Nexus between coastal resources and community livelihoods in a changing climate Pius Z. Yanda 1 & Edmund Mabhuye 1 & Namkunda Johnson 1 & Anselm Mwajombe 1 Received: 8 June 2017 /Revised: 31 July 2018 /Accepted: 15 August 2018 # Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract It is recognized that climate variability has had detrimental impacts on integrity of coastal natural resources. It is also known that coastal communities have been relying on those natural resources for their livelihoods in different ways. It is from this interde- pendence that this study was proposed, to analyse the role of coastal resources in sustaining community livelihoods of the coastal communities in the changing climate in two villages, Msinga and Nyamisati, all based in Rufiji district, Tanzania. The study employed the mixed method design whereby household questionnaires,-key informant interviews, focus group discussions, field observations and literature review were used to collect primary and secondary data. Findings show that coastal resources including fish and mangrove are impacted by sea level rise, storm surges, tropical storms, droughts, floods and change in salinity conditions eventually compromising their integrity. Consequently livelihoods that depend on these resources such as fisheries and agriculture in the delta have declined in productivity over the past 10 years, causing food insecurity to majority of house- holds. People have been adapting in different ways with respect to climate change impacts mainly through the use of social networks and coastal resources utilization particularly sale of fish, mangrove logs and timber. However, utilization of such resources was unsustainable as it entailed overexploitation and use of prohibited fishing gears and unlawful harvesting of mangrove. Nonetheless, coastal communities are still vulnerable to climate change impacts owing to low resource base, whereby women are the most vulnerable group due to poor participation in decision making at family level. Besides, to monitor coastal resources utilization, institutions were put in place through policy and legal frameworks. Enforcement of bylaws with respect to resources utilization such as permits for mangrove and fisheries utilization and ban of agriculture in the delta was meant to make coastal natural resources more resilient to the impacts of climate change. However, some of enforcements of some bylaws made community members prone to impacts of climate variability and change by being landless. The study recommends the integration of participatory approaches regarding the natural coastal resources management including capacity building to women in order to build their resilience to impacts of climate variability and change. Keywords Coastal resources . Community livelihoods . Climate change . Vulnerability Introduction Marine and coastal environments are highly relevant in eco- nomic terms (Tedsen et al. 2014). Over 500 million people worldwide depend on coastal resources for their livelihoods (Cinner et al. 2011 and Wilkinson 2008). Fisheries and fish products alone provide direct employment for roughly 38 mil- lion people, with an estimated 15 million fishers employed on fishing vessels in the marine (UNEP 2006). Mangrove re- sources are important source of food (herbs, honey, fodder), income and employment for the local fishing communities who use mangrove for fuel-wood, fences, building house and canoes (or boat) construction, for making fish traps, for tannin, and for medicinal purposes (Tedsen et al. 2014). Mangrove poles are extracted in commercial quantities, both for the local market and for export and are important to human beings as they support ecologically and economically impor- tant fish species (Robertson and Duke 1990; Kimani et al. 1996; Baran and Hambrey 1999; Mumby et al. 2004; Chitaro et al. 2005 as cited in Ellison 2012). Coral reefs are the tourist attractions and also play a significant role to biodi- versity integrity (Awuor et al. 2012). Marine and coastal tour- ism is one of the world’ s fastest growing sectors (Hall 2001) * Edmund Mabhuye emabhuye@gmail.com 1 Centre for Climate Change Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Journal of Coastal Conservation https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-018-0650-9