The UK government is supporting a pilot project that combines market access and climate insurance to help small-scale fisherfolk manage extreme weather risks.
Philippine agritechnology platform Mayani is leading the project with Asia Pacific insurtech firm Hillridge Technology. The program will roll out market offtake arrangements with parametric insurance to strengthen the climate resilience of smallholder fisherfolk in the Philippines.
Funding comes from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office through the Frontier Tech Hub, which supports technology solutions that can attract private investment and scale.
The Mayani project is part of a portfolio of three funded climate adaptation technologies across the Philippines and Vietnam, two of the world’s most climate-exposed economies. Another Philippines-based grantee is international conservation organization Rare, working with the Philippine Crop Insurance Corp., the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and GCash.
The pilot tested whether a marine weather index can accurately match actual lost fishing days. Parametric insurance only improves resilience if payouts reflect the real experience of fisherfolk affected by climate disruption.
“At the same time, we are assessing whether pairing parametric insurance with structured catch offtake models can stabilize fisherfolk incomes, reducing reliance on payouts alone and reinforcing everyday financial resilience,” said Nathan Kably, program head of the Frontier Tech Hub. “Our goal is to build the evidence base the private sector needs: what level of risk reduction, cost savings, or revenue stability makes climate adaptation investable at scale?”
Around 1.2 million small-scale fisherfolk in the Philippines face risks from extreme weather events, yet only 2% have any form of risk transfer protection. A single week of high-wind events can wipe out 70% to 100% of household income. Typhoon-related losses in the fisheries sector reach an estimated $94 million annually.
Income instability adds to climate risks. Without steady demand or fair pricing, fisherfolk struggle to invest in safer practices, better equipment, or recovery plans. Traditional indemnity insurance, where available, is often slow and costly, and usually focuses on short-term recovery rather than long-term resilience.
“We saw that smallholder income instability drives climate risk exposure and negative coping activities by our rural fisherfolk,” said Ochie San Juan, co-founder and chief farmer of Mayani. “Mayani is pushing for climate adaptation interventions that address the need for income predictability, not just timely climate information or post-disaster recovery support. Fundamentally, integrated financial and market mechanisms are crucial enablers of adaptive behavior,”
Mayani’s Dual-Resilience model integrates insurance into a broader market system instead of treating it as a standalone product. It combines market offtake arrangements, which give fisherfolk more predictable demand and fairer pricing, with index-based insurance that uses satellite data such as wind speed, wave height, and rainfall to trigger payouts when extreme weather prevents fishing.
Unlike traditional insurance, which requires damage assessments and can take weeks or months to pay, parametric insurance triggers automatically when preset weather thresholds are reached. This allows fisherfolk to receive support more quickly when extreme weather disrupts their livelihood.