Shrimp supply chains, common property and pollution management at Tam Giang Cau Hai Lagoon, Vietnam
Authors
Date
2012
Type
Thesis
Fields of Research
Abstract
Tam Giang Cau Hai (TGCH) Lagoon is the largest wetland system in Southeast Asia with an area of 21,467ha and a coastal length of 70km. Shrimp culture is one of the main livelihoods of local communities, which total about 300,000 inhabitants. The purpose of this study was to identify factors constraining the Lagoon’s shrimp supply chain and to recommend ways of improving chain performance.
The TGCH shrimp industry was investigated within a supply chain framework. Given the lack of prior information about the structure of the chain and its performance, this investigation was exploratory, and used a qualitative methodology. The investigation showed that the TGCH shrimp supply chain was dysfunctional due to production losses linked to contaminants and associated disease conditions in the waters of the Lagoon.
There are several pollution sources including at least: (i) aquaculture production and other livelihood activities in the lagoon; (ii) agricultural production activities in upstream areas; and (iii) industrial production and urban dwellers in the lagoon catchment. Within the bounds of this thesis, it was decided to focus on the endogenous pollution from within the Lagoon, which was considered the most important and complex of the pollution issues, while recognising that a comprehensive solution would also require consideration of exogenous sources.
An analysis of the pollution problem using theory relating to common pool resources attributed the pollution caused by shrimp culture to recent changes in property rights to lagoon resources. In particular, the lagoon bed had been privatised to shrimp farmers while the lagoon water remained an open-access resource. Shrimp farmers are therefore able to internalise the benefits of shrimp culture while externalising their pollution costs. The consequent over-exploitation of the water is exacerbated by a lack of appropriate aquaculture zoning in the lagoon.
To solve the pollution problem, it is first necessary to open waterways adjacent to the privatised farms to help dissipate pollutants. Currently these waterways are partially blocked by net enclosures placed there by farmers without formal rights to this activity. However, removal of net enclosures is unlikely to be a sufficient remedy. Accordingly, a range of pollution abatement instruments including tradable shrimp output quotas, tradable shrimp input quotas, shrimp output taxes, shrimp input taxes, tradable pollution quotas and pollution taxes were assessed against normative criteria proposed by the environmental economics literature. First-order assessment criteria were environmental effectiveness and administrative feasibility. Second-order criteria were static efficiency, cost-efficiency, dynamic concerns, and political acceptability.
Although shrimps are considered to be the most profitable aquaculture option under optimal production conditions, farmers do have production substitution options using other aquaculture species. Accordingly, any quota systems (either input or output) would need to be designed to include all species, with either separate quotas for each species or composite quotas for species aggregates. The most promising of the quota systems is likely to be an individually transferable quota (ITQ) on the seed inputs for each species. This judgement is based on the limited number of seed suppliers which facilitates monitoring, and limited capacity within a specific production system to replace seed with other inputs. However, this measure is challenged by administrative burdens. Recent literature in the field of community-based natural resource management suggests that these burdens could potentially be reduced by a co-management system.
Co-management has already been tested in four communes in TGCH Lagoon but only in association with the opening of waterways. Consequently, this study proposes a re-structured co-management in TGCH Lagoon that includes management of individually transferable seed quotas.