PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT
The world's dependence on the capture fisheries and aquaculture sector is threatened not only by misuse of these aquatic resources but also by factors external to the sector, such as pollution runoff, land use transformation, other aquatic resources uses and climatic changes. As significant coastal inhabitants (whether riparian, lacustrine or marine), fishers and fish-farmers are particularly vulnerable to the direct and indirect impacts of predicted climatic changes including changes in physical environments and ecosystems, fish stocks, infrastructure and fishing operations, and livelihoods. FAO, in recognizing the likely changes to come and the interactions between fisheries and aquaculture, agriculture, and forestry and these changes, held a High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy at FAO headquarters in Rome, from 3 to 5 June 2008. This Conference addressed food security and poverty reduction issues in the face of climate change and energy security.

The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department (FI) held an Expert Workshop on Climate Change Implications for Fisheries and Aquaculture, from 7 to 9 April 2008, in order to provide the FAO Conference with a coherent and high quality understanding of the fisheries and aquaculture climate change issues. This Workshop provided inputs into the High-Level Conference and also constitutes a response to the request from the twenty-seventh session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) that "FAO should undertake a scoping study to identify the key issues on climate change and fisheries, initiate a discussion on how the fishing industry can adapt to climate change, and for FAO to take a lead in informing fishers and policy-makers about the likely consequences of climate change for fisheries".

The Expert Workshop identified and reviewed the key issues of climate change in relation to fisheries and aquaculture, from the physical changes, the impacts of those on aquatic resources and ecosystems and how these ecological impacts translate into human dimensions of coping and adapting within fisheries and aquaculture. The Workshop also evaluated policy options and activities at the international, regional and national levels that can help minimize negative impacts of climate change, improve on mitigation and prevention, and maintain and build adaptive capacity to climate change. The Expert Workshop was organized and convened by the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department Working Group on Climate Change, co-chaired by Kevern Cochrane and Cassandra De Young. Indra Gondowarsito and Giovanna Martone provided secretarial and administrative support.

This report includes an overview of the presentations and discussions held during the Expert Workshop and presents the conclusions and recommendations agreed upon by participants. Three background documents commissioned by FAO formed the basis for the technical discussions. The authors of those papers, Neil Adger, Marie-Caroline Badjeck, Manuel Barange, Katrina Brown, Tim Daw, Sena De Silva, Doris Soto and Ian Perry, are thanked for their valuable contributions to the Workshop.

Funding for the Expert Workshop was provided by the governments of Germany, Italy and Norway and IREPA Onlus provided assistance in administering travel and contract details.

ABSTRACT
This Expert Workshop was convened to identify and review the key issues of climate change in relation to fisheries and aquaculture, from the physical changes, the impacts of those on aquatic resources and ecosystems and how these ecological impacts translate into human dimensions of coping and adapting within fisheries and aquaculture. Three comprehensive background documents formed the basis of the technical discussions. The Workshop also evaluated policy options and activities at the international, regional and national levels that can help minimize negative impacts of climate change, improve on mitigation and prevention, and maintain and build adaptive capacity to climate change. The impetus for the Workshop emerged from recommendations of the twenty-seventh session of COFI (2007) as well as to the need to provide inputs into the FAO High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy, held in Rome from 3 to 5 June 2008.