Shrimp aquaculture in India: an ecologically unequal exchange?
Student name: Ms Brototi Roy
Guide: Dr Julien-Francois Gerber
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: TERI University
Abstract: This thesis is situated within the broader conflict between global free trade and socioecological
sustainability in an exporting nation, and in particular between a booming shrimp
export industry in India and the economically poor who survive sustainably along with the
fragile mangrove ecosystem. This is a major cause of concern because mangroves in India
account for nearly three percent of the world’s mangrove vegetation and is one of the world’s
most vulnerable ecosystems. Yet, the ecological and socio-economic effects of shrimp
farming are often neglected in the light of increased foreign earnings. The major problems
associated with shrimp aquaculture are interlinked and create a complex web of interactions,
trade-offs and conflicts, prominent among which is the conversion of mangroves into shrimp
ponds resulting in the loss of biodiversity and livelihoods of local people. The thesis uses a
metabolic approach to shrimp industries to inquire about its ecological impacts and examines
the prevalent conflicts using the ecological economics concept of ecologically unequal
exchange. The theory of ecologically unequal exchange describe the unfair trade practices
between the developed and the developing countries due to which products from poor
countries are exported at prices which do not take into account the local externalities caused
by exports. The thesis also takes examples of areas with flourishing shrimp farming,
destroyed mangroves, and angry local population to shed more light to the conflict across the
country.
Keywords: shrimp aquaculture, ecologically unequal exchange, coastal livelihoods
