Rebuilding resilience of coastal populations and aquatic resources: habitats, biodiversity and sustainable use options.
Acronym:
RESCOPAR
Start & end date:
1 January 2006 – 31 December 2011
Funding & funded by:
Wageningen University, The Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund (INREF)
Objectives:
Shrimp culture in mangrove ecosystems threatens the resilience of both livelihoods and fish communities dependent on mangrove forested coastal ecosystems. The aim of RESCOPAR is to develop multi-disciplinary methodologies and approaches that can help understand:
1) the ecological, social and political processes that lead to the loss of resilience,
2) the interactions between decision-making processes at different levels,
3) the way these decisions affect shrimp farming practices, as well as
4) the management, use and conservation of coastal aquatic resources, in order
5) to increase access to information facilitating transparent and participatory decision making.
A range of PhD projects are carried out in Indonesia, Vietnam and other SE Asian countries around four themes as presented in the figure.
For partners and details see the links and the underlying webpages.
Summary:
Shrimp culture contributes significantly to the loss of South-East Asian mangroves. Over time, productivity of shrimp-ponds declines as a result of acidification, pollution and infectious diseases, forcing farmers to abandon ponds within 5-15 years and to open new culture areas. Marine productive functions are also affected as mangrove clearance reduces habitat complexity as well as the biodiversity and abundance of associated fauna, with cascading effects to coastal fish communities. This ultimately affects capture fisheries in near shore seas. The changes in coastal landscapes are induced by a multitude of decisions by farmers and fishers on resource exploitation driven by their capabilities to access local resources; by trade opportunities; and by information based in local, national and global governance processes. Local arrangements to maintain coastal habitats and production systems are often ineffective. But the ineffectiveness of management is also the result of governance processes that control access to and participation in decision making from global to local socio-political scales. Shrimp farmers and fishers thus are part of dynamic socio-ecosystems shaping their social welfare and economic development. Therefore, aquatic resource management should be embedded in a profound understanding of ecological, social and institutional factors and feedbacks driving processes of change. Nine research projects situated in the Berau Delta of East Kalimantan (Indonesia) and the southern Mekong Delta in Ca Mau and Bac Lieu provinces (Vietnam) focus on (1) interactions between shrimp culture, coastal fish and crustacean communities and fisheries; (2) the management of decisions affecting disease incidence in shrimp culture with a focus on WSSD virus; (3) decision-making by local actors trying to sustain their fish-based livelihoods; (4) governance processes - i.e. regulatory and commercial processes - impacting upon local livelihoods and ecosystem management at various socio-political and spatial levels.
Results:
Around March 2007 nine PhD students from Indonesia and Vietnam started their training. A tenth student from the Philippines joined through SEAFDEC. During the summer all students took part in interdisciplinary workshops discussing their contributions and examining issues of scale and resilience next to writing reserach proposals. In August 2007 a scientific workshop was held in Wageningen in which the program was presented to invited stakeholders and scientists. All students now have started their fieldwork in Berau and Ca Mau since November 2007. Presentations of the program were made at the Delta 2007 conference in Thailand and the KNAW open scienc meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
AFI Staff involved:
1. Johan Verreth (Director) 2. Paul van Zwieten (Supervisor, Scientific Coordinator), 3. Roel Bosma (Coordinator), 4. Marc Verdegem (Supervisor)
Cooperation Partners:
WU Graduate Schools
WIAS: Prof. Johan Verreth, chairgroup Aquaculture and Fisheries (AFI), scientific leader RESCOPAR
Prof. Mart de Jong, chairgroup Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology (QVE)
CERES Prof. Han van Dijk, chairgroup Law and Governance (LAW)
Prof. Leontine Visser, chairgroup Rural Development Sociology (RDS)
PE&RC Prof. Just Vlak, Laboratory of Virology (VIR)
Prof. Arnold Bregt, Laboratory for Geo-Information Science and Remote Sensing (GRS)
Prof. Herbert Prins, chairgroup Resource Ecology (RE)
WIMEK Prof. Marten Scheffer, chairgroup Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality (AEW)
Prof. Arthur Mol, chairgroup Environmental Policy (ENP).
Partners:
Indonesia
Dr. A. Syafei Sidik, Dean of the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Research,
Mulawarman University, Samarinda, East Kalimantan
Dr. Hidayat, researcher, LIPI The Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Research Center for Economics, Jakarta.
Dr. Lida Pet-Soede, Marine Director, WWF World Wildlife Fund for Nature – Indonesia.
Vietnam
Can Tho University, Mekong Delta, Viet Nam,
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Vice-rector of Can Tho University.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thanh Phuong, Dean College of Aquaculture and Fisheries.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Be, director of the Mekong Delta Research and Development Institute, Can Tho University
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Tri, Vice Dean College of Agriculture and Applied Biology.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Huu Chiem, Head Department of Environment and Natural Resources Management, College of Agriculture and Applied Biology.
Collaborating Institutes
NACA Network of Aquaculture Centres Asia-Pacific, Bangkok, Thailand
Publications (selected):
S. Bush, P.A.M. van Zwieten, F. de Boer, R. Bosma, H. van Dijk, M. Verdegem, L. Visser, M. de Jong (in press) Scaled interactions of shrimp trade, livelihood decisions, disease management and coastal natural resources in Vietnam and Indonesia. Paper presented at DELTA 2007: Managing the Coastal Land-Water Interface in Tropical Delta Systems, 7-9 November Bang Saen, Thailand.
P.A.M. van Zwieten and S. Bush (2006), Scaled interactions of flows and places in shrimp culture and fisheries in Vietnam and Indonesia: the approach of the RESCOPAR program. Policy Brief to the International Forum Water and Food, 12-17 November, 2006, Vientiane
P.A.M. van Zwieten, S.A. Sidik, Noryadi, I. Suyatna and Abdunnur. (2006) Aquatic Food Production in the Coastal Zone: Data-Based Perceptions on the Trade-off between Mariculture and Fisheries Production of the Mahakam Delta and Estuary, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. In: C.T. Hoanh, T.P. Tuong, J.W. Gowing and B. Hardy (eds.). Environment and Livelihoods in Tropical Coastal Zones: Managing Agriculture - Fishery - Aquaculture Conflicts. CABI Publishing, UK, in association with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka. Pp. 219-236