Environmental impact assessment and monitoring programs for sustainable shrimp aquaculture development

Abstract

The development of shrimp farming has been one of the recent success stories of rural diversification in the world. But like other aspects of modernisation, this development has been a two-edged sword, with an enormous increase in foreign revenue on one hand and serious cumulative environmental impacts on the other. Most of the concerns over the environmental impacts of aquaculture were initially directed at marine shrimp farming and net/pen culture of salmon in the coastal and marine environment (Boyd and Hargreaves, 2004). Aquaculture, particularly the traditional and extensive systems of farming, where low density stocking is practiced, are practically non- polluting as compared to many other coastal activities (Bashar and Amin, 2003). Over-crowding of shrimp farms may lead to 'self-pollution' and the shrimp farms are the first to be affected by such over-loading because the shrimps are more sensitive to changes in water quality. The accelerated development of intensive fed aquaculture throughout the world is not without regionalized impacts, especially when the activities are highly concentrated in unfavourable sites. Carrying out Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is an essential component of most developmental and industrial activities to ensure that development and environment protection go hand-in-hand. The adverse environmental impacts resulting from the uncontrolled and unregulated expansion of shrimp farming in many coastal regions in the tropics and sub-tropics have prompted widespread criticism (Naylor et al., 1998, Jayanthi et al., 2020; Mahesh Salunke et al., 2020; Widiyanti., 2021). Rapid intensification and production techniques has led to largely unsustainable modern farming practices, loss of mangroves and unplanned changes of land use in areas of rice production (Raine, 1994, Csavas, 1995, Brzeski and Newkirk, 1997). Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is an assessment of the changes in environmental resources or values resulting from a proposed project. It has been largely superseded by the term environmental assessment report, which implies, in addition to the above, a more comprehensive coverage of issues including mitigation, impact monitoring and management.