Sustainable Development Update
Issue 5, Volume 4, 2004
The Sustainable Development Update (SDU) focuses on the links between ecology, society and the economy. It is produced by Albaeco, an independent non-profit organisation. SDU is produced with support from Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Environment Policy Division.
Dr. Fredrik Moberg, Editor
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| | Editorial |
Planting trees for peace
Finally. A Nobel Prize for the environment. Or at
least close enough. The Nobel committee has added
a new dimension to peace and, for the first time,
recognised the fundamental links between peace
and environmental issues.
While some people still claim that there are more
pressing issues, such as terrorism and weapons of
mass destruction, most seem to have gained new
insights and now understand how planting trees
can contribute to peace. To me it is also a reminder
to all environmentalists that it is a must to address
social justice and peace if we are to protect the environment. In the words of the Prize winner herself:
“If you want to save the environment, you should
protect the people first, because human beings are
part of biological diversity. And if we can’t protect
our own species, what’s the point of protecting tree
species?”
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 in order to create livelihood opportunities for poor women and restore the damaged for-
est environment with little technology and limited
financial resources. The GBM has organised poor
Kenyan women who have planted some 30 million
trees to preserve local biological diversity and safeguard the supply of ecosystem services.
These trees have helped farmers by combating
soil erosion, soaking up rain, preserving nutrient-rich topsoil and providing habitat for wildlife.
Moreover, trees provide services like supplying
oxygen, trapping air pollution particles and absorbing others, some of which are used as nutrients
for growth. Despite their great value to society,
most services provided by forests have until recently been treated as “commons” without financial worth. However, there is a growing awareness
of the many benefits that forests provide, such as
climate stabilisation, storm protection, watershed
protection, biodiversity conservation and carbon
storage – and now even peace.
Maathai has gone from being an activist, having
even been called Green Militant, to become the
Kenyan deputy environment minister. She has, beyond doubt, taken a holistic approach to sustainable
development by integrating environmental issues,
democracy and women’s rights. The Green Belt
Movement has, among many other things, worked
to re-establish the use of organic methods and indigenous crops, which many had abandoned for
government-promoted export commodities, such
as coffee.
In the meantime, global military spending is on
the rise again. Whereas global foreign aid totals 50-
60 billion dollars a year, the total military spending
might break the one trillion dollar barrier this year,
according to a recent UN-report. I wonder what
percentage of that is used for planting trees.
/Dr. Fredrik Moberg, Editor
| | SDU - Feature |
Better bananas?
How to decrease the social and environmental impacts of banana cultivation
The banana farming is an economic
pillar in many poor tropical
countries. The industry has, however, long been notorious for its unhealthy working conditions,
employee exploitation, excessive use of toxic chemicals
and rainforest destruction. Today there is a growing realisation,
also among the multinational
corporations, that a number of win-win solutions can develop if bananas are produced in a more sustainable way.
International trade of bananas is often depicted as a classic case of a North/South conflict. Whereas people in the rich countries of the North get cheap fruit poor people and the environment in producing
countries of the South pay a high price. Nonetheless, the banana is the most important food crop after rice, wheat and maize and provides millions of job opportunities
in poor tropical countries. In the 1990s, the banana sector was heavily criticised by NGOs and got a lot of negative media coverage for its social and environmental impacts. This revealed how banana farming entailed unhealthy working conditions, excessive use of toxic agrochemicals, rainforest destruction,
contamination of soil and food, poor waste disposal, the pollution of coral reefs and nearby watersheds and employee exploitation.
Moreover, the multinational banana corporations limited the economic benefits to local people and controlled virtually all aspects of production, transportation
and marketing. These revelations shifted many consumers’
preference towards organic (see fig 1 and 2) and fair trade bananas and led some companies to take measures to reduce their environmental and social impacts. Today composting of organic rejects, collection of plastics, and filtering
of wastewater has become common practice on many plantations.
 Fig 1: Estimated world exports (metric tonnes) of organic bananas 1998-2003. Source: FAO
However, due to recent global overproduction,
banana companies have had to close many plantations and cut jobs, salaries
and benefits. This means that workers'
rights are again being undermined and that investments in acceptable social and environmental conditions are being decreased. Critics claim this is why the banana industry is now concentrating production in low-wage, non-union countries
such as Ecuador and the south coast of Guatemala.
Fig 2: Estimated fresh organic banana imports per year
Region/country
| Imports in 1000 metric tonnes
| |
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
| USA & Canada | 13 | 16 | 22 | 39 | 48 |
| Europea | 13 | 27.5 | 45.5 | 73 | 88 |
| Japan | 3 | 4.4 | 5.7 | 5 | 5.4 |
| Other | - | - | - | 0.5 | 0.4 |
| |
| Total | 29 | 48 | 73 | 118 | 141 |
a) EC(15) + Switzerland + Norway. Source: FAO
|
The monoculture problem There are more than 300 varieties of bananas in the world, ranging from giant
red ones to tiny yellow baby bananas, and even ”square” bananas that taste like apples. Yet, bananas on the European and US markets are almost all of the type ”Dwarf Cavendish”. As a consequence of this preference most commercial plantations
grow bananas that come from the same genetic source. Another problem is that cultivated banana varieties are seedless. These sterile hybrids can reproduce
asexually but crossing them cannot produce new banana varieties that resist pests. This in combination
with the fact that plants are planted close to each other means that outbreaks of pests frequently wipe out whole plantations. In order to reduce pest damage, increase
yields, and comply with the quality standards of importing countries
many farms employ frequent and heavy agrochemical applications.
Pesticide use can be almost 20 times greater than average pesticide use on crops in industrialised
countries. This entails pesticide exposures and illness among workers as well as pollution of land, watercourses and aquifers, and a reduction in biological
diversity. This has also led to the emergence of pest strains that are pesticide resistant. Recently, thousands of banana pickers
in Costa Rica have filed a lawsuit in the US against two chemical companies (Shell Chemical and Dow Chemical) and three banana producers (Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte). The lawsuit claims that exposure to the toxic pesticide DBCP (brand names Nemagon and Fumazone) has caused sterility, testicular atrophy, miscarriages, birth defects, liver damage and cancer when inhaled or absorbed by the skin. DBCP was banned in the United States in 1979.
 Pesticide use in a banana plantation can be 20
times greater than the average on crops in industrialised countries. Photo: Nils Kautsky.
The alternatives Around the world small-scale farmers grow many other banana varieties that are not threatened by the most feared diseases Black sigatoka and the ”Panama disease”. Actually, the Cavendish banana accounts for only 10 percent of bananas produced and consumed globally, according to FAO statistics. In order to decrease the use of agrochemicals
many suggest so called “integrated
pest management” (IPM). It is a set of methods to manage pests through mechanical and biological means as much as possible and restrict the ”inevitable” use of pesticides to those that are less toxic and persistent. IPM does not aim at eradicating pests entirely but rather limiting their population and damage at economically acceptable levels. Many small-scale producers, operating independently of multinational corporations,
are able to grow bananas without heavy agrochemical inputs, often organically
(entirely free from chemical pesticides).
Some produce so-called shade grown bananas together with many other crops such as coffee. In 2002 global exports of certified organic
bananas accounted for more than 1 percent of total banana trade. The largest supplier of organic bananas in the world is the Dominican Republic. The main hindrance
to the increased implementation of organic small-scale systems is the lack of market demand in many importing countries. Hence, there is still a growing need
to increase awareness amongst consumers
about the problems associated with conventional banana production.
In Sweden for instance, eco-labelled
bananas has been a successful tool to increase awareness among retailers, importers and consumers. Today, 3.5 % of the
bananas sold in Sweden are eco-labelled.
Chiquita has its own certification under
the so called Better Banana Project. A couple of years ago Chiquita announced
they had received certification for all of
their own plantations in Latin America.
However, NGOs claim that workers on
some farms knew nothing about it. The
Better Banana Project is much better
than companies doing nothing, and environmental improvements have indeed
been made, but critics claim the company
could be doing much more. The close
relationship between Chiquita and the
certifying organisation and the continued
use of pesticides on certified farms have
also been questioned.
Many question if it will ever be possible to grow bananas sustainably in intensive, specialised large plantations based
on a narrow genetic source.
The Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations (FAO) has called
for: development of more diversity in the
banana, especially for export bananas;
promoting awareness of the inevitable
consequences of a narrow genetic base
in crops and the need for a broader
genetic base for commercial bananas;
strengthening plant breeding programmes
in developing countries for banana and
other basic staple crops. Many also call
for re-establishing the use of indigenous
crops and organic methods, which many
developing countries have abandoned following a long period of focus on export
commodities.
Getting the prices right
Today consumers are increasingly concerned about banana production conditions and buy more and more organic and
fair-trade bananas. And it seems like the
banana industry has finally realised there
are a number of win-win solutions that
can develop if bananas are produced in
a more sustainable way. In many respects
parts of the industry have worked hard
to improve its reputation. Consumers,
producers, governments, trade unions,
farmer organisations, development organisations all have a common interest in
solving these problems.
One key driving force for banana farming to become more sustainable is to get
the prices right. Within the field of environmental economics this is called ”internalising the external effects”, that is,
the price of a commodity should include
external social and environmental costs
incurred at every stage of production. In
the banana’s case this means consumers
will have to pay a price that reflects social
and environmental costs and the necessary investment costs to provide acceptable social and environmental conditions
on plantations.
/Fredrik Moberg
More at:
http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/docrep/007/y5102e/y5102e00.htm
http://www.bananalink.org.uk/
http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/issues/trade/ wto_bananas.htm
| | Sustainability School |
Institutions
are central within the
social science of natural resources
management. Institutions are,
in this context, defined as the
norms and rules governing human
interactions. They can be formal
such as rules and laws, but also
informal (unwritten) such as
norms and conventions of society.
Institutions set transaction costs
for human actions and govern resource use by controlling
access to and extraction of natural resources. By establishing
defined courses of action, institutions minimise uncertainty
and risk when actors exchange. For complex exchange
problems, however, institutions can never be fully free of
incompatible incentives. This can create the temptation to
cheat. In the case of natural resources, institutions often fail
to take the externalities of exploitation into account, which
results in transaction costs that benefit the extractor but with
environmental and social costs that are paid by no one and
suffered by all.
Existing knowledge will influence the development of
institutions and, at the same time, institutions steer the
development of knowledge. This partly explains the variety of
institutional approaches to similar problems.
Today a growing number of interdisciplinary environmental
scientists emphasise institutions that deal with property rights
and so-called common property resources, that is, institutions
controlling access to a natural resource and how it can be
used. There are four categories of property, though there
is overlap between them: state-owned, private property,
common property (group ownership) and open access (no
rules). Common property (or common pool) resources, such
as fisheries, have long been subject to overexploitation and
misuse due to lack of institutions or their implementation (a
situation called the tragedy of the commons). In recent years
many scholars have, instead of promoting either centralised
governmental regulation or privatisation, suggested the design
of institutions that are organised and governed by the resource
users themselves as a way to resolve the problem of the
commons.
/Miriam Huitric
More at:
North D, 1990: Institutions, institutional change and economic
preferences. Cambridge University Press.
Ostrom E, 1990: Governing the commons. The evolution of
institutions for collective action. Cambridge University Press.
Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. IHDP
Report No. 9: http://www.ihdp.uni-bonn.de/html/publications/ reports/report09/index.htm
| | In Brief |
Sink or Swim? How to deal with rising sea levels
Coastal communities around the world are at the
frontline of climate change with rising sea levels
and changing weather patterns encroaching on
their land. Should these communities act in an
anticipatory manner or react to changes as they
occur? And who should enforce and pay for these
measures?
 Bangladesh is one of the most floodprone countries in the world.
Sundarbans mangrove forest, Bangladesh. Photo: FAO
There is a growing need for a greater diversity of solutions
addressing climate change due, not only to the variation
of impacts at local levels, but also to the diversity in local
stakeholders’ needs, resources and expectations. This will
demand re-thinking of the top-down approaches imposed by
many states and international development agencies, said
Professor Katrina Brown, from the School of Development
Studies, University of East Anglia (UK), in a recent seminar at
the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Brown and colleagues have compared how communities on
the Orkney Islands in the north and in Christchurch Bay in the
south of the UK, would prefer to deal with foreseen impacts of
climate change on their coastlines. The responses chosen by the
respective communities were as separated as the communities
themselves. On the Orkney Islands, stakeholders opted for
dealing with impacts as they arose, and that the local decisionmaking
body should deal with this. In contrast, stakeholders in
Christchurch Bay preferred an anticipatory approach to dealing
with the impacts of climate change, which would be carried out
by a centralised authority.
Adapt projects to local conditions
This study, while based in an industrialised country, is pertinent
to those involved in addressing the impacts of climate change
and sea level rise everywhere. More than 40% of the global
population live within 100 km of a coastline. Sea levels are
predicted to rise 9-88 centimetres over the next 100 years,
according to the UN’s panel of expert advisers (IPCC). This
could annihilate many low-lying islands such as those in the
Pacific and Indian Oceans and all coastlines are likely to suffer
from land loss and saltwater intrusion. Climate change is also
expected to increase storm intensities and frequencies and
this will also affect coastal areas, particularly in developing
countries where costly precautions are not always possible.
In earlier work Professor Brown has studied reasons why
conservation and development projects often clash and fail to
work in the long-term, particularly in developing countries.
She concluded that a misfit of institutions (see this issue’s
Sustainability School) was often to blame. Institutions must
accommodate diverse stakeholders and interests, as well as
fit ecosystem dynamics. There are no homogenous or simple
solutions. Locally, communities are economically and socially
very diverse, as are their interactions with the environment and
natural resources.
The failure of higher-level decision makers, state or
international organisations, to adapt their projects to local
conditions potentially dooms them to failure. In conclusion, the
responses to climate change will need to be varied not only due
to the variety of expected impacts but also due to the diversity
among affected communities. This is a further challenge for
those tackling the impacts of climate change, but one that they
will, soon, have to confront.
/Miriam Huitric
For more information:
School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/
Few, R, Brown K and Tompkins, EL. 2004. Scaling adaptation:
climate change response and coastal management in the UK:
http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/publications/working_papers/ wp60.pdf
"Markets and biodiversity can be strong allies"
It might well be this year’s most important
conservation event, the 3rd IUCN World
Conservation Congress, starting in Bangkok on
November 17. It will in particular address the
role of business in conserving biodiversity and
achieving sustainable development.
It is an enormous challenge to meet the
needs of growing populations and
emerging markets while at the same
time sustaining the very basis of our
survival: the long-term productivity of
the life-supporting ecosystems. This
challenge will be taken on by the 3rd
IUCN World Conservation Congress,
”People and Nature – only one world”,
which will open on the 17th of
November in Bangkok.
The congress is yet another sign that
the environment movement is no longer
putting plants before people. There
is increasing recognition that social,
economic and environmental issues are
interconnected. Consequently, working
with the corporate world is increasingly
seen as an effective way to safeguard the environment. Whereas
some companies continue to be hungry profit hunters, neglecting
environmental and social aspects, more and more of them
want to change. While the present economic indicators still do
not account for the costs of environmental loss or health, new
market incentives for caring for the environment are emerging.
An example is the Clean Development Mechanism. This
allows industrialised countries to invest in clean industries or
conserving forests in developing countries, thereby providing
them with credits for greenhouse emissions.
Other examples of how conservation efforts can be profitable
include: the Nakivubo wetland in Uganda that performs water
purification functions equal to a US$ 2 million per year waste
treatment facility and investment in upper watershed forest
management in Ecuador that saves the Paute Hydroelectric
Scheme up to US$ 40 million in direct costs.
Integrating conservation in Poverty Reduction Strategies
The Congress will attract more than 3000 delegates and be
the world’s biggest conservation event in 2004 to explore
the relationships between human development and nature
conservation. A number of poverty-related issues will be
covered, for example how environmental and human health
relate to poverty and conservation. In particular, it will include
an assessment of the role of wild species in the livelihoods of
the poor; how to integrate conservation in Poverty Reduction
Strategies; and providing more benefits of conservation to the
rural poor. It will also consider lessons learned from around the
world to manage land and seascapes for wise use of the goods
and services provided by their ecosystems.
/Fredrik Moberg
More at:
http://www.iucn.org/congress/documents/capitalism-planet.htm
The impasse of modernity: Debating the
Future of the Global Market Economy
Economist Christian Comeliau feels a deep anxiety over the track modern society is following, with effects such as constant rises in world poverty and environmental degradation. He criticises the global market economy and argues that in the future economics must be put within the framework of society’s goals and the limits of Nature.
Christian Comeliau strongly believes that globalisation of
modernity has no long-term future for economic, social and
ecological reasons. Clearly and coherently, he describes why
| |  |
modernity and globalisation can neither be generalised for all
social and economic questions nor are they viable in the longterm:
"At a time when so many societies are being profoundly
dislocated… when statistics show constant annual rises
in world poverty and ecological degradation, when key
international conferences break up because they cannot agree
on an agenda for trade negotiations, and when public opinion
in the privileged countries is itself stirring over its abuses of
the near-total liberty granted in practise to the large private
corporations – at such a profoundly chaotic time, is it not
crucially necessary to challenge the goals (and no longer just
the organizational forms) of the so-called ‘system’ that governs
our economies…?"
Rather than simply picking on present-day problems,
Comeliau describes the underlying ideologies of this system
and places them in their historical context. Modernity is
described as a development model that places exceptional
importance on economic concerns, particularly on market
economy. Market economy was originally a tool but has been
transformed into a model believed to be all encompassing that
is being implemented worldwide. It is an economic and social
organisation based on individualism that focuses on profit
maximisation, which in turn requires indefinite quantitative
growth of consumption (and therefore of production). Among
the many problems the author identifies with this system, three
seem to be overarching:
1) The principle of indefinite accumulation of profit as the
sole criterion for choices in economic and social organisations
can only be a short-term goal. Continued growth is not possible
in a world of finite resources.
2) Profit maximisation tends
to increase the demand for more
efficient production, which involves
mechanisation of jobs or moving
production to lowest wage/costs areas.
This results in a loss of jobs “at home”,
increased inequality in society, and a
concentration of power and wealth
into the hands of a few multinational
organisations that lack organisations
that can govern them.
3) Because the market is based on
individual benefit, social goals that are good for society at
large, are deemed unprofitable/undesirable by the market.
Hence, modernity is not equipped to deal with collective
issues, be they social, environmental or economic.
Changing the present model will be difficult
Comeliau concludes that changing the present model will
be difficult, as it has grown so rapidly and with little control
by national governments. The main motors are a handful
of multinationals that have political and economic powers
comparable to nations, but the freedom of not falling under
anyone’s jurisdiction. This system is morally wrong, according
to Comeliau, and consequently he suggests many fundamental
changes, including: the need to put the economic system in its
place vis à vis the biosphere and ecosystems as these are not
luxuries but necessities; that the economy must be placed at the
service of society and not vice versa; and that market economy
must be replaced in relation to economics as a whole.
The author conveys his arguments in a form that, while
dense, is clear and accessible also to non-economists. It
is topical and timely and no doubt enlightening to readers
standing on either side of this debate. I strongly recommend it
to anyone dealing with connections between environmental,
social and/or economic issues.
/Miriam Huitric
Source:
The impasse of modernity. Christian Comeliau, 2000. Zed
Books, London & Fernwood Publishing, Canada.
The Financial Times' focus on Sustainable Business
The Financial Times recently published a report
considering the strengths and weaknesses of ”the
environmentalist pressures facing companies”.
The focus on environmental sustainability in this
respected financial newspaper is encouraging,
but environmental health seems to remain a
secondary concern to, rather than a prerequisite
for, economic health.

On October 14th, the Financial Times published a Special
Report on the issues facing sustainability in the business
world. Overall, the report focused on the economic costs and
benefits of improving environmental profiles. The lack of a
clear definition of “sustainability”, however, made it difficult
to gauge the real degree of environmental friendliness of
mentioned endeavours. Environmental health seems to remain
a secondary concern to, rather than a prerequisite for, economic
health. Nevertheless, the focus on environmental sustainability
in this respected financial newspaper is encouraging as this is a
crucial medium through which the gap between the economic
and environmental sectors can be bridged.
Reduced emissions, increased savings
While most of the articles focused on the rich parts of the
world, one article dealt with new guidelines in the banking
sector, such as the Equator Principles, established for handling
environment and human rights issues in connection with
project financing in developing countries. Environmental
groups have welcomed these principles with caution: while
seen as a good first step, they are criticised for lacking
transparency.
The report also includes a series of articles that discuss the
implications of new and proposed regulations. It is concluded
that Russia’s decision to sign the Kyoto Protocol, together with
rising fuel costs, will result in regulatory measures by signatory
nations and voluntary measures by many industries to reduce
fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The report
summarises the concerns of companies protesting against the
costs of Kyoto-related policies and planned EU regulations
that will demand the screening of chemicals for human and
environmental health impacts before being released, but
several success stories are also presented where companies
have reduced their emissions while increasing savings. It also
looked at the increased interest in environmentally sustainable
production, including agriculture and fishing, by multi-
nationals and the finance sector.
/Miriam Huitric
More at:
The report is accessible to Financial Times subscribers at:
http://www.ft.com/susbusiness2004
Fishing: there's more than meets the eye
There have been many reports on the negative
impacts of fishing on targeted stocks; one has
only to think of cod, sharks and sea turtles. A
heavy toll is falling on developing countries,
where fish is a more important part of diet than in
developed countries. But what of the less visible
ecological effects of fishing?

The indirect impacts of fishing were the focus of an e-
conference in April 2004, as a part of the EU’s evaluation of
the objectives of its Biodiversity Action Plan for fisheries. The
over-arching issues identified at the conference were: gaps in
understanding, political unwillingness to limit fishing activity,
and, suitable management tools.
We are fishing faster than we gain understanding of the
ecosystems. Yet fishing has many indirect impacts including
dumping of non-targeted species, known as by-catch, and
habitat damage due to dragging gear along the bottom. We
are in essence fishing entire ecosystems though we only use a
small portion. The functions of many of the targeted species,
and particularly of the by-catch species, remain unknown, as do
the interactions among these species and the effects of habitat
loss on these species. The focus of ongoing monitoring needs
to move on from species’ stock assessments to include the rest
of the ecosystem.
Scientists have, in fact, been issuing warnings for certain
fish stocks for many years. Politicians have not, however, been
willing to limit fishing activity due to the political costs of
change. This response to socio-economic drivers rather than
to signals from the resource is indicative of a vicious circle
leading to continued blind extraction of the resource.
Managing the Known and the Unknown
The conference stressed that dependence on technological
fixes and marine protected areas cannot substitute for reducing
fishing activity. Managers
cannot control fish stocks
only fishermen, yet finding
suitable management
tools remains a challenge.
National quotas are the
most common tool and
are allocated yearly. These
have two key problems:
1) Most are set too high
and 2) They do not
necessarily control fishers’ behaviour in the desired
way. Quotas can increase
by-catch wastage as fishers
rush to fish their part of the quota and quotas have even been
found to increase fishing activity in response to decreased
abundance.
All management tools have shortcomings and none are
applicable region-wide. What is clear from existing scientific
information is that fishing activity must be reduced, which will
entail short- and medium-term costs. A precautionary approach
to fishing is needed to protect habitats and organisms until
their interactions are better understood. Given the scale of
uncertainty and unknown it will be difficult to determine what
“precautionary” limits to fishing are. This means that existing
measures need to be tailored to existing scientific information
(vs. political costs), to local conditions of both stocks and the
fishing fleet (vs. region wide policies) and be adaptable (to
incorporate new information).
/Miriam Huitric
Source:
Kaiser MJ, Austen MCV and Ojaveer H, 2004: European
biodiversity action plan for fisheries: issues for non-target
species. Fisheries Research 69: 1-6.
"Donors must quit funding destructive shrimp farming"
The environmental and socio-economic impacts
of intensive shrimp aquaculture in mangroves
are unacceptable. Donor agencies should restrict
funding to socially and environmentally responsible
farming initiatives instead, said Dr. Jurgenne
Primavera from the Philippines when visiting
Stockholm recently.
On the 22nd of September, Dr. Jurgenne Primavera
of the University of the Philippines held a
public lecture at Stockholm University. She
has been working to increase understanding of
the environmental and socio-economic impacts
of shrimp aquaculture in mangroves. While
increasing in popularity, it is difficult to give tiger
prawns a good environmental or social image.
Shrimp trawling is wasteful, with 85 to 95% bycatch.
Aquaculture, which in Asia has focused on tiger prawns,
has its own series of problems. Intensive shrimp ponds usually
have a life span of only 5 to 10 years because of self-pollution
and disease. Operators move on to other areas, in a pattern of
shifting aquaculture, and the remaining degraded lands are no
longer suitable for agriculture or aquaculture.
 Some 50% of the global mangrove forest loss since the 1980s is
a result of shrimp aquaculture. Photo: Nils Kautsky
Shrimp farming interferes with local food security
Moreover, it is estimated that 50% of the global mangrove loss
since the 1980s is a result of shrimp aquaculture, which will
affect many wild stocks including tiger prawns as they use
mangroves as nurseries. Shrimp feed contains fishmeal and
oil from fish caught around the world, affecting distant stocks.
Seepage and release of untreated water cause various pollution
problems to surrounding soils, water tables and seawater.
Furthermore, shrimp farming often interferes with local food
security as most shrimp are exported. Shrimp may also compete
with locals for food as: “…in the Philippines no fish is too small
to be eaten”. On average more than two kilograms of wild-caught
fish are used in feed to produce one kilogram of shrimp. Pond
pollution degrades surrounding mangroves and fisheries further
affecting food security. Lowered, salinised and polluted water
tables affect access to drinking water and agriculture.
Can tiger prawns improve their image? Prof. Primavera
stressed that the industry must be based on ecosystems’ capacity
to deal with production externalities and identified three fields for
improving the industry.
1. Technological improvement to reduce pond externalities
(such as integrated farming of shrimp, fish, crabs and mangrove).
2. Governments must establish and implement human rights
and environmental laws. If donor agencies restricted funding to
socially and environmentally responsible farming initiatives, it
would encourage governments to develop these.
3. Tiger prawns are exported so trade instruments must support
national legislation.
Most importantly, the industry’s income does not reach those
working on farms. This inequity and the environmental and
socio-economic impacts have led to violent conflicts, which in
Central America alone have resulted in 150 deaths. Dr. Primavera
concluded that while ecological sustainability is an important
goal, if the industry’s equity problems are not solved, it will
remain an unsustainable industry.
/Miriam Huitric
More at:
http://www.albaeco.com/sdu/01/htm/main.htm#aqua
http://www.palawan.com/agriculture/shrimp.html
http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdfs/farming_the_sea.pdf
The quote:
"Let's score
these goals"
UNDP Goodwill
Ambassadors: Soccer
superstars Ronaldo and
Zinédine Zidane in a 30-
second television spot
promoting the Millennium
Development Goals. The
spot was aired worldwide
in October to mark the
International Day for the
Eradication of Poverty.
http://www.undp.org/ronaldo-zidane.pdf
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