Bob Pokrant

Brackish Water Shrimp Farming and the Growth of Aquatic Monocultures in Coastal Bangladesh

One of the most significant changes in marine and coastal environments since the mid–twentieth century has been the growth of coastal shrimp aquaculture in many tropical and sub–tropical regions of the world. This chapter, which draws on the author’s own archival and field research and the published works of other students of the global shrimp market, examines the growth of brackish water shrimp production from the 1970s to the present in Bangladesh’s coastal belt and its social and ecological impacts. It shows that for most of this period shrimp production was encouraged by the Bangladesh Government to expand in a fragmented and uncoordinated way with varying environmental, economic and social consequences. These included higher levels of soil salinity, increased risk of flooding, loss of agricultural land, a decline in biodiversity, contraction of various traditional occupational activities, growth in new non-agricultural work, a shift to diversified employment strategies among households, higher incomes for shrimp farmers and land renters and economic and social dislocation for others. Government, business and international aid agencies supported the expansion of mono–cultural forms of shrimp production integrated into global trading networks at the expense of local resource extraction activities such as artisanal fishing and forestry.

Australian Universities, Government Research and the Application of Climate Change Knowledge in Australian Coastal Zone Management

One of the key issues in Australia for sustainable management of the coastal zone is that the science of climate change has not been widely used by decision-makers to inform coastal governance. There exist opportunities to enhance the dialogue between knowledge-makers and decision-makers, and universities have a key role to play in researching and fostering better linkages. At the heart of these linkages lies the principle of more informed engagement between historically disparate groups. In Australia, the new ‘Flagship’ research programme, funded by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), emphasizes their partnering with universities in a more systematic and collaborative manner than previously achieved in such research projects. In order to address sustainability in general and coastal adaptation to climate change in particular, interdisciplinary learning needs to occur between the social and natural sciences; also, transdisciplinary understanding of that interaction needs to be fully developed. New methods of communicative engagement such as computer visualizations and animations, together with deliberative techniques, can help policy-makers and planners reach a better understanding of the significance of the science of climate change impacts on the coast. Deeper engagement across historically disparate groups can lead to the development of epistemological and methodological synergies between social and natural scientists, adaptive learning, reflexive governance, and greater analytical and deliberative understanding among scientists, policymakers and the wider public. This understanding can lead in turn to enhance coastal governance for climate adaptation on the coast.

Work and labour in the Bangladesh brackish-water shrimp export sector*

This paper 1 argues that discussions about the applicability of labour and environmental policies, standards and codes of conduct in Bangladesh must be based upon an understanding of the diverse local environmental, economic and social conditions under which people work and sustain their livelihoods. In the case of the shrimp export sector, such understanding is limited as no comprehensive study of the sector as whole and the role of labour and environmental issues within it has been carried out. The paper goes 1 The paper arises out of an on-going three year Australia Research Council-funded project (project no: A00105797) entitled: Globalising production and local impacts: business strategies, labour organisation and local environments in the Bangladesh brackish-water shrimp export sector. The authors wish to thank the ARC, the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies (BCAS) for their financial and logistical support. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a workshop entitled: Globalisation, trade liberalisation and economic growth in Asia: should labour and environmental standards be part of the equation? The case of Bangladesh, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia, October 3-5, 2002 some way to filling this gap in our knowledge by drawing on the authors’ continuing research on the shrimp export industry in Southeast Bangladesh and other sources to describe the different forms of work and labour in the industry’s various sub-sectors, paying particular attention to processing plants, shrimp farms, wild fry collection and hatcheries. It shows the great diversity in work and environmental conditions in the sector, illustrates the relationship between work, labour and environment in the fry collecting sub-sector and makes recommendations for further research.

RE-ORGANIZING THE SHRIMP SUPPLY CHAIN: AFTERMATH OF THE 1997 EUROPEAN UNION IMPORT BAN ON THE BANGLADESH SHRIMP

The shrimp industry in Bangladesh experienced problems with international buyers resulting from serious deficiencies in infrastructure and hygiene standards in processing plants and other upstream activities and from inefficiencies in government and private quality control mechanisms. In 1997, the European Union imposed a ban on import fishery products from Bangladesh into the European Union. This resulted in losing market access to the European Union for a few months, streamlined regulations, strengthened the competent authority, improved monitoring and inspection systems, and upgrading processing plants and depots. The ban was lifted after 6 months subject to meeting inspection standards and other provisions. After upgrading production facilities, working conditions, and adopting a Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Point system, 59 processing plants received approval to export to the European Union. The shrimp supply chain has been substantially reorganized and production processes restructured to satisfy safety and quality standards imposed by developed countries. This paper examines the effect of the European Union ban on the shrimp export supply chain in Bangladesh.

Changing local weather and adaptation in two coastal villages in Bangladesh

Coastal Bangladesh is experiencing the effects of weather and climate-related stressors. The paper reports on the ways in which members of nine occupational groups in two coastal villages in South-west Bangladesh understand and respond differentially to recent changes in local weather and weather-related events and processes. Their understanding is grounded in local experiences and varied livelihood options, which are a complex interaction between peoples social and spatial locations and local weather and non-weather events and processes. Their priorities are to protect livelihoods through resilience-building actions, which address proximate causes of vulnerability (improving coastal embankments, rehabilitating and strengthening homesteads, protecting agricultural land). Government support is limited to traditional development interventions that assist some more than others and often disconnected from local peoples priorities. Most adaptation actions are practical measures within the prevailing politico-legal order. There is some evidence of more rights-based cooperative action between a national non-governmental organisation and local farmers that challenged aspects of that order.

Reflections on Working with Communities and Community-Based Projects in Bangladesh

Community-based studies are a central feature of current development and climate change research and planning in developing countries. In this chapter we reflect upon our engagement with place-based communities over two decades in rural Bangladesh. We draw upon several encounters with local communities to illustrate the relationship between communities of practice and of place; complexities of putting what local people say and do at the centre of project work; the relationship of policy to practice; the difficulties of balancing immediate gains with longer term sustainability; and the need to locate place-based communities within wider ecological, economic and political networks of activity and influence to ensure more effective planning.

Changing Practice in the Madras Marine Fisheries: Legacies of the Fish Curing Yards

This chapter is concerned with the ways in which institutional change in the structure of artisanal fisheries in colonial South Asia affected the position of those engaged in the industry. It examines the ‘experiment’ undertaken in the coastal districts of Madras Presidency in specially-instituted Fish-Curing Yards (FCY). These yards were promoted as a solution to the problems caused by the colonial government’s Salt Tax, which increased greatly the price of salt needed to cure catches. The FCY soon became a central part of the structure of coastal fisheries in the Presidency. Government regulations, which officials claimed were established for the benefit of the fishers, meant that the yards brought fundamental changes to the structures and operations on the relations of production within the fishing industry, although it was curers, rather than the fishers, who became the real beneficiaries of the FCY. Curers emerged as the key players in the yards as they gained control of the entire curing process, from catching to curing to the sale and export to markets. The corollary of the strengthening of the curers’ position was the marginalization of the members of the traditional fishing communities and the breakdown of their traditional role in sustaining the community. As a result, over the first 40 years of the introduction and development of the FCYs, traditional small-scale fishers came to be increasingly thought of as the ‘problem’ in Indian fisheries, and in time, officials saw the need for programmes of ‘reform’ and ‘improvement’ to change Indian fisheries.