Is Current Shrimp Farming Practice Sustainable?
The idea of sustainability has been interpreted widely to cover a wealth of different perspectives. Although there is much theory on the subject, very few authors have offered realistic and simple practical guidelines or methodologies for the assessment of sustainability. Box 1 offers a suggested starting point. A general assessment of the sustainability of shrimp farming, based on this framework and the more detailed discussion in the paper, is presented in appendix 1. Although it is not possible to go into all these these aspects here, some key elements will be considered. It is often suggested that extensive or semi-intensive production is more sustainable than intensive production; indeed, it is commonly suggested that intensive production is unsustainable. This view derives from a narrow interpretation of sustainability, and confusion between correlation and causation.Sustainability depends not on the level of intensity, but rather on the quality of the site, the management, and t
