Land and water management in coastal zones: dealing with agriculture-aquaculture-fishery conflicts.

Abstract

The coastal environment has undergone rapid change in recent times. Change in the state of the environment is multifaceted, but a key concern is the way that natural habitats -principally mangrove forests and salt marshes -have been extensively cleared and converted to shrimp farming and other uses. The expansion of shrimp farming has also encroached onto agricultural lands. Coastal shrimp farming has been practised for a very long time in some countries as part of the traditional livelihood system, but recent strong demand in global markets, together with technological advances, has fuelled rapid expansion. These rapid, and generally unplanned changes, have provoked conflicts among the three dominant resource-dependent livelihoods in the inland coastal zone: agriculture, shrimp farming and fishing.The coastal zone is characterized by ambiguities of resource ownership and a complex web of interactions among people, resources and ecosystems. Conflicts exist between the drive for short-term financial gain and the desire for long-term sustainable development. Conflicts exist between the priorities of people who derive their livelihoods from aquaculture and those who depend upon agriculture. Conflicts exist between the needs of people who may gain from intensification of land use for agriculture and/or aquaculture and other people (e.g. fisherfolk), whose livelihoods may be adversely affected by environmental impacts. This synthesis chapter presents a discussion of trends, problems and approaches to managing change in the inland coastal zone. We identify key messages from previous research and development experience and consider the supporting evidence for these messages.

Ethnographic Investigations of Commercial Aquaculture as a Rural Development Technique in Tamil Nadu, India

“…My research findings support other studies, such as A. K. Deb's in Bangladesh (1998), that estimate that shrimp farming reduces employment by 75% compared to rice farming (Deb 1998). However overall, research shows that employment is higher than rice farming when you consider ancillary activities such as processing (Gowing et al 2006). I estimate that this case is true for India, but I stress the importance of where employment is being generated (urban versus rural).…”

Community livelihood and patterns of natural resources uses in the shrimp-farm impacted Mekong Delta

“…One of the arguments for shrimp industry development has been that it creates salaried employment in commercial shrimp farms and processing factories in the coastal areas, which usually lag behind other regions in terms of industrial development (Gowing, Tuong & Hoanh 2006). However, shrimp processing factories are not located in the coastal areas but farther inland (in Soc Trang City for example), and commercial shrimp farms do not employ local labour but prefer to hire outsiders.…”

Adaptation of a method for involving environmental aspects in spatial planning of river basin management – a case study of the Narva River basin

“…Several authors have proposed that the cost effectiveness of water management can be improved by allocating harmful activities to less sensitive areas (Cowing et al, 2006;Strauss et al, 2007) and assigning abatement measures to more sensitive sites (Younger & Wolkersdorfer, 2004). However, each of the cited studies addressed only a single driving force and considered only some environmental consequences, and thus a universal context for spatial zoning regarding environmental sensitivity was lacking.…”