CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Espinoza Cordova, Fabiola |
|---|---|
| Title | Assessing the vulnerability of fishery- dependent households to extreme weather events in St. Lucia and exploring the role of index-based insurance in increasing their adaptive capacity |
| Summary | The impact climate variability and extreme weather events is placing an enormous burden on the Caribbean fishery sector, source of livelihood and food security for a large part of its population. In Saint Lucia, these events are diminishing the low capacity of the artisanal fisherfolk communities to secure a steady income and food for their families. Parametric insurance products aimed at providing financial assistance to individuals and communities after an extreme weather event have been promoted in the country as a strategy to increase their capacity to adapt to a changing climate. Nevertheless, low uptakes have shown there are various limitations that diminish their potential effectiveness. Local vulnerability assessments aimed at understanding how social, economic and environmental factors influence people’s ability to adapt to natural hazards, are an important step to identify suitable adaptation strategies. This is especially important in the fishery sector, as vulnerability assessments have generally focused on the national level. By applying a quantitative index-based approach, this research has aimed to fill this knowledge gap by analysing the factors that contribute to livelihood vulnerability of fishery-dependent households to climate change variability and extreme weather-related events in Soufriere, Saint Lucia. Based on the latter, the role and potential determinants for the uptake of index-based insurance products for this target group has been investigated. Results highlight the importance of context-based assessments and the need for implementing a comprehensive risk management and development approach. Based on the findings, recommendations for implementing index-based insurance product for the fishery sector are provided. |
| Supervisor | Laszlo Pinter |
| Department | Environment Sciences and Policy MSc |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/espinoza_fabiola.pdf |
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