Ecological limitations and appropriation of ecosystem support by shrimp farming in Colombia |
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Authors: | Jonas Larsson Carl Folke Nils Kautsky |
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Institution: | (1) The Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Box 50005, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden;(2) Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden |
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Abstract: | Shrimp farming in mangrove areas has grown dramatically in Asia and Latin America over the past decade. As a result, demand
for resources required for farming, such as feed, seed, and clean water, has increased substantially. This study focuses on
semiintensive shrimp culture as practiced on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. We estimated the spatial ecosystem support that
is required to produce the food inputs, nursery areas, and clean water to the shrimp farms, as well as to process wastes.
We also made an estimate of the natural and human-made resources necessary to run a typical semiintensive shrimp farm. The
results show that a semiintensive shrimp farm needs a spatial ecosystem support—the ecological footprint—that is 35–190 times
larger than the surface area of the farm. A typical such shrimp farm appropriates about 295 J of ecological work for each
joule of edible shrimp protein produced. The corresponding figure for industrial energy is 40:1. More than 80% of the ecological
primary production required to feed the shrimps is derived from external ecosystems. In 1990 an area of 874–2300 km2 of mangrove was required to supply shrimp postlarvae to the farms in Colombia, corresponding to a total area equivalent to
about 20–50% of the country’s total mangrove area. The results were compared with similar estimates for other food production
systems, particularly aquacultural ones. The comparison indicates that shrimp farming ranks as one of the most resource-intensive
food production systems, characterizing it as an ecologically unsustainable throughput system. Based on the results, we discuss
local, national, and regional appropriation of ecological support by the semiintensive shrimp farms. Suggestions are made
for how shrimp farming could be transformed into a food production system that is less environmentally degrading and less
dependent on external support areas. |
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Keywords: | Aquaculture Shrimp farming Colombia Sustainability Resource use Life support system Carrying capacity |
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