Ha Le Thi Loc (IO Nha Trang)

Ha Le Thi Loc, after describing the main aspects of Mekong shrimp aquaculture to day, gives elements of diagnosis: the mastering and transfer of shrimp rearing technology (mainly pond management) is considered as another major source of difficulty with the quality of the environment. This development, however, lacks careful planning and design. It results in what happened in many other countries: declining yields and massive losses. These massive losses, which are usually referred to as shrimp disease, are in reality caused by a combination of poor planning and design, pond pollution, stress and frequent outbreaks of viral diseases.

Her recommendations are the following:

P. Raux, CEDEM.

The fast development of shrimp farming in tropical countries for the past 20 years has been driven by first by the voluntarism of international agencies and then by high profitability. As a result, many local economies have been deeply modified. The destruction of natural assets on a large scale has been another consequence. The spreading of diseases also threatens the durability of the benefit flows it has generated. A good understanding of the dynamics of shrimp farming development and crisis is necessary to design collective action both by state agencies and user groups. The definition of local or regional scale and means of analysis has been the core of a multidisciplinary research programme funded by the European Union, applied to the situation of shrimp farming in Lampung Province (Sumatra, Indonesia). In this province, most profiles of shrimp farming are encountered from the world largest integrated unit to traditional small scale units. Sustainability of the various profile of shrimp farming development is discussed in terms of economic viability, social organisation and conservation of natural assets.

The main concern of this socio-economic research is to identify major issues for collective action in relation with shrimp farming intensification in a common property resource perspective. The study of the environmental impact of shrimp farming in the perspective of public policy analysis is of particular interest at the two intermediate levels of administrative regions and ecosystemic entities. The first is an important level for political, administrative and producers action particularly when the capacity for State action is weak; the second scale where the consequences of all individual choices make them interdependent due to the environmental limits.

Some results of the socio-economic study conducted in Lampung Province in 1996-1997 are presented here and applied to the GAMBAS programme.

Tong Phuoc Hoang Son, ION  

The Mekong delta ecosystem presents very specific and complex morphological and hydrodynamic conditions, as well as high bio-diversity. On both socio-economical and environmental sides, it is confronting with many difficulties and challenges, especially due to the spontaneous development of marine aquaculture.

This conflict may improve through establishing a “sustainable aquaculture solution” in the Mekong delta. i.e. technically feasible, environmentally compatible and economically profitable. But to solve aquaculture problem in a sustainable way is very complex and difficult. The answer includes technical, environmental and socio–economical considerations and all these things must be considered from the dynamic point of view (i.e. they change in time)

For effective resolution of this problem we need to have a reasonable strategy in coastal data management. Grasping all completed information on ecological, environmental and socio– economical conditions, the application of GIS tools will help us in data management, establishment of the optimum spatial analytic solution for multi-purpose problems.

It is obvious that information from different sources and disciplines have to be integrated and presented to the final decision-maker. This will be made through the combination of methods such as statistical analysis (e.g. Principle component analytic, Factor analysis, Cluster analysis and even automatic classification), spatial analysis  (SQL operators and other decision support system, DSS) and also techniques of remote sensing for processing image on environmental quality such as mangrove forest status, water quality, shoreline change, etc... The above mentioned methods will be combined and become effective tools in zoning, planning and determining environmental criteria for sustainable aquaculture purposes.