The Ecological Economics of the Conversion of Mangroves to Shrimp Aquaculture

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The Ecological Economics of the Conversion of
Mangroves to Shrimp Aquaculture

• ISA Net Group

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Research Question

• To retell the story from the Ecological Economics
  perspective
• Audience
• in short run for participants of the workshop
• in long run anybody interested in this issue,
  policy-makers, researchers, farmers

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Contribution of our work

• Current problems, existing literature often fails
  to use EE to analyze the problem, and of course
  not from a comprehensive way
• Our work apply the theory of EE to a real-world
  problem, and communicate our understanding in the
  form of webpage

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Principle of our web-page making

• Eye-opening instead of exhaustive (links instead
  of details)
• Inspiring instead of feeding (discussion board,
  not there yet, but I will do it soon)
• Lively (pictures, avoid jargons)
• Systematic (every important concepts of EE)

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Structure of our webpage

• Outline
• Background
• Scale
• Distribution
• Allocation
• Policy

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Towards a sustainable scale

• Kristin Studer
• Shuang Liu

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Scale issue of shrimp aquaculture/mangrove

• The problem with literature involving shrimp
  aquaculture is it often fails to address scale
  issues.
• Our objective is to include scale as an important
  issue and in a comprehensive manner.

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Scale of shrimp aquaculture and ecological
economics

• Scale can be defined as the relative size of
  shrimp aquaculture (size of farms and intensity
  of systems) to the mangrove forests that support
  it.
• In the world, the trend has been to convert
  mangrove forests to shrimp
• aquaculture farms.
• This increases the economy of the
• industry while destroying the
• supporting ecosystems.

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Purpose of Research

• Open peoples eyes to the scale issue, an
  important yet ignored issue.
• Outline different aspects of Scale
• Input-output analysis
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Relationship of Scale to Distribution
• Relationship of Scale to Efficiency

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Towards More Equitable Distribution

• Meaghan Murphy
• Scott Martin

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Towards More Equitable Distribution

• Social and Economic Issues Identified in
  Literature Review
• What are the relevant questions and positions
  from the distribution perspective of ecological
  economics?
• How do these questions apply to the conversion of
  Shrimp Aquaculture?

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Issues examined through Key Principles of
Distribution

• Present and Future Stakeholder Distribution of
  Costs and Benefits Discount Rates
• Diminishing Marginal Utility/ Marginal User Costs
• Economic Rent/ Unearned Profit Opportunities
  Failures

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Overview

• Social and Economic Issues of Distribution
  Identified through Literature and Available
  Resources
• Link to webpage
• Link to webpage

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Overview and Application Discount Rates

• Why care about Discount Rates?
• How does it relate to Mangrove and Shrimp
  Aquaculture? website
• What are the implications? Awareness,
  Alternatives, Actions

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Dimishing Marginal Utility

• What is it?
• How does DMU relate to distribution and
  efficiency in the mangrove ecosystem?
• Link to website

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Towards Efficient Allocation

• Lyndsay Hazen
• Greg Barth
• Jessie Kalsmith

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The Efficient Allocation of Resources

• SUPPLY
• Quest for Profit
• Inflated Price
• Unsaturated Market
• Income Price Elasticity

• DEMAND
• Need for Protein
• Increased World Population
• Changing Preferences
• Larger Middle-Class
• Influence of Advertising

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Global Markets

• Flow of Shrimp
• Exporting from Developing to Developed Countries
• Free Trade

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Price

• Competition and Oversupply
• will lead to PMC
• Market Failures - Distorted Price
• Inefficient Government Intervention

Marginal Social Cost
Price
Price
Marginal Cost
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Optimal Allocation

• Marginal Cost includes social and environmental
  externalities
• Government Regulations Mandatory
• Labor-Intensive

• Efficient Profit Allocation
• Adaptive Management
• Integration of International Investors and Local
  Communities

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Links

• http//www.uvm.edu/gundiee/philippines/webcourse/
  
• http//www.uvm.edu/gundiee/philippines/webcourse/
  outline.html
• http//www.uvm.edu/gundiee/philippines/webcourse/
  Background.html

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Policy

• Meaghan Murphy
• Shuang Liu

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Policy Solutions

• Principle of Subsidiary
• Policy Recommendations and Alternatives website

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