Surendran Rajaratnam, National University of Malaysia
Fishing communities in Malaysia are witnessing the effects of climate change, sometimes damaging entire harvests. As a sea cucumber farmer in the state of Sabah shared:
“If the wind is strong, it can cause our cages to collapse—but it isn't just the waves we worry about. Sometimes, extreme heat is even worse; if the weather stays hot for a few weeks, the sea cucumbers will be affected. We’ve even had situations where the waves wiped out the entire community's cages ... there wasn't a single sea cucumber left inside.”
With few alternative sources of income, these vulnerabilities are driving people from coastal communities, especially the youth, to seek safer havens in urban areas for sustainable livelihoods.
The Climate-adaptive, Inclusive, Nature-based Aquaculture (CAINA) project is working with communities to explore more resilient food systems that are nature-positive and able to provide nutritious food and sufficient incomes. As part of the Canadian-funded AQUADAPT initiative, CAINA aims to define such solutions for the Asia-Pacific region.
A series of collaborative workshops and meetings developed a Gender Equality and Social Inclusion or GESI Action Plan to guide CAINA’s implementing partners in their research and site-specific studies.
The GESI workshops, organized by AQUADAPT and the National University of Malaysia, provided a platform for sharing principles in social science research, as well as considerations for GESI with partners who are predominantly from the fisheries and aquaculture sciences. The outcomes from these workshops aim to change researchers’ approach to working with communities, making it more inclusive and responsive to diverse needs, while also building GESI capacity across partners.
“I learned a lot in terms of social approach in doing GESI research, such as probing techniques as well as carefully considering every aspect and element in applying GESI concepts,” said one of the fisheries science researchers.
In 2026, CAINA will apply GESI approaches to engage diverse stakeholders including community representatives, NGOs, and government agencies to enhance our understanding of challenges coastal communities face, to influence change inclusively.
Cover photo: Interview with a participant of the CAINA project in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo: Surendran Rajaratnam, National University of Malaysia.