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Coastal livelihoods in transition: How are Vietnamese households responding to changes in the fisheries and in the economy?
Abstract
This article is concerned with how far-reaching economic and ecological changes are affecting the livelihoods of coastal households in Vietnam. In particular, we are interested in the livelihood effects of two aspects of this changing environment: (1) the transformation of the fisheries sector, including declining stocks and species loss and the rapid expansion of aquaculture, and (2) the broader structural change in the Vietnamese economy, from household-based primary-sector activities to wage and salary employment and self-employment outside the household. Our analysis, based on a survey of 599 households in 12 coastal communes in two provinces, shows considerable changes in livelihood patterns over the decade covered by the survey. Over one-third of the responding households reported a different primary earnings source in 2012 than in 2002. Fewer relied on aquaculture as their main livelihood activity in the later year. While aquaculture, encouraged by official policy, has assumed an increasingly dominant position in fish production in Vietnam then, this is not necessarily a shift that has worked to the benefit of households in the coastal communities we studied. For most, aquaculture has not generated very high incomes so some are making it a less important aspect of their livelihood portfolio, not dropping it completely but shifting productive efforts to other livelihoods. Meanwhile, economic growth and structural change have created new opportunities for wage employment and self-employment for growing numbers of households. However, human and financial capital are necessary conditions for taking advantage of such opportunities arising from Vietnam's economic development, which raises concerns about growing economic inequality in the country's coastal communities.
... An aquaculture-based livelihood is commonly pursued by farmers as an effective means to improving their living standards (Duc, 2009). By contrast, in a recent study on Hue and Ca Mau, two coastal provinces in Vietnam, Betcherman and Marschke [8] show that aquaculture has not generated a substantial increase in income for most farmers. Consequently, some of them place less emphasis on this endeavor among their livelihood options, not abandoning it altogether but diverting productive effort to other means of livelihood. ...
... Another challenge has emerged for securing sustainable household livelihoods in Vietnam's coastal regions. Intense competition for diminishing seafood resources has made it harder to earn a living for those who cannot afford to invest in offshore fishing [8]. Furthermore, those whose livelihoods rely on natural resources (e.g., aquaculture, fishing or crops) have experienced significant income variation as a result of ongoing environmental changes [57,59] and from price volatility due to rapid economic liberalization [62]. ...
... Marschke [8] Analyze how local livelihoods change in the coastal communes of Hue and Ca Mau provinces, Vietnam. ...
Using data from the 2020 Vietnam Household Living Standards Survey, we examine the link between aquaculture, household income, and inequality in Vietnam’s coastal region. Using a two-step cluster analysis, we identify five clusters of livelihood strategies (LS) pursued by local households. We find that about 13% of the total number of households are engaged in aquaculture, but only 6% pursued an aquaculture LS, while half the number of households followed a wage-earning LS. Our regression analysis shows that, on average, those in the aquaculture LS cluster have higher incomes than those in the wage-earning or “other income” LS clusters. Interestingly, the quantile regression result reveals that in the top percentiles of income distribution, those adopting an aquaculture livelihood attain higher incomes than those in all other livelihood clusters. This implies that there is a positive link between the choice of aquaculture LS and household income. Also, we find that aquaculture land is positively associated with the likelihood of participation in aquaculture and deriving income from it. Notably, Gini decomposition analysis indicates that the distribution of aquaculture land and income from it are highly uneven and skew much more towards the well-off. Given the significant positive relationship between aquaculture land and the profitability of the aquaculture LS, our findings imply that expanding the aquaculture sector (e.g., granting access to aquaculture land or/and training in skills for aquaculture farmers) may help local households boost their income and reduce inequality in the coastal region
... An aquaculture-based livelihood is commonly pursued by farmers as an effective means to improving their living standards (Duc, 2009). By contrast, in a recent study on Hue and Ca Mau, two coastal provinces in Vietnam, Betcherman and Marschke [8] show that aquaculture has not generated a substantial increase in income for most farmers. Consequently, some of them place less emphasis on this endeavor among their livelihood options, not abandoning it altogether but diverting productive effort to other means of livelihood. ...
... Another challenge has emerged for securing sustainable household livelihoods in Vietnam's coastal regions. Intense competition for diminishing seafood resources has made it harder to earn a living for those who cannot afford to invest in offshore fishing [8]. Furthermore, those whose livelihoods rely on natural resources (e.g., aquaculture, fishing or crops) have experienced significant income variation as a result of ongoing environmental changes [57,59] and from price volatility due to rapid economic liberalization [62]. ...
... Marschke [8] Analyze how local livelihoods change in the coastal communes of Hue and Ca Mau provinces, Vietnam. ...
This study explores changes in wage inequality in Vietnam during a prolonged period of economic transformation. We found that wage inequality increased in the earlier period of 1998-2010, but declined considerably in the following period of 2010–2020. The change in economic structure and increased supply of higher educated workforce have substantially contributed to changing wage inequality. Overall changes in increasing wage inequality over the former period was mainly due to changes in labor market, job and workers’ observed characteristics. In the latter period, however, the decline in wage inequality was related to changes in the returns to job and workers’ observed characteristics. A rapid rise in supply of higher educated workers, which exceeded the demand for skilled labor, in the later stage of economic transformation also contributed to declining returns to education and the decline in wage inequality.
... Many small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in the global South confront resource deterioration in one way or another [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Overexploitation has been identified as a key driver since the middle of the twenty century [4,[7][8][9][10], which means that sustaining livelihoods based on fisheries and aquaculture requires a reduction of fishing pressure and aquaculture yields [10][11][12]. ...
... This article presents a case study of small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in the Tam Giang lagoon, Viet Nam to investigate the reasons why fisheries agencies are often unable to facilitate the development of alternative livelihoods in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture in the global South. To do so, it finds answer to the three questions (1) How are measures used to facilitate alternative livelihoods applied in legislation; (2) How are these measures implemented in practice; and (3) Do these implementations improve the engagement in alternative livelihoods of resource users? ...
... Despite the growth and diversification of the national Vietnamese economy, fisheries agencies have struggled to facilitate alternative livelihoods in small-scale fisheries. Studies show that small-scale fishing and aquaculture households, e.g. in the Tam Giang lagoon, are often unable to engage in alternative livelihoods to reduce their dependence on fisheries and aquaculture [2,16,20]. ...
The establishment of alternative livelihoods in small-scale fisheries is frequently recommended as a way to restore aquatic resources while at the same time improve fishers’ and aquaculturists’ livelihoods. Yet fisheries agencies are often unable to facilitate the development of alternative livelihoods through fisheries policies and management. The aim of this article is to investigate why this is so. Based on a case study of the Tam Giang lagoon, Viet Nam, it finds possible explanation includes: (1) failure to integrate an understanding of the realities of the socio-economic conditions and needs of fishing and aquaculture households; (2) lack of motivation, commitment, and capacity to facilitate alternative livelihoods; and (3) lack of support from local governments. Drawing from the literature on small-scale fisheries in the global South, the article suggests that the development of leadership and provision of knowledge of alternative livelihoods to both fisheries managers and local government leaders can help to address these shortcomings.
... Previous research has identified a number of factors that contribute to structural change in the production mix [3,4,15,39,40,43,48]. Among these, technological advances have expanded aquaculture's productive capacity to the extent that fishers regard it as a viable alternative to capture fisheries for both commercial and subsistence purposes [11,14]. Depletion of fish stocks in capture fisheries has also driven a change in the production mix from wild-caught fish to farmed products. ...
... However, only a limited number of studies have examined the interaction between these two sectors using disaggregated communitylevel data. 1 Fish production in capture fisheries and aquaculture could be related negatively at community level if one is treated by community members as an alternative source of income or food to the other. In this case, a sector-specific positive shock (e.g., technological advancement) or negative shock (e.g., resource depletion) could lead to a negative correlation in fish production between the two sectors [11,14,38]. Nevertheless, such a negative correlation may not be observed when community members have access to alternative sources of livelihood outside the two sectors, such as agriculture [18,20]. ...
... The process yielded balanced panel data from 2008 and 2013 for 1922 fishing communities. In addition to the census data, the Google Maps application program interface (API) was used to determine the 1 One exception is Betcherman and Marschke [14], who examined the livelihood effects of structural transformation in the fisheries sector in 12 coastal communities in Vietnam. 2 The census data are advantageous as they contain information at community level, while the Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture Production Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries report annual production but at a higher administrative level (i.e., municipality). 3 The census comprises three surveys: (1) a marine fisheries survey, which targets fishing operators in coastal districts, associated fisheries management authorities, and fishery cooperatives; (2) an inland water fisheries survey, which targets operators of inland water fisheries, associated management authorities, and fishery cooperatives; and (3) a distribution and processing survey, which targets fisheries markets, cold storage and refrigeration plants, and processing plants. 4 A fisher (gyogyo-shugyosha) is defined as a person who is over the age of 15 and engaged in fishing activities for 30 days or more in the past one year [44]. ...
Global aquaculture production is expected to exceed marine capture production by 2030. A comprehensive understanding of the relationship between coastal fisheries and aquaculture production at community level is required for fishery managers to ensure the efficient use of resources and to minimise potential conflicts between resource users. Improving communities’ ability to flexibly adjust the production mix between the two is also crucial to enhance communities’ resilience to external shocks, such as climate change and resource depletion. Based on data from Japan’s Census of Fisheries, a panel data set of 1922 fishing communities show that a decrease in the number of coastal fishing entities within a community is partially offset by an increasing number of aquaculture entities, suggesting that coastal fisheries and aquaculture production are negatively related at community level. The results also show that changes in production mix are not solely determined within the community per se but also depend on the production mix in neighbouring communities.
... On which step are you?" (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Oshiro et al., 2021). Since one or two household members were asked to provide household information (Frankenberg and Thomas, 2000;Strauss et al., 2016;Strauss et al., 2009;Strauss et al., 2004), we calculated family economic level based on the highest reported level either from fathers or mothers not only to estimate the influence of family SES on children's BMI but also to maximize our sample size (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Oshiro et al., 2021). ...
... (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Oshiro et al., 2021). Since one or two household members were asked to provide household information (Frankenberg and Thomas, 2000;Strauss et al., 2016;Strauss et al., 2009;Strauss et al., 2004), we calculated family economic level based on the highest reported level either from fathers or mothers not only to estimate the influence of family SES on children's BMI but also to maximize our sample size (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Oshiro et al., 2021). The sample sizes for fathers' economic level were 753, 753, 720, 730, 640, and 642, while the sample sizes for mothers' economic level were 820, 822, 790, 789, 752, 753 for the year of 1997, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2009, and 2014, respectively. ...
Indonesia faces the double burdens of childhood obesity and malnutrition. A family’s socioeconomic status has been suggested to be one of the most influential factors contributing to childhood nutritional problems. This study aimed to: 1) identify the distinct trajectories of family economics; and 2) assess whether a family’s economic trajectory influences children’s body mass index (BMI). We analyzed trajectory patterns of family economic levels from 1997 to 2015 among 846 children aged under 3 years in 1997 using data from Indonesian Family Life Surveys. Trajectory patterns were identified with Group-Based Trajectory Modeling using the traj plug-in in STATA software. The BMI was classified according to 2007 World Health Organization growth standards. Adjusted relative risk ratios (aRRRs) of family economic level trajectories and children’s BMI were calculated using multinomial logistic regressions. We identified three distinct trajectories of family economic level: stable poorest, stable middle, and increasing richest. In the total sample, there were no significant relationships between a family’s income trajectory and children’s BMI in the adjusted models. A significant relationship existed for male children, but not for female children, of compared to the poorest family trajectory group, male children in the increasing richest trajectory group were more likely to be overweight/obese (aRRR 6.1, 95% confidence interval: 1.22–30.62) after adjusting for age and BMI. The present results highlight the importance of early interventions to minimize the potential adverse impacts of excessive BMI later in adulthood.
... Apine et al. (2019), fishers in Southwest India are exposed to constant stresses, such as decreasing mud crab population, sand mining, and increased water temperature which harm their fish stock and income, but encounters with middlemen enable fishers to obtain a higher price from their exports compared to village markets. Betcherman and Marschke (2016) show that in Vietnam, fishers supplement their income from fishing activities by diversifying their livelihood portfolios to include small-scale vegetable farming and wage employment. Diversification of income sources is common in the study area because fishing activities within the reservoir is seasonal. ...
... Additionally, 26.21 per cent combined fishing with trading, and 16.83 per cent combined fishing with farming. The finding confirms earlier studies by Salmi (2015) and Betcherman and Marschke (2016) who reported that fishing households augment their fishing income by engaging in small-scale farming and other income-generating activities. The dwindling catches and income from fishery activities are leading heads to pick up extra jobs and income for family survival (Table 2). ...
The fishing industry is a crucial means of reducing poverty and providing jobs for people living in coastal communities, but historically, there have been barriers to accessing markets. This study uses a cross-sectional survey to examine the factors that influence multiple sources of income, market involvement, and the level of market involvement for fishers in the Dawhenya reservoir, Ghana. Most households engaged in fishing only and were net sellers. The level of market involvement for net sellers or buyers is affected by declining fish catches and lack of inputs, while the intensity of market involvement is influenced by factors such as age, the number of dependents, access to infrastructure, limitations on inputs, availability of credit, and declining catches.
... Other Asian deltas such as the Mekong or Ayeyarwaddy have dealt with similar transformations over the past decades (e.g. Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Filipski and Belton, 2018). In the early establishment of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh, the government and some investments by international financial institutions, notably the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, played an important role. ...
Environmental stressors, potentially aggravated by climate change, pose significant challenges to households whose livelihoods rely primarily on crop production in agriculture or aquaculture, particularly in countries of the Global South. In this context, diversified farming systems, or crop diversification, have been discussed as one adaptation strategy of smallholder farming households to reduce their livelihood vulnerability and increase farm resilience. In coastal Bangladesh, livelihoods based on cultivation of shrimp, prawn, fish, paddy (rice) and other crops are likely to become more vulnerable with accelerated sea level rise, extreme flooding events, cyclone activity, river bank erosion and salinization. While crop diversification in Bangladesh is still low overall, it has been increasing. To understand the factors driving the uptake of diversified cropping in different farming production contexts and allow for policy measures addressing regionally specific needs, we explore the (relative) impact and significance of relevant factors contributing to the adoption of crop diversification practices for (i) shrimp cultivation and (ii) agricultural crop farming zones. We specifically include variables representing subjectively perceived risks to study their role in climate change adaptation. Our findings are based on a quantitative household survey (n = 1188) in nine purposefully selected unions across the Bangaleshi part of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta to capture the diversity of the region. Our results show that the prevalence of crop diversification measures is relatively high in the shrimp cultivation zone, but relatively low in the agricultural crop farming regions. In sum, the results show that even though direct economic factors seem to be (still) more important for diversification decisions, our study also suggests that perceived environmental threats and changes can have a favourable influence on crop diversification and should hence be included in studies investigating causes for land use changes. Yet, there are significant differences with regard to the influence of specific factors on the likelihood to diversify in the two respective zones. We conclude that greater uptakes of agriculture and aquaculture diversification could represent a promising and more sustainable approach for smallholders in coastal Bangladesh given appropriate supportive institutional conditions and measures that address specific needs of local communities. A “one-size-fits-all” approach to pushing crop diversification is unlikely to produce adequate and sustainable results.
... Song Doc is an important fisheries port in Vietnam and holds a significant blue boat fleet that fishes in the Gulf of Thailand or the South China Sea, within and outside (historically, but also presently) Vietnam's EEZ. A portion of Song Doc's population is relatively wealthy; those with capital may be involved in fish farming or industrial fishing, with some households owning several fishing vessels (see Betcherman and Marschke 2016) and having deep roots in fishing. At the same time, the town is the launching point for many internal Vietnamese migrants who work on Vietnam's blue boats (Ha and Nguyen 2014;Betcherman et al. 2019) since there are not enough workers locally to supply these boats. ...
Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) polices in the Asia–Pacific region are impacting Vietnamese blue boats. We examine several aspects of IUU policy, including the effects of hardening marine borders in the Southeast Asian region and the increased surveillance of Vietnamese blue boats, to understand how such policies impact blue boat owners, captains, and workers. We find that under increased surveillance, fishers face greater precarity as they become subject to the legal and political actions of multiple states. When blue boats are caught outside Vietnamese waters, boat owners, captains, and workers face significant, albeit differentiated, livelihood challenges. We argue that policies designed to stop IUU or unsustainable fishing should also proactively address working conditions on blue boats; if not, policies may unwittingly cause problems for those directly involved in the industry, with hired workers facing particular hardships. For these reasons, Vietnam’s IUU yellow card can also be seen as an opportunity for fisheries labor reforms.
... 29 Other studies have also suggested that livelihood diversification initiatives that extend to income-generating activities outside the community can successfully complement new alternative livelihoods such as small-scale, communitybased aquaculture in the case of coastal communities in Vietnam. 30 These examples illustrate the importance of increasing the capacity for dialogue and negotiation across sectors in the planning stage of livelihood projects to be able to anticipate and, where possible, mediate or take advantage of interactions at broader spatial scales. ...
Rural, tropical coastal communities are experiencing sustained, often increasing food insecurity, poverty, and global change impacts. These challenges have stimulated a rise in projects aiming to enhance and diversify local livelihoods. The ability of these projects to achieve broad-scale benefits is limited by approaches that do not account for feedbacks among sectors and across marine and terrestrial environments. To address these limitations, we present an applied research agenda to support an integrated approach to livelihood project planning and management. This agenda explicitly examines interactions among natural resources, industries, and livelihoods and is based on three foundational activities: (1) a governance review and assessment, (2) strategic partnership formation, and (3) a diagnostic approach supported by science and shared outcomes. We add structure to the established logic in our field by broadening the sectoral and spatial scope of livelihoods projects, so they can better contribute to interrelated UN Sustainable Development Goals.
... Our investigation combines research on adaptive capacities, network structures, perceptions of climate change scenarios and decision-making to quantify and explain fishers' livelihood diversification behavior when faced with hypothetical scenarios of climate change. We understand livelihood diversification as a transformative response (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Kadfak, 2020), where fishers combine income generating activities inside and outside the SSF. ...
Despite the importance of livelihood diversification as a transformation strategy in small-scale fisheries facing climate change, empirical evidence on this complex phenomenon is scarce. This work aims to shed light on factors that help to explain the transformative behavior of small-scale fishers when faced with climate change impacts. Using primary survey data from 404 small-scale fishers across 9 communities in Galicia, NW Spain, we examined how different aspects of fishers’ adaptive capacities relate to their stated decisions to engage in livelihood diversification when faced with hypothetical climate change scenarios. The results of our multinomial multilevel mixed-effect logit model show that flexibility (current income diversification level and diversity of target fishery resources) has a strong, positive relationship with livelihood diversification responses. In contrast, learning, social organization, and competing concerns played a complex role. Specifically, we found that social-ecological system knowledge, communication with different fishing groups (bridging communication), trust in institutional actors, and gender (female) were positively related to livelihood diversification when faced with climate impacts. Fishing experience, communication within fishing groups (bonding communication), and trust in other fishing groups (bridging trust) were negatively related to diversification. Our results provide new empirical evidence on the factors associated with fisher’s decisions to engage in livelihood diversification when faced with climate impacts on fishery resources, lending critical insight for climate adaptation programs and policies.
... Thus, research and extension services on integrated coastal resources management need to consider tailoring their approach to accommodate varied livelihood perspectives of salinity, as this place-based approach could accelerate the pace of achieving the 1 | INTRODUCTION Coastal saline areas generate substantial ecosystem services that provide livelihood options for thousands of millions of people, particularly in the developing regions of the world (Visbeck et al., 2014). These regions are undergoing ever-changing biophysical conditions and impulsive socioeconomic development (Betcherman & Marschke, 2016). Moreover, the increasing population and competing demands for coastal resources present urgent challenges for those policymakers responsible for adaptation planning to address the sustainable development agenda (Neumann et al., 2017). ...
The salinization of coastal areas in Bangladesh reduces livelihood options for rice intensification but offers a more suitable environment for shrimp and salt farming. Thus, farmers’ salinity perspectives might vary resulting in contested land use settings that may create uncertainties for policymakers in planning adaptation initiatives to address salinization. The aim of this study was to examine co‐located farmers’ salinization perspectives (e.g. trends, causes, impacts), and to demonstrate its potential for place‐based policy initiatives and research prioritization for sustainable agricultural development in the coastal areas. Primary data was collected from randomly selected rice, shrimp and salt farmers in two coastal sub‐districts through semi‐structured interviews at household level. Furthermore, key informant interviews were conducted with personnel from research and extension organisations at national and local levels to complement the survey results. Perceptions of the salinity extent contrasted starkly among the various types of farmer. While the majority of rice farmers (87%) perceived increased salinity, just over half of the salt and shrimp farmers perceived that salinity had decreased over the past 20 years. There was also a lack of agreement on the causes of salinity, with most rice farmers (62%) indicating anthropogenic factors as the main cause, while the majority of shrimp and salt farmers focused more on natural factors. Rice farmers (42%) also perceived a reduction in yield followed by less income (30%) under saline conditions, while shrimp farmers (70%) and salt farmers (55%) perceived production gains when high salinity prevailed. The adaptation preferences to combat salinity were also at odds between farmers, with rice farmers having adaptation preferences for the development of salinity‐tolerant rice varieties that should have greater tolerance at the reproductive stages, while shrimp and salt farmers’ preferences were for engineering‐based solutions to prevent seawater inundation during cyclones. Thus, research and extension services on integrated coastal resources management needs to consider tailoring their approach to accommodate varied livelihood perspectives of salinity, as this place‐based approach could accelerate the pace of achieving the SDGs (i.e. SDG‐1, SDG‐2 and SGD‐3) due to a more strategic targeting of farmer types and their context. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Some policies offer economic advantages to other sectors over SSF. For instance, in Vietnam, the national policy emphasizes and promotes the industrialization of aquaculture instead of SSF development and poverty alleviation (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016). The economic factors of vulnerability are also common in a developed country context. ...
Vulnerability of small-scale fisheries (SSF) results from complex interactions amongst various threats and stressors, including biophysical risks, environmental variability, unstable political situations, and weak gover-nance, to name a few. SSF vulnerability has become more evident, with increased severity, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Knowledge about what makes SSF vulnerable is limited, which impedes appropriate policy responses and intervention. As a first step to rectifying the situation, a classification approach is proposed to better describe and differentiate types of vulnerability to SSF and to guide data collection and dissemination about SSF vulnerability. The classification system is developed based on a narrative review of case studies worldwide, published in scientific journals in the past 20 years. The case studies cover SSF in diverse aquatic environments, including river, floodplain, reservoir, river delta, lake, atoll, estuaries, lagoon mangrove, coral reefs, seagrass ecosystem, islands, coastal and marine environment. Similar to the five pillars of sustainability, SSF vulnerability is associated with five main factors, i.e., biophysical, social, economic, technological, and governance. Knowledge about SSF vulnerability helps inform tailored management strategies and policies to reduce SSF margin-alization and promote viability, aligning, therefore, with the goal of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries.
... In this context, it is important to understand how Chinese investments affect coastal livelihoods and how they shape the emerging landscape of economic interests in the maritime sphere. Our study examines the emerging impacts of Chinese investments on coastal livelihoods by investigating how they interact with ongoing patterns of livelihood change in coastal Southeast Asia [30][31][32][33]. Particularly, we highlight how Chinese investments create additional challenges and opportunities for coastal livelihoods, intensify particular changesfor instance, with a concentration of tourism investmentsand permeate through local governance. ...
Despite growing interest in how the emerging blue economy affects coastal livelihoods, there is a lack of understanding of Chinese investment in this context. This study explores ongoing practices of Chinese maritime investment in ASEAN countries and emerging patterns of the interaction between Chinese investment and coastal livelihoods. We reviewed the literature on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create a framework for assessing the challenges and opportunities of Chinese maritime investments under the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR) as part of the BRI. Examining primary and secondary sources, we outlined Chinese maritime investment in the areas of fisheries and mariculture, and tourism, and reviewed challenges and opportunities to coastal livelihoods within our framework. While offering economic opportunities, including jobs, it has presented challenges for distributing benefits of maritime investments to local residents.
... Heritage Site cultural landscape. The dilemma between allowing cultural landscapes to change and limiting socio-cultural change to protect heritage values has been a prominent discussion amongst scholars (Cocks, et al., 2018;Bednaříková et al., 2016;Betcherman & Marschke, 2016). Although the WHC acknowledges the need for cultural landscapes to evolve, they also highlight the importance of managing change to sustain the Outstanding Universal Values of the landscape. ...
Change of social and cultural activities in World Heritage Sites is often considered a threat to their Outstanding Universal Values and sustainability. As socio-cultural change is often favoured by the local community of heritage sites, especially as it offers access to development and economic improvement, heritage scholars and site managers have sought ways to allow change to happen in heritage sites without compromising heritage protection. Using this prolonged problem as a point of departure, this thesis aims to investigate the significance of socio-cultural change in World Heritage Sites. This research focuses on finding the value of socio-cultural change to heritage sites, culture, and the local community and how it may affect the Outstanding Universal Values, authenticity, and the management of World Heritage Sites. Using a case study of the Bali Cultural Landscape, this research employed ethnography as a data collection strategy and Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse both the primary and secondary data. It employed cultural ecology and discourse theory to understand the drivers of socio-cultural change and interpret discrepancies and conflicts between stakeholders of World Heritage Sites. This thesis discovered that the value of socio-cultural change has been undermined in the World Heritage Convention framework. This thesis also demonstrated that stakeholders’ perceptions on the value of socio-cultural change are shaped by their knowledge and interpretations of both heritage sites and local culture. As the dominant stakeholder, the World Heritage Committee introduced new approaches to the Balinese society which marginalised their traditional knowledge and subsequently affected their participation in heritage site management. Thus, the World Heritage Convention system could risk damaging the identity, values, and traditional skills of the Balinese society when local knowledge is not integrated into the management plan. Empowering this society by giving them control over the management of the World Heritage Site is therefore crucial.
... For example, Garcia Rodrigues et al. (2017, p. 21) observe that "building a harbour in a sensitive coastal area may increase recreation and leisure for tourists who can afford renting boats, while lowering the benefits that the local population receive from ecosystem services such as mitigation of extreme events, lifecycle maintenance (habitat for fish larvae) for seafood provisioning, or recreation and leisure for those who do not own boats". Indeed, Cohen et al. (2019) argue that "market based trajectories of change put forward as part of the Blue Economy pose risks to the benefits that [small scale fisheries] provide to society", including in relation to the tourism and recreational values of marine ecosystem services (Betcherman & Marschke, 2016;Lowe & Tejada, 2019;Segi, 2014). Recreational and tourism marine fishing can have a range of impacts on the environment, especially in coastal areas and estuaries (Becker et al., 2013;Bell et al., 2002;Bellefleur et al., 2009;Capizzano et al., 2016;Carapetis et al., 2014;Coleman et al., 2004;Davenport & Davenport, 2006;Diogo & Pereira, 2014;Font & Lloret, 2014;Franson et al., 2003;Gallagher et al., 2017;Hardiman & Burgin, 2010;Haviland-Howell et al., 2007;Hunt et al., 2011;Lewin et al., 2006;Lyle & Tracey, 2016;Mcclellan Press et al., 2016;Muoneke & Childress, 1994;O'Toole et al., 2009;Robbins et al., 2013;Wells et al., 1998), as well as in freshwater fisheries (Bell et al., 1985;O'Toole et al., 2009;Pierce et al., 1993;Raison et al., 2014;Williams & Moss, 2001). ...
Recreational fishing is a major tourism activity and is integral to the “Blue economy”. Despite having high rates of participation and it being an important economic activity, especially in coastal, lacustrine and riverine areas, there is relatively little research on its various tourism dimensions, including its role in branding and marketing. This paper provides an introductory context for the first special issue on tourism and fishing in a tourism and hospitality journal. The introduction defines the subject area and highlights the main research themes, including the growing awareness of recreational fishing’s impacts on the environment as well as the increasingly contested relationship with commercial fishing. Areas for future research are identified with the need for students of tourism and hospitality to address the subject becoming of increasing importance given not only its economic significance but the growing threats of climate and environmental change and overfishing on the world’s oceans and wild fish stocks.
... In addition, their livelihoods are profoundly influenced by resource management issues (overfishing, weak institutional arrangements) and market instability (price volatility, unscrupulous intermediaries and downstream firms, and evolving product standards). As a result, millions of coastal households face persistent challenges in their attempts to escape poverty and achieve stable living standards with minimal risks of falling back (Betcherman & Marschke, 2016;Fabinyi, 2010Fabinyi, , 2018Ferrol-Schulte, Wolff, Ferse, & Glaser, 2013;Gaillard, 2015;Pomeroy, Ratner, Hall, Pimoljinda, & Vivekandan, 2006;Uy, Takeuchi, & Shaw, 2011). Gupta and Bavinck (2017) refer to these multiple stresses as a "coastal squeeze." ...
This article investigates collective action dynamics and local politics amidst Philippine seaweed‐growing communities. Government agencies and civil society organizations generally encourage collaboration at village level through the formation of cooperatives and associations, often on the assumption that it facilitates the translation of economic growth into rural poverty reduction. Here, we explain how the formation of associations is entangled with the local and central state politics. We argue that civil society initiatives cannot be analysed separately from local and community‐level politics. This contribution reveals a gap between the objectives of rural, coastal associations, and the organizational capacities of communities to sustain such initiatives. Utilizing community support as a means to compensate for market and government failures does not only depend on a facilitative policy environment and start‐up support but also on household‐level capabilities. It also demonstrates that in addition to the interests of big business and national‐level politics, village‐level politics can obstruct effective and sustained implementation of value chain interventions.
... For instance, Belton et al. (2017) proposed an ''evolving livelihood pathways" framework to qualitatively identify and visualise the movement of different household classes in Bangladesh (landless, small-land owners, large-land owners) between livelihood activities since the boom of aquaculture between 1995 and 2015. Betcherman et al. (2019) and Betcherman and Marschke (2016) used a ''transition matrix" to quantitatively examine transition flows of primary livelihood activities among fishery households in the contexts of economic and ecological changes in Vietnam in the 2000s. These approaches make it possible to trace livelihood shifts between fishery-based and nonfishery-based activities and the prevalence of a particular livelihood pathway over time. ...
Transformations from artisanal fishing to aquaculture are now ubiquitous in many small-scale coastal fishing communities worldwide, often in response to the economics of fisheries and climate change. Understanding the long-term dynamics of community livelihoods is an important step in designing appropriate fishery management and adaptation policies to navigate the effects of such transformations. The literature has focused predominantly on addressing snapshots of livelihood conditions, with less attention being paid to how present conditions have emerged over time, and for whom. Using an integrated analytical approach, this study investigates the longitudinal livelihood trajectories in two small-scale fishery villages around the Tam Giang Lagoon in Vietnam, with particular attention paid to the changes since the introduction of aquaculture in the late 1980s. Three distinct livelihood trajectories — accumulating, fluctuating, and marginalising — represent the differential pathways available to fishing- and aquaculture-dependent households. In this constrained yet shared resource space, the transformational adaptation through aquaculture has benefitted the adopters and enhanced their livelihood resilience; yet, it has had detrimental consequences for the artisanal fishers who find themselves locked into a state of heightened vulnerability. The findings provide evidence of differential and unintended consequences of new adaptations to livelihood struggles in small-scale fishery communities, and they point to the need for well-targeted policies to reduce rather than exacerbate growing inequalities. Fishery management policies and interventions in this lagoon, and similar contexts, need to take into account the heterogeneity in livelihood trajectories and unequal social vulnerability to inform more just adaptation strategies and improve the wellbeing of fishery communities.
... For instance, researchers have discussed how the biophysical characteristics of oceans have implications for the expansion of capitalism (Campling et al., 2012;Campling and Colás, 2018;Foley and Mather, 2019); the emerging phenomena of 'coastal grabbing' (Bavinck et al., 2017) and 'ocean grabbing' (Bennett et al., 2015); and the nascent 'blue economy' that aims to reconcile wealth generation with environmental sustainability (Childs and Hicks, 2019). There have also been discussions of the challenges and opportunities presented by the specific livelihoods that coastal residents are transitioning into, notably tourism (Knudsen, 2012;Porter et al., 2015;Fabinyi, 2019;Idrobo and Johnson, 2019), aquaculture Thilsted, 2014, Bush andMarschke, 2014;Belton et al., 2017), intensified forms of fishing activity (Fabinyi, 2010, Betcherman andMarschke, 2016) and urbanised livelihoods (Knudsen, 2016;Kadfak, 2019). ...
This paper examines livelihood transition along inland waterbodies, drawing on secondary literature and interviews to examine a case study of Issyk-Kul, a large Lake in Kyrgyzstan. Livelihood activities along Issyk-Kul are diverse and seasonal, and include fruit, vegetable and cereal farming, livestock management and pastoralism, tourism, remittances and fisheries and aquaculture. We focus in depth on tourism and fishing. While both activities have fluctuated in significance over many decades; overall, we show how tourism is increasing while fisheries have drastically reduced. We argue that livelihood activities in Issyk-Kul are characterised by the increasing importance of both discursive and material connections beyond the Lake itself, and identify areas for future research on livelihoods along inland waterbodies.
... Many fishing communities have access to boats but not to fish (e.g. because of collapsing stocks, competition from other fishing fleets or conservation measures), face long periods of unemployment (e.g. because of restrictive fishing seasons or for lack of employment alternatives), as well as the shame of relative deprivation and threats of displacement (e.g. as a result of luxury coastal resort projects or industrialization). Overall, poverty rates and income inequalities are rising among many coastal communities(Belhabib, Sumaila, & Pauly, 2015;Betcherman & Marschke, 2016;Salas, Barragan-Paladines, & Chuenpagdee, 2019;van Wesenbeeck et al., 2015). Incentives are thus high to become involved in potentially lucrative drug trafficking. ...
This study analyses drug trafficking associated with fisheries around the globe. Records of vessel interdiction carried out between 2010 and 2017 suggest that the global trade of illicit drugs relies increasingly on fishing vessels. Fishery‐based trafficking is growing. A key obstacle to understanding the scope of this problem is the limited data on activities that are intentionally obscured, such as drug trafficking. Using a Fermi estimation technique for determining unknown values from limited data, we analyse 292 known cases of fishing boats engaged in drug shipment between 2010 and 2017. Results suggest that drug shipment sizes per vessel are becoming smaller over time, even as the total flow of drugs is increasing. Counter‐drug enforcement intensifies this effect, suggesting that drug trafficking networks adapt to interdiction efforts making use of smaller vessels to lower the risk of seizure. The use of fishing vessels in drug trans‐shipment has tripled over the past 8 years to about 15% of the global retail value of illicit drugs. Small‐scale fishers are at risk of turning to drug trade as an economic buffer against poverty, especially in contexts of mounting competition over declining fish stocks or strict marine conservation. At the same time, illicit capital flowing from the narcotics trade into fisheries may be driving over‐capitalization of fisheries and unsustainable resource use, ultimately to the detriment of resource‐dependent coastal communities and marine ecosystems. Future research is needed to better understand whether and how small‐scale fishermen turn to drug trade to counter livelihood risks of various kinds.
... These stressors particularly apply to impoverished fisherfolk with low levels of human capital. While most Southeast Asian countries are now classified as middleincome countries, fisherfolk find it difficult, if not impossible, to benefit from new opportunities and become part of the middle class (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Andriesse, 2019). Instead, they endure socio-economic volatility around the poverty line, at risk of being overlooked when living just above the official poverty thresholds. ...
In this article, we compare four fishing‐based areas in Thailand and the Philippines to examine if and how small‐scale fishing communities are able to escape marginalisation. Three questions guide our inquiry: (i) How have fishing communities been affected by overfishing, climate change and other pressures? (ii) What adaptive strategies have these communities employed to mitigate socio‐economic and environmental challenges? (iii) What has been the impact of these strategies on (escaping) marginalisation? Through a survey of 393 fishing‐based households and semi‐structured interviews with 59 key informants we find an uneven mixture of drivers, strategies and impacts. Respondents varyingly attribute declining fish catch to illegal fishing, overfishing, population increase, climate change and pollution. The case studies illustrate various degrees of adaptive successes that result from integration of top‐down and bottom‐up initiatives, and availability and access to livelihood strategies. However, the impact of adaptive strategies on overcoming marginalisation remains meagre and constrained by, among others, the power of illegal and commercial fishing and the absence of integrated spatial planning. We call for policy interventions and further research that takes into account the integration of top‐down and bottom‐up institutions, and the multiple dimensions and spaces of the drivers that shape fisherfolk marginalisation.
... The existing literature indicates livelihood diversification is important to fishing households to both maximise earning and leave households less vulnerable (Béné, 2009). However, both aquaculture and agriculture practices embody various risks (Betcherman & Marschke, 2016). In fact, small-scale fishers are faced with a number of constraints that may hinder them finding alternative livelihood options. ...
This dissertation is the first to examine the impact of differing fisheries management objectives and potential trade-offs with respect to technical efficiency. Understanding this relationship is important, as fisheries managed with strong social objectives, such as maintaining livelihoods, may, potentially trap individuals in inefficient, low-income production systems. The key conclusions were that fisheries managed with strong economic objectives resulted in higher technical efficiency than those with social objectives. However, other factors (including efficiency estimation methods used, model specifications, input measures) also have an impact on technical efficiency levels. Hence, technical efficiency estimates between fisheries should be compared with caution.
... While there is a broader literature on livelihood transition in coastal communities (e.g. Belton and Thilsted 2014;Betcherman and Marschke 2016;Menon et al. 2018), literature on the transition from fishing to tourism in coastal communities tends to focus on either the positive or negative livelihood effects. Among many environmentalists and policymakers, tourism is described as a potentially positive force that can generate income for local people in coastal communities in an environmentally sustainable way, such as through eco-tourism or user fees from dive tourism in marine protected areas (Depondt and Green 2006;Terk and Knowlton 2010). ...
Coastal tourism has been supported by the growth of middle-class tourist markets, promoted by governments who view it as an important avenue for economic growth and backed by environmental organisations who regard it as an alternative, more environmentally sustainable livelihood than capture fisheries. How policymakers and households in coastal areas negotiate the challenges and opportunities associated with growing tourism and declining capture fisheries is increasingly important. Drawing on extended ethnographic fieldwork from the Philippines between 2006 and 2018, this paper examines the transition from fishing to tourism and the consequences for one coastal community. I focus on land tenure as a key variable that shapes the effects and opportunities associated with livelihood transitions from fishing to tourism. While tourism has not been inherently positive or negative, the ability of local households to negotiate the boom and obtain the full benefits out of it is questionable. Many fishers have switched their primary livelihood activity to tourism, including the construction of tourist boats, working as tour guides or providing accommodation. However, the growth of tourism has prompted several attempts to evict the community, including from local elites who aimed to develop resorts on the coast and a recent push by the national administration to ‘clean up’ tourist sites around the country. I argue that land tenure in coastal communities should be more of a focus for researchers working in small-scale fisheries, as well as for researchers working on land rights.
... Small-scale fishers in poor countries have been early adopters of technologies such as mobile phones, e-money and global positioning systems (Jensen, 2007), and have responded to demands from new markets, such as the emergence of live reef fish exports from the Philippines to China (Fabinyi et al., 2014). SSF contribute to diversified livelihood systems that enable coastal people to benefit from fluctuating fisheries (e.g., Allison and Ellis, 2001;Cinner and Bodin, 2010), while simultaneously benefitting from opportunities in agriculture, tourism and the urban economies of rapidly changing coastlines (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016;Lowe and Tejada, 2019). ...
The vast developmental opportunities offered by the world's coasts and oceans have attracted the attention of governments, private enterprises, philanthropic organizations, and international conservation organizations. High-profile dialogue and policy decisions on the future of the ocean are informed largely by economic and ecological research. Key insights from the social sciences raise concerns for food and nutrition security, livelihoods and social justice, but these have yet to gain traction with investors and the policy discourse on transforming ocean governance. The largest group of ocean-users - women and men who service, fish and trade from small-scale fisheries (SSF) - argue that they have been marginalized from the dialogue between international environmental and economic actors that is determining strategies for the future of the ocean. Blue Economy or Blue Growth initiatives see the ocean as the new economic frontier and imply an alignment with social objectives and SSF concerns. Deeper analysis reveals fundamental differences in ideologies, priorities and approaches. We argue that SSF are being subtly and overtly squeezed for geographic, political and economic space by larger scale economic and environmental conservation interests, jeopardizing the substantial benefits SSF provide through the livelihoods of millions of women and men, for the food security of around four billion consumers globally, and in the developing world, as a key source of micro-nutrients and protein for over a billion low-income consumers. Here, we bring insights from social science and SSF to explore how ocean governance might better account for social dimensions of fisheries. © 2019 Cohen, Allison, Andrew, Cinner, Evans, Fabinyi, Garces, Hall, Hicks, Hughes, Jentoft, Mills, Masu, Mbaru and Ratner.
... Today Goa imports more than 50% of the milk from its neighbouring states though at present there are about 176 milk producing cooperative societies (Betcherman and Marschke 2016;. ...
A vigilant study of the socioeconomic conditions of livestock farmers is a precondition for the appropriate design and successful implementation of Governments' developmental programmes. The study was conducted in North Goa district of Goa during 2015-16 to investigate the socioeconomic profiles of livestock farmers. For this, primary data was collected through structured questionnaire using a sample size of fifty respondents from Pernem block of North Goa district. Thus study was designed to appraise the socioeconomic profile of livestock farmers in North Goa district. Results of the study revealed that majority of the farmers are maintaining nuclear family with less than five members. Most of the farmers belonged to marginal farmers' categories who are involved in livestock activities. Majority of the farmers had low level of income, less access to institutional source of finance agricultural extension service and livestock possession. It is observed that more than half of the (69%) of the population are cattle in total livestock population. Livestock farmers have secondary and intermediate school level and more than half of the farmers involved in livestock farming belonged to middle age group. Due to low agricultural profitability, young people are not interested in agriculture and shift towards tourism and tourism related services. Agriculture profitability should be increased to retain the people in farming by providing access to credit, markets, extension service. Livestock plays an important role in Indian economy. About 20.5 million people depend on upon livestock for their livelihood. Livestock contributed 16% to the income of small farm households as against an average of 14% for all rural households (Livestock census, 2012). Livestock provides livelihood to two-third of the rural community. It also provides employment to about 8.8% of the population in India. India has vast livestock resources. Livestock sector contributes 4.11% GDP and 25.6% of total Agriculture GDP (Government of India). There is considerable hypothetical debate regarding the causes, consequences, and solutions for unemployment. Classical economics, new classical economics, and the Austrian School of economics argue that market mechanisms are reliable means of resolving unemployment. Poverty and unemployment rates followed by inequalities of income and consumption have been substantial. The agriculture being only seasonal, the dairy industry provides off-season work, steady income and keeps the rural population employed throughout the year. India had 512 million livestock population and 729 million poultry population, having the second highest number of cattle (191 million), and the highest number of buffaloes (109 million) in the world (Livestock Census, 2012). This is the sector where the poor contribute to growth directly instead of getting benefit from growth generated elsewhere. The overall growth rate in livestock sector is steady and is around 4-5% per annum and this has been achieved despite the fact that investment in this sector was not substantial. The ownership of the livestock is more evenly distributed with landless labourers and marginal farmers owning the bulk of livestock.
... We collected data on four occasions (2005; 2008; 2009 and 2015), although this was not a longitudinal study. We noted some changes, specifically how they had adopted pluriactivity (Salmi, 2015) using small scale vegetable farming to augment fishing incomes in their livelihood portfolios (Betcherman and Marschke, 2016). The several visits reflected our deepening understanding and need to ask about specific emerging research issues. ...
We examine enterprise processes in a poor rural fishing village in Ghana, having become interested in why poverty persists in spite of considerable industry. Our case study uses the village as the unit for analysis because it offered a conceptually interesting place that is relatively economically, socially and spatially isolated. Most entrepreneurship theory failed to explain our observations about the absence of development. Accordingly, our socialised perspective looked at the social and spatial processes that configured enterprise. Our study allowed us to recognise that fishing and the associated processing and sales had developed as socially organised to enable a livelihood for many, rather than entrepreneurial benefits for a few. The socially situated nature of rural enterprise in Ocansey Kope is “mutual” and interdependent, and not individualistic in the western sense. Enterprise is individually enacted; but how business is conducted is hedged by social obligations, responsibilities and entitlements. The apparently economic “systems” of production, the buying and selling, lending and borrowing within the village can also be understood, and better explained, as social processes.
... Whether coastal habitats such as wetlands continue to survive sea-level rise depends on the interaction between climatic stressors such as rapid sea-level rise and non-climatic drivers such as regional socio-economic factors (Kirwan and Megonigal, 2013). Maintaining the balance between regional development and coastal ecosystem conservation is thus one of the region's greatest challenges (Hallegatte et al., 2013;Betcherman and Marschke, 2016). ...
The coastlines of southern China and SE Asia represent some of the most anthropogenically impacted ecosystems in the world, yet they support a rich biodiversity and provide important ecosystem services, including being the source of the vast majority of the world's aquaculture production. The challenges faced by coastal ecosystems in this region are exacerbated by the rapid impacts of climate change, which is occurring at a faster pace than in many other parts of the globe. Of the many possible threats, this paper discusses three main areas of concern: loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning; habitat loss and shoreline development; and food security and aquaculture; all of which are significant for the southern China and SE Asia region. Whilst a number of impacts within these areas have been anticipated, accurate predictions of future effects are difficult due to a lack of adequate baseline data on environmental conditions, species distribution patterns and physiological vulnerabilities. There is thus a critical need to develop and maintain cross-national boundary databases to address these knowledge-gaps. It is clear, however, that despite incomplete data, proactive management strategies are needed to counter ongoing economic and food security threats. Whilst acknowledging these impacts, and drawing from experiences learned in other countries is a reasonable approach, this must occur in tandem with the development of region-specific studies and collaborations. Clearly this presents a major challenge, and requires a variety of interdisciplinary responses, from both scientists and managers. Given the combined pace of anthropogenic modification, exploitation and climate change, we must move quickly if we are to create effective and timely strategies based on best-available science to document, conserve and manage the region's coastal ecosystems.
... Song Doc is an important fisheries port in Vietnam and holds a significant blue boat fleet that fishes in the Gulf of Thailand or the South China Sea, within and outside (historically, but also presently) Vietnam's EEZ. A portion of Song Doc's population is relatively wealthy; those with capital may be involved in fish farming or industrial fishing, with some households owning several fishing vessels (see Betcherman and Marschke 2016) and having deep roots in fishing. At the same time, the town is the launching point for many internal Vietnamese migrants who work on Vietnam's blue boats (Ha and Nguyen 2014;Betcherman et al. 2019) since there are not enough workers locally to supply these boats. ...
Résumé
Le Cambodge est souvent considéré comme une société postconflit et postsocialiste qui connaît des réformes économiques et politiques importantes : si des réformes administratives favorisant la démocratie locale décentralisée peuvent être observées dans tous les secteurs, ce que ces réformes signifient dans la vie quotidienne des villages cambodgiens n’est cependant pas clair. Cet article examine quel rôle ces réformes jouent au niveau local par le biais du secteur de la pêche. Bien que les réformes dans le secteur de la pêche soient décrites comme radicales, un examen plus approfondi montre que la gouvernance n’a pas changé de manière significative au cours des années. Les problèmes des petits pêcheurs ne sont en général pas pris en considération, et la politique de la pêche continue à ne pas les outiller de sorte à pouvoir régler leurs problèmes. Les conclusions de cette recherche proposent qu’une plus grande attention soit portée au fonctionnement de la vie rurale cambodgienne, associant cette analyse avec la compréhension de la rhétorique promue dans des cadres de gouvernance spécifiques.
Eradicating poverty and harmful fisheries subsidies are two pressing challenges frequently addressed in international agendas for sustainable development. Here we investigate a potential solution for addressing both challenges simultaneously by asking the hypothetical question: to what extent can harmful fisheries subsidies provided by a country finance the cost of lifting fishers out of poverty? Focusing on 30 coastal least developed countries, we find that fishers in 87% of these countries do not earn sufficient income to satisfy the extreme poverty line income of USD 1.90/person/day, and that it costs an estimated USD 2.2 to 2.6 billion to lift these fishers to different levels of poverty line incomes. Our analysis further suggests that at the country level, redirected harmful fisheries subsidies can cover the entire cost of covering the poverty income gap for between 37 to 43% of assessed countries. Our results provide quantitative evidence that can be used to support simultaneous progress towards achieving several Sustainable Development Goals, including those dealing with poverty reduction, food insecurity, and ocean sustainability.
The global fisheries sector has undergone both rapid industrialization and considerable resource depletion. Unlike fisheries in the Northern Hemisphere, the Indonesian (and indeed Southeast Asian) sector is still largely dominated by small‐scale producers, who are partially embedded within a subsistence economy. Changes in the nature of production and livelihoods in the fisheries sector appear similar to those in land‐based agriculture but have received far less attention in the literature and demand further analysis given the distinct characteristics of the natural resource base. Using national datasets complemented by insights from a two‐month period of fieldwork in South Sulawesi, this paper presents the process of capital intensification underpinning national fisheries growth and how it is transforming small‐scale production systems. Despite increasing market integration, we found that smallholders have persisted across coastal production systems to an even stronger degree than land‐based agriculture. We suggest some reasons why this is so. However, we also observed evidence of internal class differentiation within coastal communities. Such differentiation, combined with resource degradation and depletion, exposes the poorest in the community to enhanced livelihood vulnerability.
As coastal communities across the Global South confront the multiple challenges of climate change, overfishing, poverty and other socio-environmental pressures, there is an increasing need to understand diverse coastal governance responses and livelihood trajectories from a comparative perspective. This paper presents a holistic investigation of the pressures coastal communities face in four countries and examines possible meeting points between bottom-up initiatives and top-down policies. We compare the experiences of eight fishing areas in Ghana, Tanzania, Thailand and the Philippines and ask how small-scale fishing communities perceive overfishing and other socio-environmental pressures; what factors determine the success and failure of coastal governance initiatives; and how different initiatives can be made congruent to improve coastal, rural development outcomes. Results from an extensive survey of 835 fisherfolk and semi-structured interviews with 196 key informants show that overfishing remains a significant driver of livelihood trajectories in the communities and that fisherfolk respond through informal mechanisms of collective action. Drawing from these diverse experiences, we propose viewing coastal livelihood trajectories through the integrated dimensions of socio-environmental relationships and coastal governance options and discuss implications that address institutional scalar flexibility, illegal fishing, and persistent marginalisation.
Vietnam is one of the five countries in the world most severely affected by climate change, particularly the north central coastal provinces of Vietnam. In the near future, millions of citizens in these coastal hazard areas will experience difficulties in socio-economic activities and face poverty due to the loss of their agricultural land and even their homes. Therefore, this research study focuses on proposing key components of spatial planning of the north central coastal alluvial zones in Vietnam for adaptation to climate change and sea-level rise to protect inhabitants’ quality of life as well as their agricultural land. The research uses the typical case study of Dong Chau Ngoai village, Dong Minh town, Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province, Vietnam.
Like women in fishing communities elsewhere, the women interviewed as part of this study play a pivotal in the fishing sector. When there is an aggravated depletion of fish capture in this coastal area, households witness very gendered livelihood transitions. Able-bodied men mostly seek livelihoods elsewhere. The women left behind face a situation of poverty and multiple transitions at the household, market and community levels. While the supply chain of farmed fish provided livelihood opportunities to these women, the transition was fraught with perils and challenges both at the market and household levels. Capital, in its different human, financial, and social forms, defines to a greater extent the parameters of these livelihood transitions.
Restructuring rural communities can be seen as natural population level experiments of great social epidemiological interest. Following the extensive decline in small-scale fishing in the later decades of the 20th century, many coastal communities have undergone considerable societal restructuring. In Norway, this has entailed a substantial reduction of the fishing workforce, concurrent with new employment opportunities in public sector and aquaculture. The former socialization into fishing from a young age is greatly reduced, with coastal youths now facing other life courses than preceding generations. As restructuring of societies is found to be intertwined with public health, coastal communities can provide valuable insights on public health during times of transitions. In this study, we use repeated cross-sectional population health data from rural Norwegian municipalities to assess the development of self-rated health over four decades in a coastal population who has undergone restructuring of local labour markets. We assess generational differences in health by comparing the prevalence of poor self-rated health at three ages reflecting three generations at each cross section: youths, adults and elderly. We compare results to adjacent geographical areas to assess geographical differences in self-rated health over time. We found a higher predicted prevalence of poor self-rated health in rural coastal adults and elderly compared to other geographical areas across all decades. However, trends revealed improving self-rated health in rural coastal adults and elderly, as well as narrowing health gaps between the rural coastal population and the remaining geographical areas in this Norwegian setting. Our results shed light on public health development in restructuring coastal communities.
In April 2016, toxic chemicals leaked into the ocean in central Vietnam during a trial of a waste discharge system for a newly built steel plant. This resulted in a significant fish kill that impacted coastal livelihoods and the seafood sector across four provinces. We surveyed 520 households to understand how people experienced this environmental disaster, and their recovery strategies. On average people stopped all fishing-related activities for over nine months: this was a period of precarity for most households. Fish farming households suffered the greatest financial losses. Fishing households, while having a lower income, recovered more quickly than fish farming households since the mobility of boats and fishing grounds afforded flexibility and adaptability. In the longer term, relatively significant financial compensation from the company responsible for the spill made a difference to household recovery and their perceptions of the disaster. We argue that this toxic spill was a major stressor for coastal households in central Vietnam, and contribute to the precarity and the livelihood resilience literatures by offering a multi-dimensional perspective to understanding household recovery strategies. This study also draws attention to the importance of better understanding financial compensation as an aspect of recovery from human-induced disasters.
Important environmental and economic changes are transforming livelihoods in coastal communes throughout the Mekong delta. In the process, the historical reliance on rice farming and fishing has become less viable and sustainable, forcing households to construct more complex livelihood strategies. To document these livelihood transformations, we have analyzed primary survey data from 346 households across eight coastal communes in Ca Mau Province, located in the southern tip of Vietnam's Mekong delta. We find that there was a great deal of change in the livelihoods of survey respondents over the decade covered by the survey with over 40 per cent of all households reporting a change in their primary source of income. For the most part, these changing livelihood patterns describe a successful adjustment process whereby many households partly or completely left activities that did not offer high returns for other activities that offer more, or were able to combine livelihood activities to successfully adjust. However, we argue that not all fisheries‐based households have the financial or human capital to take advantage of the opportunities arising from Vietnam's seafood boom or economic development more generally. Poverty remains prevalent for those locked into extensive aquaculture and especially farming.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the level of income inequality among fisher households in the four segments of the Volta Basin in Ghana and the determinants of small-scale fisher household welfare.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper investigates income inequality and the determinants of household consumption expenditure of fishers in the Volta Basin of Ghana using the Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient decomposition and the multiple linear regression technique.
Findings
The findings confirm the empirical evidence that households in the general downstream communities and their compatriots in the upstream communities were statistically different in terms of household characteristics and physical and social capital. Income inequality was highest among households in upstream communities but least amongst downstream communities. Livelihoods of the fishery households largely and strictly favored male households. Also, educational status was associated with higher levels of income which enormously help reduce food insecurity.
Research limitations/implications
The reliance on dummy variables might lead to omissions of revealed understated differences between households.
Practical implications
The study recommends that effort should be made to help increase fish production in the upstream communities. Furthermore, alternative sources of income should be introduced to households in the upstream so they do not become more disadvantaged by the construction of the dam.
Originality/value
The uniqueness of the paper is that it tries to estimate the impact of the construction of the dam on the Volta Basin by taking into consideration the effect of the construction of the dam on the upstream and downstream separately.
The adoption of alternative livelihoods is often considered as an effective way to reduce natural resource exploitation and improve local resource users’ well-being. Nevertheless, studies demonstrate that especially for small-scale fishing and aquaculture households it often can be hard to engage in alternative livelihoods. The initiation and reproduction of alternative livelihoods are not straightforward but shaped by various social-economic factors and processes operating at different spatial and temporal scales. Yet, studies frequently limit their analysis to household or extra-household levels. This paper develops a conceptual framework for a cross-scale analysis of livelihood diversification and applies it in a case study of small-scale fisheries and aquacultural livelihoods in the Tam Giang lagoon, Viet Nam to explain how social and ecological processes limit and enable engagement in alternative livelihoods. The framework and case study aim to go beyond the identification of single factors to demonstrate combinations of factors and processes, and how these play out differently for generations. From this study, the paper confirms that improvements in education, labour skills and job availability are necessary for the engagement in alternative livelihoods. It further argues that the success of interventions aimed at diversifying rural livelihoods need to consider generational differences within households, and the specific social and ecological contexts in which households are situated.
Diversification in rural coastal areas has been promoted for two major reasons: reducing overfishing and increasing living standards. This article investigates diversification efforts in light of coastal squeezes in central Philippines. It presents evidence from 11 coastal villages in Iloilo Province, all of these communities are confronted with overfishing, poverty and environmental change. The empirical focus is on the impact of external support as well as remittances from overseas relatives. Three results emerge. First, the impact depends on initial intra-village conditions; presuming that fishing associations are the natural go-to stakeholders can be counterproductive. Second, more attention should be paid to transforming short-term, exogenous interventions into longer-term, endogenous capabilities. Third, unlike for households with higher levels of human capital, remittances do not constitute a major diversification strategy for fisher folk. Avenues for further research are the relationships between social capital and intra-village inequality and the interrelated nature of livelihood capitals.
Twenty years of long-term maize monoculture that began in the 1990s have resulted in the heavily maize-dependent economy of the northwestern mountainous region of Vietnam, especially in Yen Chau, the core production area. Before 2014, maize accounted for over 70% of the agricultural area. The continuous decrease in maize production value has strongly affected the Tai Dam community in Yen Chau and led to the replacement of various livelihood activities. This contributed to a major shrinkage of the maize area by 28.2% by the end of 2017. This study aims to investigate the determinants of the rapid development of different livelihood trends in Lac Ken, Suoi Bun, and Luong Me villages. A detailed social and statistical investigation was conducted of 198 households in 2016 and 220 households in 2017. The findings of this study indicate that small differences in cultivated land areas and infrastructure facilities have fostered the formation of and changes in livelihood structures. The areal withdrawal of maize occurred concurrently with the increasing trend of fruit tree and sugarcane cultivation. Never-before-seen migrant work unexpectedly became a promising livelihood activity for local farmers. Differences in internal and external forces are believed to be the driving factors behind the new forms of livelihood activities.
Small-scale fishers and aquaculturists in the global south often face reinforcing feedbacks between resource degradation and livelihood impoverishment, a situation conceptualized as a social-ecological trap. It is argued that these traps can be overcome through income diversification, i.e., livelihoods that are maintained from variable income sources. Our aim was to further scrutinize that claim using the concept of response diversity. To do so, we applied the concept and analyzed income diversification in the Tam Giang lagoon, central Vietnam. Based on our analysis, we argue that high diversity in income activities does not necessarily lead to an escape from social-ecological traps. Although diversity in income activities in the case of the Tam Giang lagoon is relatively high, fisheries-and aquaculture-related income activities continue to dominate livelihood portfolios. The various gear and structures that these activities include all exploit the same ecologies, habitats, and niches of the lagoon. This finding triggers questions concerning the relative contribution of income activities to household income, but also how activities are (differently) connected to natural environments. Income diversification can only sustain natural resources and improve human well-being if it truly transforms livelihoods by connecting local users in new ways to ecologies and societies.
Literaturverz. S. [337] - 365
Over the past year, scandals around what has been labelled slave labour in the industrial fisheries sector in Thailand have revealed not only the connections between northern buyers and southern labour practices, but also the relative lack of research on fisheries labour in Asia and the global South. The slavery and trafficking framings pervading these depictions have been very useful for drawing attention to and acting on criminal activities in labour recruitment and abuse, but have limits as a basis for addressing the underlying causes of forced labour in fisheries. Insights from research on regional labour migration as well as the work of civil society organisations in Thailand suggest that broader improvements in labour relations will require changes in migration management, with a focus on addressing vulnerabilities that restrict the abilities of migrant workers to obtain better working conditions. This analysis provides the basis for assessing the potential and limits of recent programmes to improve labour relations on the oceans, including anti-trafficking policies, IUU enforcement, buyer efforts to ensure that supply chains do not involve forced or illegal labour relations, and Thai government actions.
By 2050 most seafood will be sourced through aquaculture, with a range of production intensities being required to sustain livelihoods and to meet future needs from seafood. This makes Vietnam a particularly insightful case, since Vietnam is at the forefront of the trend toward greater aquaculture production. Our aim in this paper is to examine the social-ecological sustainability of small producer livelihoods contributing to Vietnam’s seafood boom. This paper uses original survey data to understand the range of fishery-based livelihoods that have contributed to Vietnam being a leading global exporter of seafood. We investigate the kinds of fishery-based livelihood activities that households are engaged in, consider the type and amount (kilograms) of species caught or farmed annually, and examine household perceptions’ of change in species quantity. We find that Vietnam’s seafood sector is facing real sustainability challenges: Nearly 30 % of small producers—fishers and fish farmers—within our sample rest at or below Vietnam’s rural poverty line. Ecological decline and disease in farmed fish is perceived to be a serious issue for all fishers. In this context, policy and management interventions need to better reflect social and ecological variability, adopt an integrated coastal systems perspective across fisheries and aquaculture, and consider the most impact-effective poverty interventions.
Flood exposure is increasing in coastal cities owing to growing
populations and assets, the changing climate, and subsidence. Here we
provide a quantification of present and future flood losses in the 136
largest coastal cities. Using a new database of urban protection and
different assumptions on adaptation, we account for existing and future
flood defences. Average global flood losses in 2005 are estimated to be
approximately US$6billion per year, increasing to US$52billion by 2050
with projected socio-economic change alone. With climate change and
subsidence, present protection will need to be upgraded to avoid
unacceptable losses of US$1trillion or more per year. Even if adaptation
investments maintain constant flood probability, subsidence and
sea-level rise will increase global flood losses to US$60-63billion per
year in 2050. To maintain present flood risk, adaptation will need to
reduce flood probabilities below present values. In this case, the
magnitude of losses when floods do occur would increase, often by more
than 50%, making it critical to also prepare for larger disasters than
we experience today. The analysis identifies the cities that seem most
vulnerable to these trends, that is, where the largest increase in
losses can be expected.
Our aim in this paper is to examine the future for small-scale fishers and fish producers in the rapidly changing Tam Giang Lagoon in central Vietnam. The analysis shows: (1) the multi-dimensional and linked social, ecological and economic challenges confronting lagoon resource users and government officials, including the possibility that important features of the ecological system have been significantly altered; and (2) the spatial and temporal variation in the lived experience and conditions facing lagoon resource users even in the context of one relatively-bounded physical system. In this context, policy and management interventions need to better reflect social and ecological variability, incorporate local perspectives about the future of small-scale fishing and small producer aquaculture, and acknowledge how individuals simultaneously produce, resist and adapt to change. Key policy responses include the adoption of an integrated fishery (fishing and aquaculture) and coastal systems perspective, clarifying security of access rights to aquatic resources, and building institutional conditions for greater collaboration and learning among resource users and decision makers.
People who are food and nutrition insecure largely reside in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and for many, fish represents a rich source of protein, micronutrients and essential fatty acids. The contribution of fish to household food and nutrition security depends upon availability, access and cultural and personal preferences. Access is largely determined by location, seasonality and price but at the individual level it also depends upon a person's physiological and health status and how fish is prepared, cooked and shared among household members. The sustained and rapid expansion of aquaculture over the past 30 years has resulted in >40% of all fish now consumed being derived from farming. While aquaculture produce increasingly features in the diets of many Asians, it is much less apparent among those living in Sub-Saharan Africa. Here, per capita fish consumption has grown little and despite the apparently strong markets and adequate biophysical conditions, aquaculture has yet to develop. The contribution of aquaculture to food and nutrition security is not only just an issue of where aquaculture occurs but also of what is being produced and how and whether the produce is as accessible as that from capture fisheries. The range of fish species produced by an increasingly globalized aquaculture industry differs from that derived from capture fisheries. Farmed fishes are also different in terms of their nutrient content, a result of the species being grown and of rearing methods. Farmed fish price affects access by poor consumers while the size at which fish is harvested influences both access and use. This paper explores these issues with particular reference to Asia and Africa and the technical and policy innovations needed to ensure that fish farming is able to fulfil its potential to meet the global population's food and nutrition needs.
Fish and other aquatic animals contribute to the food security of citizens of developing countries, both as a source of income and as a component of healthy diets, yet fishing is not currently captured in most integrated household surveys. This sourcebook provides essential technical guidance on the design of statistical modules and questionnaires aimed at collecting fishery data at the household level. Background on the main policies important to the fishery sector, information on the data needed to analyze issues of policy relevance, and methodology on the construction of survey questions to collect necessary data are also provided. The document is organized to provide essential technical guidance on how to design statistical modules and questionnaires aimed at collecting fishery data at the household level. It includes an overview of the main technical and statistical challenges related to sampling fishery-dependent households. The document starts with an introductory section identifying the potential reasons why fisheries and in particular small-scale fisheries have not been adequately included in national statistical systems in a large number of countries. The report then proposes a succinct review of what is known (and what remains unknown) about small-scale fisheries and their contribution to the livelihoods of households in sub-Saharan Africa. It also provides readers with background on the main policies that are important to the fishery sector, information on the data needed to analyze issues of policy relevance, and methodology on the construction of survey questions to collect necessary data.
Livelihoods perspectives have been central to rural development thinking and practice in the past decade. But where do such perspectives come from, what are their conceptual roots, and what influences have shaped the way they have emerged? This paper offers an historical review of key moments in debates about rural livelihoods, identifying the tensions, ambiguities and challenges of such approaches. A number of core challenges are identified, centred on the need to inject a more thorough-going political analysis into the centre of livelihoods perspectives. This will enhance the capacity of livelihoods perspectives to address key lacunae in recent discussions, including questions of knowledge, politics, scale and dynamics.
Fisheries and aquaculture play important roles in providing food and income in many developing countries, either as a stand-alone activity or in association with crop agriculture and livestock rearing. The aim of this paper is to identify how these contributions of fisheries and aquaculture to poverty reduction and food security can be enhanced while also addressing the need for a sustainability transition in over-exploited and over-capitalized capture fisheries, and for improved environmental performance and distributive justice in a rapidly growing aquaculture sector. The focus of the paper is on the poverty and food security concerns of developing countries, with an emphasis on the least developed. The emphasis is on food security rather than poverty reduction policies and strategies, although the two are of course related. The food security agenda is very much to the fore at present; fish prices rose along with other food prices in 2007-8 and as fish provide important nutritional benefits to the poor, food security has become a primary concern for sector policy.
Small-scale fisheries in developing countries are often perceived as being a low-productivity and backward informal sector. As a result they are rarely considered in poverty reduction programmes and rural development planning. In this paper, we investigate the dual role of fish as a food and cash crop through data collected in river fisheries in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Fishing in this very remote rural region of DRC is operated both by men and women, as part of a household multiple activity livelihood strategy. The data shows that poor households rely heavily on fishing for their supply of protein-rich food, in particular through women’s subsistence catches. Fishing also appears to be the main source of cash-income for the majority of households, including local farmers. Based on these findings and a review of the literature, the paper argues that small-scale fisheries can play a fundamental role in local economies, especially in remote rural areas where they strengthen significantly the livelihoods of people through their role in both food security and cash-income generation.
The dominant view in academic and policy arenas is increasingly one in which the major contribution of capture fisheries to development should be derived from the capacity of society to maximise the economic rent of fishery resources. Drawing upon empirical experience from the South, this article highlights the potentially disastrous consequences that a universal implementation of the rent-maximisation model would have in developing countries, and argues that a more gradual approach would be preferable. The welfare function of small-scale fisheries, namely, their capacities to provide labour and cash income to resource-poor households, should be preserved until the appropriate macroeconomic conditions for rent-maximisation and redistribution are fulfilled. Copyright (c) The Authors 2010. Journal compilation (c) 2010 Overseas Development Institute..
Aquaculture contributed 43 per cent of aquatic animal food for human consumption in 2007 (e.g. fish, crustaceans and molluscs, but excluding mammals, reptiles and aquatic plants) and is expected to grow further to meet the future demand. It is very diverse and, contrary to many perceptions, dominated by shellfish and herbivorous and omnivorous pond fish either entirely or partly utilizing natural productivity. The rapid growth in the production of carnivorous species such as salmon, shrimp and catfish has been driven by globalizing trade and favourable economics of larger scale intensive farming. Most aquaculture systems rely on low/uncosted environmental goods and services, so a critical issue for the future is whether these are brought into company accounts and the consequent effects this would have on production economics. Failing that, increased competition for natural resources will force governments to allocate strategically or leave the market to determine their use depending on activities that can extract the highest value. Further uncertainties include the impact of climate change, future fisheries supplies (for competition and feed supply), practical limits in terms of scale and in the economics of integration and the development and acceptability of new bio-engineering technologies.
In the medium term, increased output is likely to require expansion in new environments, further intensification and efficiency gains for more sustainable and cost-effective production. The trend towards enhanced intensive systems with key monocultures remains strong and, at least for the foreseeable future, will be a significant contributor to future supplies. Dependence on external feeds (including fish), water and energy are key issues. Some new species will enter production and policies that support the reduction of resource footprints and improve integration could lead to new developments as well as reversing decline in some more traditional systems.
The supply behavior of labor often depends on the demand conditions prevailing in the labor market. If demand is inadequate, households may send additional household members, who otherwise would not have worked, to look for work, for fear the main income earner may lose his job. The authors study the theoretical consequences of this"added worker"effect. They show that it can rise to multiple equilibria in the labor market. Surprisingly, a minimum wage law set below the prevailing market wage can cause the market wage to fall and unemployment to rise. Unemployment benefits, by countering some of the risks of unemployment, can neutralize the inefficiencies caused by households'tendency to oversupply labor.
This paper uses a newly constructed cross country database composed of comparable variables and aggregates from household surveys to examine the full range of income generating activities carried out by rural households in order to determine: 1) the relative importance of the gamut of income generating activities in general and across wealth categories; 2), the relative importance of diversification versus specialization at the household level; 3) the relationship between key household assets and the participation in and income earned from these activities; and 4) the influence of rural income generating activities on poverty and inequality. Analysis of the RIGA cross country dataset paints a clear picture of multiple activities across rural space and diversification across rural households. This is true across countries in all four continents, though less so in the African countries included in the dataset. For most countries the largest share of income stems from off farm activities, and the largest share of households have diversified sources of income. Diversification, not specialization, is the norm, although most countries show significant levels of household specialization in non-agricultural activities as well. Nevertheless, agricultural based sources of income remain critically important for rural livelihoods in all countries, both in terms of the overall share of agriculture in rural incomes as well as the large share of households that still specialize in agricultural sources of income.
This collection of fourteen essays presents a unique comparative analysis of agrarian change in the main rice-growing regions of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Its central theme is the interplay between agrarian relations and wider political-economic systems. By drawing on historical materials as well as intensive field research, the contributors show how local-level mechanisms of labor control and accumulation both reflect and alter larger political and economic forces. The key to understanding these connections lies in the structure and exercise of power at different levels of society. The approach developed in this volume grows out of a set of detailed local-level studies in regions that have experienced rapid technological change and commercialization. This comparative focus calls into question widely held views of technology and the growth of markets as the chief sources of agrarian change. By relating local-level processes to variations in the structure of state power, the history of agrarian resistance, and the particular forms of capitalist development, the authors suggest an alternative approach to the analysis of agrarian change.
This paper investigates the interaction of migration, vulnerability to poverty, and welfare of rural households in three provinces in Central Vietnam. It addresses three questions. (1) To what extent do shocks motivate rural household members to move to urban areas?, (2) Are migrants in the new urban settings better off in terms of working conditions and quality of life?, and (3) What is the effect of migration on rural household’s welfare and vulnerability to poverty? The analysis uses panel data of 2200 households from rural Vietnam covering the period 2007–2010, and a tracking survey of 299 migrants from 2010. The empirical evidence from a probit model shows that migration, especially migration for employment, is a livelihood support strategy for households exposed to agricultural and economic shocks. Migration for education is more likely observed among households with higher human capital and being financially better off. Nevertheless, the probability of migration decreases with the employment opportunity in the village. Migrants perceive themselves to be better off at the place of destination, but income losses from shocks of their rural households may reduce their employment quality. The results from difference-in-difference specifications with propensity score matching techniques suggest that migration has positive income growth effects, and that these effects are more pronounced in provinces with fewer job opportunities. These effects help not only migrant households moving out of poverty, but it also improves the poverty situation in rural areas.
Cities in Asia are at risk from climate change, amplifying current hazards and introducing sea-level rise. Various efforts mitigating these challenges are framed in the context of building resilience. A challenge is that effort is directed at technical solutions, failing to recognize governance gaps that slow or prevent ‘mainstreaming’ resilience into government functions. Experience from Indonesia's malleable governance frameworks demonstrates that resilience-building measures need to be addressed as a long-term process based on alignment with government priorities and planning cycles. Resilience projects are milestones on the road toward effective resilience building. These issues are not restricted to Asia and learning on how to address such problems are applicable for urban climate change resilience practitioners in Africa and beyond.
Fisheries and fish supply are undergoing a fundamental structural transition, as indicated by a ten country analysis. Aquaculture now provides around half the fish for direct human consumption and is set to grow further, but capture fisheries continue to make essential contributions to food and nutrition security throughout the global South. Capture fisheries provide diverse, nutritionally valuable fish and fish products which are often culturally preferred and easily accessed by the poor. Technological changes in aquaculture have dramatically increased fish supply, lowered relative fish prices, and reigned in price volatility. Policies that recognize and safeguard the diversity and complementarity of roles played by capture fisheries and aquaculture are needed to ensure that the transition in fisheries sustainably improves food and nutrition security in the global South.
We use global value chain (GVC) theory to understand governance of Vietnam’s shrimp farming industry. We describe this GVC as buyer-driven with important food safety standards imposed by governments of importing countries and new certification systems promoted by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Governance relations are clear between governments in importing countries and Vietnam, and between importers and NGOs. Governance relations become more fragmented further down the chain where large numbers of small-scale producers and traders operate. This fragmentation may adversely affect access to the most lucrative markets and have the unanticipated effect of marginalizing small-scale farmers and traders.
This article investigates the changes in agrarian structure brought about by the development of export-oriented freshwater prawn cultivation in south-western Bangladesh. Prawn farming in this particular context has spread among agricultural producers so rapidly within the last decade that many of the agrarian institutions have been carried over or been adapted to the new production regime. Thus the institutions governing landholdings and contractual labour arrangements involved in prawn farming have many things in common with those involved in rice production. While landholders generally have benefited from the new prawn economy, it is difficult to say whether the position of landless men and women from poor households has improved on a sustainable basis. Thus the employment gains of local male workers are currently under threat from cheaper migrants, while new jobs for women from poor households are highly intensive, potentially hazardous, and poorly paid.
Recently, the global state of marine fisheries and its effects on ecosystems have received much scientific (and public) scrutiny. There is little doubt that global limits to exploitation have been reached and that recovery of depleted stocks must become a cornerstone of fisheries management. Yet, current trends appear to be diverging between well-assessed regions showing stabilization of fish biomass and other regions continuing to decline. This divergence can be explained by improved controls on exploitation rates in several wealthy countries, but low management capacity elsewhere. Here, we identify an urgent need to direct priorities towards 'fisheries-conservation hotspots' of increasing exploitation rates, high biodiversity, and poor management capacity, and conclude that the future of fish depends, at least in part, on redoubling science, co-management and conservation efforts in those regions.
Despite the large amount of academic attention that Southeast Asian shrimp farming has received since the 1980s, few attempts have been made to explain the remarkable variation in the industry's organization across countries and localities. This paper compares the development of shrimp farming in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, arguing that differences can be traced to variations in the initial conditions under which shrimp farming was established, the different ways that national aquacultures are embedded in the regional political economy and the ways in which different countries have responded to the characteristic environmental problems the sector causes itself.
International environmental and social concerns about tropical shrimp production have led to the emergence of private transnational governance and regulation. Using cases from Ca Mau we investigate how the shift to private transnational regulatory networks has changed the role of the government from a regulator to a facilitator of global private governance interests and arrangements. The rise of these various schemes has also been part of a shift from quantitative to qualitative policy goals within the Vietnamese aquaculture sector. In turn, this has led to new internal relationships, most notably the repositioning of private interests and community-based management within the Vietnamese state framework. We conclude that the ongoing transformation of the government’s role in environmental shrimp governance requires mechanisms that foster improved participation and compliance between the state and private actors. To achieve this efforts are needed to better include local government at both communal and village levels and to use existing global market incentives more strategically.
document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies. Asset, activity and income diversification lie at the heart of livelihood strategies in rural Africa. This paper introduces a special issue on the topic “Income Diversification and Livelihoods in Rural Africa: Cause and Consequence of Change. ” We concentrate on core conceptual issues that bedevil the literature on rural income diversification and the policy implications of the empirical evidence presented in this special issue.
Lives and livelihoods in the Rural South are becoming increasingly divorced from farming and, therefore, from the land. Patterns and associations of wealth and poverty have become more diffuse and diverse as non-farm opportunities have expanded and heightened levels of mobility have led to the delocalization of livelihoods. This, in turn, has had ramifications for the production and reproduction of poverty in the countryside, which is becoming progressively de-linked from agricultural resources. This requires a reconsideration of some old questions regarding how best to achieve pro-poor development in the Rural South.
Vietnam's marine fisheries are considered to be small scale and are concentrated in coastal near-shore waters. This has resulted in heavy pressure on near-shore fisheries resources. Near-shore fisheries are considered by fishers and the government to be over-exploited, causing hardship for many coastal communities. This paper reviews and analyzes changes in policy towards small-scale fisheries in Vietnam over the last two decades. The primary issues facing the small-scale fisheries in Vietnam are to restructure the near-shore fisheries and to address over-capacity. Recommended actions include improved fisheries statistics, resources for provincial fisheries staff, and a coordinated and integrated approach involving a mixed strategy of resource management; resource restoration; economic and community development; and new governance arrangements.
World Development Indicators, the World Bank's respected statistical publication presents the most current and accurate information on global development on both a national level and aggregated globally. This information allows readers to monitor the progress made toward meeting the goals endorsed by the United Nations and its member countries, the World Bank, and a host of partner organizations in September 2001 in their Millennium Development Goals. The print edition of World Development Indicators 2005 allows you to consult over 80 tables and over 800 indicators for 152 economies and 14 country groups, as well as basic indicators for a further 55 economies. There are key indicators for the latest year available, important regional data, and income group analysis. The report contains six thematic presentations of analytical commentary covering: World View, People, Environment, Economy, States and Markets, and Global Links.
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