Small-scale fisheries sustain the lives and livelihoods of nearly 500 million people worldwide, including around 53 million subsistence fishers. Yet the sector’s ageing workforce remains largely invisible in climate policies, disaster planning and Climate-Finance decisions.
Across South and Southeast Asia, many older people continue fishing, processing and trading fish because declining stocks, insecure incomes, weak social protection and youth migration leave them with few alternatives. At the same time, rising seas, coastal erosion, salinisation, warming oceans and intensifying storms are destroying homes, equipment and traditional fishing grounds. Older women face particular disadvantages because their work is often informal, unpaid or unregistered, excluding them from pensions, insurance, compensation and fisheries governance.
This policy brief examines how climate change intersects with ageing, gender, disability and economic marginalisation in small-scale fishing communities. Drawing on evidence and lived experiences from the region, the brief calls for age-inclusive adaptation and loss and damage finance, stronger social protection, accessible early-warning systems, livelihood diversification and meaningful participation by older fishers. Recognising their rights, knowledge and leadership is essential to building resilient and equitable coastal communities.
