Two marine fishing villages in Kerala have been chosen to test a climate resilient village adaptation and mitigation plan (CReVAMP) for vulnerable coastal communities in tropical countries. Elamkunnapuzha in Ernakulam and Poonthura in Thiruvananthapuram, which bear the maximum brunt of changes happening in the oceans, have been selected. The study titled Gulls (Global understanding and learning for local solutions) will also cover places in southern Africa, western and southern Australia, Mozambique Channel, Brazil. “We assessed the climate change vulnerability of over 1,000 fishermen households in two major fishing villages of Kerala. Exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity are the pertinent factors that determine the vulnerability . The method used was a structured household questionnaire,” said principal scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) Shyam S Salim, who led the study. He said that the overall vulnerability was assessed and the analysis revealed that the Poonthura was more vulnerable of the two. The coastal population were categorized as low, moderate, high and very high on their vulnerability scores and a geospatial analysis was attempted. Most families in both villages experienced climaterelated shocks and stress as the communities are located near the coastline. One of the salient findings of the study was that majority of the respondents were unaware about climate change. They admitted that they were experiencing the aftermath of climate change, but were ignorant of contributory factors and impacts. According to them, the depletion of fish resources, occur rence of extreme events, loss in fishing days, overtargeted fishing happened after climate change.”We found that they understood the changes in temperatures, fish catch dwindling and that it was impacting their lives. However, they didn’t know that it was a larger issue that needs to be addressed,” he said. Southwest India was recognized as one of the 24 global hotspot regions that are vulnerable to climate change. Climate change hotspots are defined as the `live labs’ where the manifestation of climate change impacts are observed first. Initially, 198 indicators were identified in the construction of vulnerability indices of which 37, were related to sensitivity, 36 to exposure and rest dealt with adaptive capacity . The four-year project that began in 2014 looked at the low-level of awareness on climate change among fishermen in Kerala owing to the fact that such change issues were entangled with other developmental issues; thereby the community could not decipher them. Though there were many studies done on this topic, the scientific knowledge generated hasn’t trickled down to the grass roots. It was re ported reported natural calami ties like sea in trusion, storms, and shoreline changes were c o m m o n a t Poonthura and houses were constructed near the sea. The shoreline changes and sea water intrusion were the visible impacts of climate change. According to the respondents, relocations are necessary during monsoon. In Elamkunnapuzha, it was observed that the basement of most houses had sunk a few feet into the earth and hence water stagnation was observed in the surrounding areas, even inside the house compound. In order to rectify this problem, many households relocated to safer areas. Researchers said that the study will develop a framework for all tropical countries that have coastal communities. “CMFRI will work with panchayats so that women, youth, children and experienced fishermen become the climate change champions to create awareness and develop other livelihood options. Later, local bodies can incorporate adaptation and mitigation in their development plans,” he said. The results will form the basis for a framework for all coastal communities in tropical countries.