INDUSTRIAL TRANSFORMATION
The expansion and transformation of shrimp aquaculture in
Southeast Asia has occurred in the context of rapid industrialization.
Between 1970 and 1993 the contribution by industry to
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased from 25% to 40%, and
industrial output increased 25 times during the same period. Energy
and pollution intensities (per unit of economic activity) of
most countries remain comparatively high compared to Organisation
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
countries, especially in the centrally planned economies like Vietnam
(1). Thailand with its much larger economy and industrial
sectors already has a history of air and water pollution problems.
As rapid as industrialization has been, the base remains comparatively
small. Most of the investment in industrialization of
Southeast Asia is still to come, and much of this will happen in
coastal zones where urbanization also is a major process. With
improved energy efficiency and material recycling, individual
businesses and perhaps even sectors can reduce their burden on
the environment. However, continuing expansion of economic
and industrial activity in most countries in the region for at least
the next several decades will mean that the cumulative effects
on uses of energy, materials, and natural resources, and burdens
on the waste-assimilation capacities of local and regional ecosystems,
will continue to grow. A profound transformation in
the way industry is developed, especially in coastal zones and
along waterways, is required. The focus has to shift from abatement
and “end-of-the-pipe” solutions to prevention, by focusing
on reducing pollution and resource-use intensities, and finally
toward new visions of society and its supporting systems
or an “Industrial Transformation” (2).
So far little attention in Southeast Asia has been paid to what
such a transformation toward sustainability would entail for food
production-consumption systems. This requires understanding of
the environmental consequences of activities and linkages along
the commodity chain from farmers, through agri-businesses and
food industries, to consumers, as well as consideration of the
networks of input and service suppliers. The most problematic
of these are likely to be high-value export-oriented commodities
that depend on natural resources and ecosystem services like
shrimp aquaculture. Changes in production and organization of
the shrimp industry have been very rapid with the growth of
aquaculture. In a matter of just two decades or less systems have
moved, in some places, from other land-uses or cooperative harvesting
of mangroves and wetlands to being a part of a fully integrated
industry more akin to manufacturing than traditional
agriculture or capture fisheries.
The industrialization of aquaculture has spread fairly easily
among countries in Asia despite different economic and political
structures and development histories. Industrial shrimp
aquaculture first started and then collapsed in Taiwan (3), and
from there it spread to other countries. Extensive production systems
in Thailand are recorded from as early as 1957 in Nakhonsi-tammarat
(4). But the industry only really began to intensify
in the mid-1980s, when production from aquaculture started to
increase rapidly (Fig. 1a) following the spread of successful
hatcheries. The changes were facilitated by government policies
on export-oriented agriculture. For example, the large Thai multinational
Charoen Popkhand (CP) Group was active early, in
1986, forming a joint venture with Japanese giant company