- Conservationists and policymakers have long sought ways to alleviate pressure on mangroves from shrimp farming, one of the leading drivers of tropical coastal deforestation.
- A new study shows that despite government-led initiatives seeking to strike a balance between mangrove preservation and shrimp cultivation, farmers in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta are struggling to protect coastal forests with which they compete for farm space.
- The researchers found that despite participating in sustainable shrimp-farming schemes, more than half of interviewed farmers have flouted regulations that require them to maintain 60% mangrove cover.
- Experts say the findings indicate the current mangrove protection model isn’t working in Cà Mau and call on authorities to find another approach that diversifies the incentives and options for farmers to protect local mangroves.
Shrimp farming is a leading driver of mangrove deforestation the world over. As demand for the sweet crustaceans boomed over the past few decades, swaths of vital coastal forests were cleared at unprecedented rates, sparking widespread conservation efforts to balance shrimp production with mangrove protection.
While some approaches have successfully alleviated pressure on mangroves, slowing or even halting deforestation rates, other initiatives have been less successful. A new study based on interviews with 120 small-scale shrimp farmers suggests that government-led approaches in Vietnam’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.
The team of 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 maximizing 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 in fact 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.
“These results highlight the delicate balance between environmental conservation and economic viability,” he said, “suggesting that strict enforcement without adequate support for farmers could lead to widespread noncompliance and further economic distress.”
Toward a new model
To maximize 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.”
Võ Quốc Tuấn, head of the geographic information system and remote-sensing laboratory at Cần Thơ University, said the new findings show that the current mangrove protection model isn’t working in Cà Mau. If authorities stubbornly stick to the policy and expect farmers to maintain 60% mangrove coverage on their farms, it will only lead to further noncompliance and mangrove losses, said Tuấn, who wasn’t involved in the study.
“The government is right to push farmers to plant and protect mangroves because of not only the ecosystem benefits, but also for the country and the world in terms of carbon sequestration,” Tuấn told Mongabay. “But farmers need to prioritize production so that they can live from day to day. Maybe 60% [mangrove coverage] is too much, but 20 to 30% would be ideal under this sort of scheme.”
Tuấn said policymakers in Cà Mau need to rethink their approach. As an example of an alternative model that could work, he cited PES schemes that have proved successful in nearby Cần Giờ Biosphere Reserve on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, in which farmers are contracted to protect and plant mangroves on allocated land.
“Each farmer has about 50 hectares [125 acres] so they can earn enough for a living, and besides the conservation income, they can exploit some resources from the mangroves like crabs and fishes,” Tuấn said. “They don’t do shrimp farming or agriculture, but they can collect some natural resources from the protected mangrove areas they manage.”
Tuấn added that such a scheme would require a hefty budget, and suggested that large shrimp-farming companies based in the province should be willing to pay for such incentive schemes given the benefit they receive from the ecosystem services, such as water filtration and coastal protection, that mangroves provide.
“If we pay them, that’s the only way to ask the farmers to protect land covered in mangroves,” he said.
Carolyn Cowan is a staff writer for Mongabay. Follow her on 𝕏, @CarolynCowan11.
Banner image: Trade boats paddle by a mangrove forest in Vietnam. Image by Kim Cuong Nguyen Trang / Ocean Image Bank.
Citations:
Anh, H. H., Beaulieu, A., Da Hanh, T. M., & Tru, L. C. (2024). Economic effects of a controlled mangrove-to-pond coverage ratio policy on mangrove conservation and shrimp farming: A case study in Vietnam using instrumental regression analysis. Trees, Forests and People, 16, 100579. doi:10.1016/j.tfp.2024.100579
See related story:
As livelihoods clash with development, Vietnam’s Cần Giờ mangroves are at risk
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