Mangroves and Shrimp Farming in Belize

If you keep up with environmental issues at all, you will find pervasive accusations that shrimp aquaculture destroys mangroves.

There's no reason to take anyone's word for it. Go check it out.

If you haven't done it already, go online and download Google Earth.

Take your own global tour and look for shrimp farms. The clusters of square and rectangular dark green ponds are easy to spot along tropical and subtropical coasts all over the world. With very little effort, you can find the places in Asia and Latin America where coastal mangrove habitat has indeed been displaced by shrimp farms. You can still see the mangroves growing in irregularly shaped ponds contructed in river deltas. You can see pond dikes built to the edges of the shore and beyond.

You can also get a taste of how pervasive global aquaculture, particularly shrimp aquaculture, has become. Shrimp farming regions spanning 40 coastal miles are not unusual. If you are concerned about mangroves and the health of coastal ecosystems world wide, you should indeed be concerned about shrimp aquaculture. The fact that an entire non-governmental movement has sprung up around environmental effects of shrimp aquaculture speaks for itself. That did not happen randomly.

Once you have that picture in mind, go to Belize.

Look where Belizean farms are located. Inland. Behind the coast where mangroves grow. With the exception of one row of ponds in the original shrimp farm in Belize, built in the mid-80s, Belizean shrimp farms are situated in low-diversity, low production savannahs and not in mangrove habitat. The full extent of mangrove removal associated with Belizean shrimp farming comes from the construction of intake canals and docks. Certainly the farms affect mangrove ecosystems, but the mangroves have not been removed. The amount of mangrove removal the shrimp farms have done is comparable to the amount Belizean eco-tourism industry has taken (depending on how you define eco-tourism). The effects of the farms on mangrove is vastly smaller than the overall effects of tourism and real estate development on Belizean mangroves at large.

In fact, Belizean shrimp farms depend on mangroves to clean their intake water and their effluents. In aggregate, they have planted more mangrove than they have removed. Some of them have applied independently for the mangroves in their area to be put into reserves. Some of them are accepting Belizean students to work as interns to plant even more mangroves and work on other environmental issues.

Belizean shrimp farms have the potential to be one of the most potent forces for mangrove conservation in the region.

This is not to say that shrimp farming in Belize has achieved environmental perfection. If you study those satellite pictures you can see for yourself some of the issues that remain. Those require attention, especially in a sensitive coastal environment close to the Mesoamerican Reef which so many people and organisms need for their well being.

Yet I see clear evidence that many of the shrimp farmers in Belize are willing to address their remaining issues. Most of them have been responsive to the results of environmental research. Most of them are working to improve their performance.

Perhaps they would be willing to make even greater conservation efforts if we the conservation community were willing to acknowledge the steps they have taken?

Respected environmental NGOs like Environmental Defense clearly feel that shrimp aquaculture can be done in a sustainable manner. Shrimp are omnivores that can produce biomass greater than the feed used to grow them. Cultured shrimp also don't have the problems associated with wild caught shrimp such as by-catch, or damage to sea-floor habitat. US grown shrimp are cited as an eco-friendly food source because of these process advantages and because of their careful design, operation and regulatory monitoring. Environmental Defense lists US shrimp aquaculture as an "eco-best" choice for seafood.

In many ways Belizean shrimp farming industry compares favorably to their US competitors. Belizean farms apparently don't use antibiotics in their ponds or apply toxic chemicals. The density of farms is relatively low compared to many other areas. Labor practices adhere to Belizean standards, which are by far the best in Central America. And yes, Belizean shrimp farms have not engaged in the widespread mangrove removal found elsewhere. Belizean shrimp farms have made a considerable investment in sustainable practices.

Whether or not you believe that shrimp farming is currently environmentally sustainable in Belize, that goal appears to be attainable. The fulcrum that makes that outcome possible is that the farms are willing to keep working to improve because it is, or it can be, good business to do so.

I would hate to see them give up their efforts toward environmental sustainabilty because no one was willing to acknowledge the efforts they have taken.

Certainly they have taken substantial steps where mangroves are concerned.