014; Ramli et al., 2013; Shaffril et al., 2017). Furthermore, other common characteristics of SSFM are the fact that they operate on smaller vessels (i.e., 24 ft and smaller), lower engine power (i.e., usually 40 horse power and below), smaller fishing gears, simple fishing technology, and mobile phone as their basic communication tool (Abu Samah et al., 2016; Hamdan et al., 2017; Mazuki et al., 2013; Muhammad et al., 2012; Ramli et al., 2013; Shaffril et al., 2017).

The Climate Change in Malaysia

Malaysia has been undergoing climate change impacts. The most obvious impact is the rise in temperature. Several studies have confirmed that Malaysia is getting warmer. In the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia (2015) study on rising temperature, it was reported that peninsular Malaysia has an increase of 0.25°C per decade, Sabah by 0.20°C per decade, and Sarawak by 0.14°C per decade. Meanwhile, Shahid, Hadipour, Wang, and Shourav (2017) found a temperature increase between 1.1°C and 3.6°C in Peninsular Malaysia. Malaysia, somehow, has the potential to get hit by extreme weathers such as flood and drought. With regard to rainfall patterns, a study by Mayowa et al. (2015) has recorded a significant increase in annual rainfall and northeast monsoon rainfall in the east coast region of Peninsular Malaysia, which falls at a 95% and 90% of confidence levels, respectively, over the period of 30 years (1971-2010). Mayowa et al. (2015) also confirmed an increase in days with more than 20 mm in the same period.

Sea level rise is another climate change concern. A study by Din, Reba, Mohd Omar, Pa’suya, and Ses (2015) has reported a rate of 2.67 ± 0.81 to 6.05 ± 0.78 mm/year with an overall mean of 4.56 ± 0.68 mm/year (solely based on altimetry data), whereas recent study by Izzati et al. (2018) noted a trend in rising sea levels around Malaysia, ranging from 3.27 ± 0.12 mm/year off eastern Malaysia to 4.95 ± 0.15 mm/year west of Malaysia. Unstable monsoon patterns have been reported by Kwan et al. (2011) who indicated an earlier shift of monsoon onset at certain regions over East Malaysia, whereas Razali et al. (2010) and Sapuan et al. (2011), on the contrary, have predicted that several areas in Peninsular Malaysia such as Alor Star, Kota Bharu, Kuantan, and Mersing will be affected by extreme winds.

The Impacts of Climate Change on the Socioeconomic Aspects of SSFM

Climate change catastrophe is formidable to the socioeconomic aspects of SSFM. It affects the distributional and phenological changes in fish species, and an increase in frequency and intensity of coral bleaching is becoming more evident (Vivekanandan, Hermes, & Brien, 2016). As the habitat, quality, and quantity of marine resources have been affected, it will influence the productivity of SSFM. Their small vessels are vulnerable to extreme winds and waves, which calls for a delay or canceling of their fishing operation. Fewer fishing days mean less income (Malakar, Mishra, & Patwardhan, 2018). Furthermore, performing fishing operations with smaller vessels and smaller engine capacity could expose them to more threats and as the majority of them just carry a mobile phone as a basic communication tool, it hinders them from being able to seek for help should any emergency happens (Shaffril et al., 2017).

The rising sea levels are causing coastal erosions and as most of the SSFM’s houses are located near shore, they needed to be transferred to a safer place. Problems that arise are due to their strong attachment to area of residence, and persuading them to move to a new place poses a great challenge (Abu Samah et al., 2016). Strong winds and waves causes damage to the SSFM’s physical assets such as the jetty, vessels, and their fishing gears. As most of their houses are built from wood, such house design cannot withstand the threats posed by climate change (Mohd Ekhwan, 1997).

Climate change impacts are also proven to affect the human health. To a certain extent, SSFM are exposed to health problems related to dengue (Franchini & Mannucci, 2015; C. Li, Lu, Liu, & Wu, 2018), asthma, unexpected heat-related mortality, cardiovascular, respiratory, stroke, ischemic heart disease (Bernstein & Rice, 2013; Chen et al., 2017; T. Li et al., 2018; Schweitzer et al., 2018), psychological health (Kabir, 2018; Pailler & Tsaneva, 2018), and at a higher risk of catching infectious and allergic diseases (Dapul-Hidalgo & Bielory, 2012; Franchini & Mannucci, 2015).

The Need for Climate Change Adaptation Practices

As the impacts of climate change are forecasted to exacerbate, the SSFM are the ones badly affected. Hence, the best response is to strengthen their climate change adaptation practices. Adaptation practice refers to action taken to help the community and the ecosystem to cope with actual or expected impacts of climate change (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia, 2009). It is a process where the community prepare themselves to better deal with uncertainty. It is crucial to strengthen SSFM’s climate change adaptation practices because it helps them to absorb negative impacts, reduce risks or vulnerability, or encourage them to take advantages of any opportunity that emerge from the occurrence of climate change.

Previous Studies on Climate Change Adaptation Practices

A number of existing studies have focused on individual differences on climate change adaptation practices among diverse groups. Specifically, studies by Shaffril et al. (2015) and D’Silva et al. (2012) have both focused on climate change impacts on fisherman communities. Shaffril et al.’s (2015) study on Malaysian coastal community has confirmed that age, income, educational status, and duration of residence have significant influence on their climate change adaptation practices. Surprisingly, fishermen were revealed to have a weak adaptation practice toward climate change compared with other groups such as housewives and government servants. D’Silva et al. (2012) studied on the impacts of income, age, and working experience on Malaysian deep sea and coastal fishermen’s climate change adaptation practices. They concluded that income has no significant influence on fishermen’s adaptation practices, whereas the elderly and more experienced fishermen had better adaptation practices compared with young and less experienced fishermen. D’Silva et al. (2012) claimed that the government’s subsidy and financial assistance during extreme weather have uplift their burden, other than the government’s assistance, the fishermen’s life experiences have strengthened their climate change adaptation practices as they know what to do before, during, and after the disaster.

In a study by Salik et al. (2015), they found that small-scale fishermen who worked several jobs have higher climate change adaptation level. Salik et al. (2015) explained that additional income can be diversified through working part-time on land other than at sea, in total their household income was increased by roughly 20% to 30%. They further explained that a weak climate change adaptation was due to low literacy rate and low education level. In another study, Islam and Sallu (2014) have confirmed that income did have an influence on fisherman’s adaptive capacity. They concluded that the fishermen with a weak financial condition increased their livelihood vulnerability as it demotes their adaptive capacity. This particular group was unable to improve nor access their livelihood assets as a result of their low income, hence increasing their vulnerability. They further argued that fishermen without alternative jobs faced difficulties in adapting to impacts of climate change as heavy reliance on fishery activities has increased their vulnerability to extreme events such as cyclones, floods, and rising temperature levels. Islam and Sallu (2014) also confirmed on the influence of experience and usage of fishing technology on adaptive capacity while they concluded that experience has an insignificance influence on adaptive capacity.

Saroar and Routray (2012) noted that elderly fishermen have better adaptive capacity as they have an extensive adaptation experience, which allows them to response proactively against severe weather conditions. Saroar and Routray’s (2012) verdicts however disagreed with Shaffril et al. (2015) and Salik et al. (2015) on the influence of one’s educational background on adaptive capacity; they claimed that educated people were less exposed to harsh environmental conditions, hence their adaptive capacity was low. They further explained that fishermen with part-time jobs would help reduce the risk of livelihood insecurity. Ramli et al. (2018), on the contrary, agreed with Shaffril et al. (2015) and Salik et al. (2015); they have confirmed the influence of educational background on adaptive capacity by explaining that Malaysian fishermen with lower education have an inadequate level of awareness toward environmental changes. The same study demonstrated a different result to Shaffril et al. (2015) and D’Silva et al. (2012); they claimed that elderly fishermen have weaker adaptive capacity due to their declined physical abilities with age. They further explained the influence of income and experience as a fisherman while they also demonstrated on the insignificant influence of household members and fishing technology usage on the fishermen’s adaptive capacity.

A study by Senapati and Gupta (2017) stated that a big portion of fishermen did not utilize fishing technologies such as a fish finder, Geographical Positioning System (GPS), and satellite phone, which decreased their adaptive capacity. The same study also noted that a big household help accommodate the fishermen’s adaptive capacity due to a sharing of household income responsibilities. A big family brings great benefit to the household as family members other than the fisherman help ease the burden of being the sole breadwinner for the family.

The Present Study

Although there are several existing studies (D’Silva et al., 2012; Islam & Sallu, 2014; Ramli et al., 2018; Salik et al., 2015; Senapati & Gupta, 2017; Shaffril et al., 2015; Saroar & Routray, 2012) on the impacts of individual differences among fishermen on their climate change adaptation practices, the present study put emphasis on individual differences among the SSFM. The SSFM in this study refers to fishermen who operate on small vessels (e.g., commonly 22 ft and smaller), use lower engine boat capacity (e.g., 40 horse power and lower), use smaller fishing gears (e.g., bubu, rawai, fishing rods, nets), and conduct their fishing routine within 5.0 nautical miles from the mainland.

Climate change adaptation practice among Malaysian SSFM is the focus of the study. It refers to the actions taken by individuals to help the community and ecosystem to cope with actual or unexpected impacts of climate change (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Malaysia, 2009). The abilities of fishermen to adapt to the impacts of climate change are vital as each individual has their own unique adaptation practices, which suits their abilities and interests.

The present study aims to examine how age, fishing experience, income, household size, fishing zone, fishing technology usage, and educational status of SSFM could influence their climate change adaptation practices. Age is said to have influenced the SSFM’s adaptation practices, elderly SSFM were said to have better climate change adaptation practices than young SSFM due to their broad knowledge and fishing experience during climate change (D’Silva et al., 2012; Shaffril et al., 2015).

Household size is another considerable factor. Those who have a big family tend to have higher number of inactive dependents socially and economically, which increased their vulnerability to climate change (Salik et al., 2015; Senapati & Gupta, 2017). Our study aimed at examining the impacts of educational status with an idea in mind that less educated people were expected to not have enough exposure to grasp the concept of variation in weather conditions, resulting in a weak climate change adaptation practices (Salik et al., 2015; Shaffril et al., 2015).

Fishing experiences is included as one of the factors that affect adaptive capacity. It was expected that experienced SSFM possessed better climate change adaptation practices as they have attained a lifelong skill and knowledge to overcome threats from climate change compared with the younger SSFM (D’Silva et al., 2012; Islam & Sallu, 2014; Ramli et al., 2018). Income is another considerable factor. SSFM who have limited income resources were expected to have a higher degree of dependence and they were arguably less resilient due to shocks from unexpected climate change and variability in weather conditions (D’Silva et al., 2012; Islam & Sallu, 2014; Salik et al., 2015; Shaffril et al., 2015).

Fishermen who use fishing technologies during fishing operations were expected to have better climate change adaptation practices compared with the nonusers (Islam & Sallu, 2014; Senapati & Gupta, 2017; Shaffril et al., 2015). Fishing technologies such as GPS and echo-sounder provide assistance in detecting fish locations; thus, it helps the SSFM to maintain their fish production. Furthermore, GPS usage reduces the risks associated with extreme weather. During poor visibility, for example, the GPS can accurately navigate SSFM back to their jetty (Osman, Omar, Bolong, D’Silva, & Shaffril, 2014). In short, fishing technology can lessen the risks caused by the climate change (Osman et al., 2014) while increase or maintain the SSFM’s fish production—more catches mean more money for SSFM, which enables them to be ready against any mishaps from climate change. SSFM who have several sources of income (e.g., job on land—owning a grocery shop, being employed as a security guard, or own a farming land) were expected to have a better adaptation practices as it benefits them in the form of welfare insurance against unexpected weather conditions compared with those who relied on a single job were less likely to improve their adaptation practices in a time of crisis (Islam & Sallu, 2014; Salik et al., 2015)

Method

Participants

Most of the respondents are males (98.2%) and their average age was 48 years. Approximately 40% of them possessed a primary school level of education or never attended formal schooling. Nearly three quarter of the respondents (72.5%) were full-time SSFM, whereas the remaining (27.5%) actually had alternative jobs. Among our samples, the mean for income per month was RM895.60 (roughly equivalent to US$220) with 39.0% of them earned between RM700 and RM1,000 per month (roughly equivalent to US$190-US$250). Nearly 38.5% of the respondents had between four and five household members. More than a quarter (27.5%) of them have been a fisherman for 11 to 20 years. Most of them (63.2%) spent between 16 and 25 days per month for their fishing operations. Most of the SSFM relied on fiber boats (96.8%) to conduct their fishing routines compared with sampan (3.2%). The respondents used seines as their main fishing gear (66.0%), followed by fishing rods (27.0%), portable traps, and rawai (i.e., horizontal bottom longline). In addition, one third of the respondents (33.0%) have utilized GPS as the main fishing technology to guide their fishing routines.

Procedures

The study involved a total of 400 respondents. A two-stage clustered sampling was applied. During the first stage, a list of climate change–affected coastal areas were gained from the Meteorological Department, Department of Irrigation and Drainage, National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM), and data from studies by Kwan et al. (2011) and Suhaila et al. (2010). In total, four areas, namely, Pantai Sabak, Cherating, Sitiawan, and Bayan Lepas were randomly selected (refer Table 1 and Figure 1). The suggested areas were considered in the sampling list, once they were confirmed to be affected by climate change impacts—sea level rise, unstable monsoon patterns, temperature rise, and unstable rain patterns. During the second stage of sampling, based on a list provided by the Fishermen Associations of the selected districts and assistance from the village and jetty leaders, 100 SSFM from each district were randomly selected (i.e., 100 respondents × 4 areas = 400 respondents). Accordingly, the SSFM included in the study are those who met the determined criteria: smaller vessels (24 ft and smaller), lower engine power (usually 40 horse power and below), and smaller fishing gears.

Table 1.

The Selected Areas.

Areas	Latitude and longitude coordinates	Climate change impacts
Pantai Sabak (Kelantan)—east coast	6.17651, 102.320936	Sea level rise, temperature rise, unstable monsoon patterns
Cherating (Pahang)—east coast	4.13028, 103.393648	Unstable monsoon patterns, temperature rise
Sitiawan (Perak)—west coast	4.216825, 100.697824	Temperature rise, sea level rise
Bayan Lepas (Pulau Pinang)—west coast	5.294464, 100.25932720000003	Temperature rise, sea level rise

Figure 1.

The selected areas.

Prior to the data collection, the research team visited the selected areas to meet the village leaders and jetty skippers for permission to conduct the study. The data collection process duration lasted for 4 months (December 2015 till March 2016). The process was conducted mostly at SSFM’s places of interest such as the Waqf (a small wooden hut where fishermen gathered during their leisure time, which is usually located at coastal areas in Malaysia), jetties, and coffee stalls. Experienced and trained enumerators were hired to assist the data collection process and their work was monitored by the research team. The main data collection technique used was survey. The enumerators read the questions in Malay to the respondents and provide them with the response options. On average, the enumerators took between 10 and 15 min to complete each survey session.

Measures

Originally, the instrument consists of four parts; nevertheless, in line with the objective of the article, this article focuses only on two parts. The study focused on 26 items that were divided into two parts, namely, demographic (11 items) and climate change adaptation practices (15 items). The items included within the questionnaire reflected the operational definition of adaptation practices; however, items from existing studies that fit indirectly under the operational definition of each variable and were consistent with the objectives of the study were also considered. The validity of the developed questionnaire was further strengthened through several discussions among researchers. The discussions focused on rephrasing the items and checked the suitability of the Likert-type scale used as options for answer.

The preliminary testing of the questionnaire was done in Pekan, Pahang, among 30 SSFM. The resulted Cronbach’s alpha value was .627, which did not exceed the recommended value of .700 as suggested by Nunally (1978). To overcome this, the researchers decided to rely on “if item deleted” analysis. Based on this, two items (no 11 and 12) were deleted and this analysis managed to increase the reliability value to .729. The modified questionnaire was further strengthened via several discussions among the researchers to improve the content of measures.

Demographic data: This part consisted of 11 items consisting of data such as gender, age, educational background, fishing zone, income per month, number of household members, experience as a fisherman, days spent on fishing operations, type of boat, main fishing gear, and whether they utilize fishing technologies (e.g., GPS, echo-sounder, sonar) or not. The response options are either open-ended or closed-ended.

Adaptation practices are originally measured by the 17 items referring to SSFM’s climate change adaptation practices but then the items were reduced to 15 based on the reliability analysis performed. The items were developed based on the idea of social adaptation framework developed by the International Union of Conservation for Nature (IUCN; 2009). For example, the items included were “I like to learn new skills which are related to the fisheries activities,” ‘I can use other fishing tools than one that I use now,’ and “I have no problems to use technology to face weather instability nowadays.” Options for answer ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).

Data Analytic

The data were analyzed using SPSS. The demographic data (e.g., gender, age, and level of education) were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean score, and standard deviation. To determine the difference between groups (e.g., educational status, fishermen category, and status of fishing technology usage) with regard to their adaptation practices, analyses such as independent t-test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed. To determine whether there is any relationship between the selected demographic variables (e.g., age, income, experience, and household size) and climate change adaptation practices, a Pearson product moment correlation was performed. Any form of significant difference and existing relationships between the variables will be confirmed if the p value is <.05.

Results

Based on the analysis, there were significant and negative relationships between demographic factors such as age (r = −.279) and experience (r = −.218) toward climate change adaptation practices. A significant and positive relationship existed between income and climate change adaptation practices (r = .099). No significant relationship was detected between household size and adaptation practices (refer to Table 2).

Table 2.

Relationship Between Selected Individual Differences and Climate Change Adaptation Practices.

Factor	r	p
Age	−.279	.0001
Income	.099	.047
Experience	−.218	.0001
Household size	.061	.225

With regard to category, the independent t-test analysis concluded that there was a significant difference between full-time SSFM and SSFM with alternative jobs (t = 5.293, p = .022). The analysis showed that SSFM with alternative jobs had better climate change adaptation practices compared with full-time SSFM.

A significant difference existed between fishing technology users and the nonusers (t = 16.585, p = .0001). The analysis showed that SSFM who used fishing technologies (M = 3.57) were having better climate change adaptation practices compared with the nonusers (M = 3.41) (refer to Table 3).

Table 3.

Differences Between Selected Individual Differences and Climate Change Adaptation Practices (Using Independent t-Test).

Factor	N	M	t	p
Fishing zone			5.293	.022
Full-timer	290	3.39
Having alternative jobs	110	3.65
Fishing technology user			16.585	.0001
Yes	132	3.57
No	268	3.41

An ANOVA analysis confirmed that educational status was an influential factor for SSFM’s adaptation practices to climate change (F = 13.647, p = .0001). Further analysis using post hoc test has confirmed on the significant difference between those who have an upper secondary school certificate (M = 3.65) and those who have a primary school certificate and below (M = 3.29) (Table 4).

Table 4.

Differences Between Selected Individual Differences and Climate Change Adaptation Practices (Using ANOVA).

Factor	N	M	F	p
Educational status			13.647	.0001
Primary school and below	160	3.29
Lower secondary school	105	3.48
Upper Secondary school	135	3.65

Discussion

Age was detected to be an influential factor for climate change adaptation practices; however, the magnitude of the relationship was only low. The conducted analysis has confirmed that older SSFM had weaker adaption practices compared with younger SSFM; this finding is in contrast with past studies done by Shaffril et al. (2015) and D’Silva et al. (2012). As argued by Ramli et al. (2018), this finding might be due to the decrease in their physical abilities, poor health, reduced mobility and strength, and loss of sight and/or hearing. Hence, the effect of increasing age has an impact on their personally abilities. Furthermore, reinforcement of climate change adaptation practices could be done by encouraging them to utilize new fishing gears and fishing technologies. Efforts can be reinforced; however, this particular group seems to have a problem commonly associated with refusal to follow new trends of conducting operations and prefer their old ways (Shaffril et al., 2015).

Income is another social factor besides experience, household size, fishing technology usage, and level of education, which were found to be influential. The more income they earned, the better their adaptation practices. This finding is in line with studies by Shaffril et al. (2015), D’Silva et al. (2012), Salik et al. (2015), and Islam and Sallu (2014). Although the relationship magnitude was at a negligible level, individual differences were established to have influence on their climate change adaptation practices. Salik et al. (2015) said that income is an important adaptation component, money enables them to be more prepared under circumstances against climate change impacts and expedite their recovery process. SSFM with strong financial capital lowers their livelihood vulnerability to climate shocks. This group is able to attain better livelihood assets and prepared against climate shock (Islam & Sallu, 2014).

Experience was significantly and negatively related to climate change adaptation practices whereby the relationship magnitude was low. This study concluded that the more experience people have, the weaker their adaptation practices and this is not in line with previous claims by D’Silva et al. (2012), Islam and Sallu (2014), and Ramli et al. (2018). Although experienced SSFM were expected to have better climate change adaptation practices due to their broad skills and knowledge, however, in line with Shaffril et al. (2015), most experienced SSFM preferred to maintain their traditional fishing techniques and refused to innovate their adaptation practices by utilizing fishing technologies, diversify their catches, and try new fishing gears or any other methods. Plus, years of expertise in fishing at sea lead experienced SSFM to live in a comfort zone and were reluctant to adopt new inventions due to individual differences.

The SSFM’s household size was found to record no significant relationship with climate change adaptation practices and this is not in line with studies done by Salik et al. (2015) and Senapati and Gupta (2017). In this case, although Senapati and Gupta (2017) claimed that a big family calls for shared responsibilities, however, within the context of this study, it was not the case. Although the SSFM in this study have a big family, they tend to be the sole breadwinner of the family. The reason behind this finding was as a result of their spouses being unemployed, furthermore, most of their children are still in school.

A comparison test has confirmed that SSFM with alternative livelihoods were better at adapting to climate change compared with full-time SSFM. In Malaysia, the most common alternative livelihoods among SSFM are related to entrepreneurship (e.g., selling fisheries related products) and tourism. To have this finding is not surprising as it agreed with findings by Salik et al. (2015) and Islam and Sallu (2014). Compared with full-timers, the SSFM with alternative income possessed better financial advantages. It offers some form of welfare insurance against climate shocks and better financial resources, which enable them to diversify their livelihood or expedite their recovery process. Furthermore, SSFM with alternative livelihoods faced no difficulties in adapting to impacts from climate change as they did not fully rely on fisheries-related activities, plus, not all of their side income generating activities were affected by extreme events such as cyclones, floods, and rising temperature (Islam & Sallu, 2014).

Fishing technology users have been confirmed to have better adaptation practices compared with the nonusers, and this is in line with a study by Shaffril et al. (2015), Senapati and Gupta (2017), and Islam and Sallu (2014). Fishing technology such as GPS is proven to help mitigate the risks caused by climate change. During extreme weather (e.g., strong winds and waves, heavy rain, and low visibility) fishing technologies can come in handy; for example, GPS helps navigate SSFM accurately and safely back to the jetty, whereas echo-sounder allows SSFM to determine the depth of water, which can significantly increase their fishing productivity. An increase in catches results in more production and income generation for the SSFM, which could be a back-up for them later in case of climate shock.

Those with higher education yielded better climate change adaptation practices compared with those with lower education, and such finding is in tandem with studies by Shaffril et al. (2015), D’Silva et al. (2012), Salik et al. (2015), and Islam and Sallu (2014). People with better educational background have proven to adapt better to climate change due to several reasons. First, they have more access to information and their technology literacy enables them to use the Internet to attain more climate-related information (e.g., weather, impacts of climate change, response to climate change). Second, the educated group were found to possess more skills to diversify their livelihood options and have better risks management; hence, these knowledge help strengthen their climate change adaptation practices.

Recommendations

As one size doesn’t fits all, the discussion of this recommendation section will be broken down by a specific demographic group. Specific recommendations are suggested to specific groups of small-scale fishermen and it is a hope that it can fit into their specific ability, need, and interest.

Older and Experienced SSFM

The elderly’s climate change adaptation practices are restricted due to their declining physical abilities. Such problem can be solved if they embrace the use of fishing technologies and modern fishing gears that require less physical movement, effort, and energy for the fishing operation. GPS, for example, will substitute the traditional way of maneuvering fishing locations, which they used to locate based on mountains or hills as their reference point. As their visual ability gets blurry, their sight becomes inconvenient. An upgrade to utilizing mechanical fishing gears can facilitate SSFM as the machine can replace the need for physical energy to pull out their seines from the sea. Besides, the elderly fishermen’s main challenge is their attitude considering that most of them preferred the traditional way of doing things. Influential persons such as jetty leaders, skippers, village leaders, and extension officers play an important role in convincing this group on the advantages of these fishing technologies, especially on its ability to fortify their climate change adaptation practices. On the field demonstration could also produce a significant result. The responsible entity should demonstrate the benefits of these technology-assisted tools for fishing operation, which are easy to use and most of them are user friendly. This demonstration method of teaching enables a hands-on learning between the SSFM and the officer. This is seen as a more holistic approach as face-to-face demonstration can diminish any misunderstandings and fear to use technology.

Low-Income Earners and Full-Time SSFM

A number of efforts related to the social aspect of SSFM should be reinforced. First, this group should be given the opportunities to learn alternative skills via vocational training workshops or courses that has the potential to promote skill development. Although full-time SSFM are highly attached to their fishing activities, nevertheless, they are open to learn new things (Shaffril et al., 2013). Shaffril et al. (2017) have stressed on the importance of providing SSFM with the prospects of diversifying other skills that do not rely on climate stability (e.g., entrepreneurship, vocational-related jobs, acquiring new languages). This is vital as skills related to environmental stability such as tourism and agriculture are also affected by climate change impacts. Shaffril et al. (2017) then recommended that SSFM be exposed to vocational- and entrepreneurial-related jobs as both industries are supported by several government programs and initiatives. Plus, both industries are proven to have a good market. Second, this particular group of SSFM should be provided with diverse fishing gears as it can diversify their catches and eventually increase it. Third, their access to credit should be widened. This is crucial in a time of crisis or shock as it can expedite their recovery process. To facilitate the implementation of the suggestions above, the administrative-related aspects, that is, the administration bureaucracy, which has been a long standing issue, must be improved.

Non-Technology Users

A few reasons arise as to why people do not use technology. The most common reason is due to having a limited financial ability and also their attitude (Omar et al., 2012). The study found that on average, the SSFM earned less than US$225 per month; therefore, they cannot afford to buy US$125 worth fishing technologies, it might burden their spending necessities. In response to this, a technology subsidy can be introduced so they can afford to buy fishing technologies. Malamud and Pop-eleches (2010) highlighted on the significant changes in technology usage pattern among poor South American countries such as Brazil, Peru, and Bolivia after they received technology subsidy from their government. Attitude is another reason why people hesitate to use technology. The SSFM’s preference to stick to the old ways of doing things and their fear of the unknown caused them to have negative attitudes. To change a person’s attitude is not easy. Here in Malaysia, influence from their social environment plays a great role to convince the SSFM. An influential figure(s) within the SSFM community should play their role. The jetty leaders, skippers, and village leaders can be role models for inseminating the advantages of technology usage to the SSFM to encourage them to use modern equipments. Besides, it is time for extension officers to play their proactive role in empowering this SSFM group. Instead of waiting for the SSFM to drop by their office, they should go in person to meet these SSFM at their places of interests such as the Waqf, jetty, and coffee stalls.

Those With a Low Education Level

This specific group usually do not have the appropriate exposure to new ideas, understandings, and concepts related to climate change conditions, which resulted in a weak climate change adaptation practices. Understandably, a more systematic information management system can overcome this problem. The extension officers should allocate their time to meet with SSFM at their places of interest (e.g., Waqf, jetty, and coffee stalls) to share and inform them on information related to climate change. On a similar note, Shaffril et al. (2013) stressed on the importance of researchers and lecturers to share their research findings with SSFM, whereas Nursey-Bray (2010) have urged university students under environmental studies to play their roles in disseminating valuable climate change information to the SSFM.

Conclusion

The findings point to the need for more community adaptation studies, especially among neglected communities, whose adaptation practices are becoming increasingly important for a community to function. This study was limited to only one category of fishermen—the SSFM. We recommend that future research should focus on other categories of fishermen (e.g., deep sea fishermen). Similarly, the deep sea fishermen also faces the formidable impacts of climate change, this type of fishermen faces more extreme weather conditions as they navigate far at sea where the weather can be quite unpredictable. Moreover, future studies should focus on the poor fishermen group as they struggle to make ends meet. Climate change has impend these particular groups of people, exposing them to environmental and health risks, thus leading to their dependency on humanitarian aid. For the poor, the effects of climate change limit their water and food resources, which increases more competition for them. Furthermore, as the current study focuses only on four affected climate change areas in Peninsular Malaysia, it is suggested that future studies should include SSFM from East Malaysia (e.g., Sabah and Sarawak). To have them included in future studies should bring uniqueness due to the multiethnicities, social, and cultural practices to enrich the study’s findings.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The researchers would like to thank Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for providing a grant for this study (FRGS—grant no: 05-02-14-1594FR).

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The authors would like to thank Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for providing Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) (Grant No: 05-02-14-1594FR) for the study.

ORCID iD

Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah

Author Biographies

Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah is currently the director of Institute for Social Science Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He gained his PhD in community development from the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. He has more than 30 years of research experience and most of his past researches focus on community and rural development.

Hayrol Azril Mohamed Shaffril is a social research officer at the Institute for Social Science Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He gained his PhD in Rural Advancement from Universiti Putra Malaysia. He has more than 10 years of research experience and his main research interests are in rural development and fishermen community.

Azimi Hamzah is a retired professor who previously served under the faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He gained his PhD in youth development from North Carolina State University. Having more than 40 years of research experience, his main research interests are youth and community development.

Bahaman Abu Samah is a retired professor who previously served under the faculty of Educational Studies, Universiti Putra Malaysia. He gained his PhD in agriculture education from Iowa State University. Having more than 40 years of research experience, his main research interests are community development and agriculture extension.

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Factors Affecting Small-Scale Fishermen’s Adaptation Toward the Impacts of Climate Change: Reflections From Malaysian Fishers

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

The Malaysian Small-Scale Fishermen

The Climate Change in Malaysia

The Impacts of Climate Change on the Socioeconomic Aspects of SSFM

The Need for Climate Change Adaptation Practices

Previous Studies on Climate Change Adaptation Practices

The Present Study

Method

Participants

Procedures

Measures

Data Analytic

Results

Discussion

Recommendations

Older and Experienced SSFM

Low-Income Earners and Full-Time SSFM

Non-Technology Users

Those With a Low Education Level

Conclusion

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

ORCID iD

Author Biographies

References