July 30, 2024

 

Vietnam's initiatives with shrimp farmers fall short of meeting conservation objectives, study finds

 

A new study based on interviews with 120 small-scale shrimp farmers in Vietnam suggests that government-led approaches in the country's Cà Mau province are failing to meet their conservation objectives.

 

The findings show that despite participating in state-led schemes that mandate farmers maintain 60% mangrove cover on their allocated farmland, almost half of the interviewed shrimp farmers have expanded their ponds into forested areas beyond such thresholds.

 

Researchers from Vietnam and Canada conducted their study in Tam Giang Protection Forest, a protected area spanning 4,880 hectares (12,060 acres) in Cà Mau, at the southern tip of the Mekong Delta. Cà Mau is home to Vietnam's largest expanse of mangrove and also a shrimp-farming hub, with the industry employing 60% of the local rural labor force, mainly through small-scale ponds that covered a total of 296,500 hectares (733,000 acres) of coastal land as of 2022.

 

In the mid-1990s, farmers were allocated land for aquaculture and agriculture under government schemes to simultaneously preserve mangroves and encourage profitable livelihoods. Land contracts stipulate that farmers must preserve 60% mangrove on their land, and convert no more than 40% to shrimp ponds.

 

The researchers found that farmers who infringe the area-based regulations do so to enhance their productivity and profits, which increase with even minimal increases in shrimp pond size, according to the study. Smaller farms tended to clear relatively more mangroves in favor of maximising their pond area compared to larger farms.

 

Hoang Ha Anh, an environmental economist at Nong Lam University in Vietnam and lead author of the study, said farmers taking part in such schemes would struggle to protect coastal forests, even if the ratio of mangrove-to-pond coverage was reduced to 50:50. In short, the study's economic analyses indicate current mangrove-to-pond targets in Cà Mau are overly ambitious.

 

Enforcement of the current regulations is also limited by a lack of resources and staff in the form of forest rangers, according to Ha Anh. Thus, the high economic incentive for farmers to continue expanding their ponds to boost profits coupled with weak enforcement "creates a persistent cycle of noncompliance and enforcement evasion," he said.

 

Stricter enforcement of the regulations is one way policymakers could try to improve farmer compliance and thereby boost mangrove coverage. But this would be a risky long-term conservation solution, Ha Anh said, given it could prove not only ineffective from a conservation perspective, but could also exacerbate mounting economic hardships and vulnerability among farming households.

 

To maximise both mangrove conservation and farmer livelihood outcomes, Ha Anh and his colleagues recommend policymakers implement measures that reward farmers for preserving mangroves.

 

"These mechanisms should focus on providing economic benefits that exceed the profits from expanding shrimp ponds," Ha Anh said. "Payment for ecosystem Services [PES] schemes could be introduced, where farmers receive payments for maintaining mangrove areas, thereby generating income from carbon credits or other ecosystem services. Additionally, policies could include technical support for sustainable farming practices, access to organic certification, and securing premium prices for eco-friendly shrimp products to enhance the overall economic viability of integrated mangrove-shrimp farming systems."

- Mongabay