Shrimp Farming and the Environment - Library

Commission on Sustainable Development, listing a number of points to which governments wereinvited to agree. These opinions were further formalized in the Choluteca declaration of October 1996,made by NGOs from Latin America, Europe, and Asia in Choluteca, Honduras. A Resolution onMangrove Forests was made by several NGOs in December 1996, urging governments to “takeimmediate action to halt the expansion of industrial shrimp farming which is destroying mangroveforests.”In addition, the first Shrimp Tribunal was held in April 1996 and included a government-NGOdialogue on the sustainability of shrimp trawling and farming. Representatives from the major producercountries were present, together with a number of NGOs. The second Shrimp Tribunal was held inApril 1997.The Industrial Shrimp Action Network (ISANet) was formally established in 1997 as an umbrellaorganization of dozens of NGOs in both the South and the North who are concerned about theuncontrolled expansion and negative impacts of industrial shrimp aquaculture and are working togetherto oppose it. No single strategy has been developed by this confederation. Some groups within it haveopposed the industry, while others have attempted to engage it.Farmer and industry initiativesIn recent years, farmers in both the Americas and Asia have recognized the need for improvedenvironmental management of the industry at local, national, and international levels. At the locallevel, farmers have organized to cooperate on issues such as wastewater management. Farmers in SuratThani in southern Thailand cooperate to ensure that they minimize both pollution of each other’s watersupply and the spread of disease. Farmers in Ecuador are working with the NGO Fundacion Natura topromote mangrove conservation.At the international industry level, traders, processors, and farmers (mainly large-scale) established theShrimp Council in 1996. In February 1997, the Shrimp Council presented a four-point initiative thataddresses environmental concerns. It has since spawned the Global Aquaculture Alliance, a broaderbasedindustry alliance that has developed, in collaboration with scientists, its own code of practice forsustainable shrimp culture which is available on the Internet (Global Aquaculture Alliance 1998).Farmer organization is extremely important to facilitate the processes of sector environmentalassessment and integrated coastal management. Typically, organizing and training farmers is moreeffectively carried out by NGOs, experts, and consultants than by government, whose involvement maybe mistrusted (Robadue 1995; Ochoa 1995).Scientific researchEven a casual observation of the world’s aquaculture industry reveals the importance of scientificresearch, for improving production techniques as well as for environmental protection. Manydeveloping countries have no resources to engage in such research, and must, therefore, either rely onresearch done by others or do without the results of modern science. The failure to invest in researchand systems to disseminate findings efficiently has resulted in a lack of knowledge about the issues thatpose the most serious threats to the industry and to the environment.Key areas for research at the local level include the assessment of natural resources, their functions,dependencies, and value; and the assessment of environmental capacity in relation to economicdevelopments, including aquaculture in the coastal zone.For most developing countries, economic priorities determine whether they engage in scientificresearch. Often, research related to the negative effects of a booming industry is ignored because of thesubstantial immediate returns from the industry, while funds available are spent on other, apparentlymore urgent, matters.60