Resisting the blue revolution: Contending coalitions surrounding industrial shrimp farming

Human Organization, Spring 2000 by Stonich, Susan C, Bailey, Conner

Participant observation and other ethnographic techniques also were used at the 1997 and 1998 meetings of the WAS. These included audiotaping and taking notes at the most relevant sessions on sustainable shrimp farming as well as attendance at other sessions and workshops. These and similar data collected at other events were analyzed using the techniques of situational analysis, which records and describes the voices of social actors, their situation, and the structure of social relationships at the event under observation (Bond 1990; Velsen 1978). Because it captures variation in structured situations, it is a useful approach for understanding heterogeneous and unstable communities. During these events key social actors were identified; key issues as defined by the social actors were identified; and shifting alliances and confrontations regarding these issues were documented. Similar ethnographic methods were employed during the weeklong founding meeting of ISA Net in Santa Barbara, Califronia, in October 1997.

Electronic surveys and questionnaires were also administered. These surveys were essential in determining the core members of the resistance coalition and their relationships with other members. MAP records and mailing lists were compiled and a master database and a sampling frame of 811 MAP members were constructed. Semistructured questionnaires were sent to a subset (64/811) of MAP members. This core group was selected because they attended at least one of the three international NGO strategy sessions held in 1996 and 1997, and included NGOs, academic advisors, and donors. Questions were based on the results of preliminary interviews conducted in Seattle. The survey also included questions on contact with other members for network analysis. Questionnaires were sent via e-mail where possible (approximately 40 members provided e-mail addresses.) These were followed up a week later by a postal mailing to the entire sample (64). These surveys were analyzed using the Standard Program for Statistical Analysis (SPSS), version 8.0. (See Stonich 1998a for the results of this analysis in terms of the role of advanced information technologies in advocacy efforts.)

On the basis of various stakeholders identified earlier in the project (e.g., NGOs, the industry, academics, governments, donors), an extensive search of WWW sites was done to compare access to and use of the Internet and the Web by each group. Content of these sites as well as that contained in publications and messages received over relevant e-mail news groups and list-servers were analyzed around the set of themes identified at previous events and from group and individual interviews. These themes included: science, sustainability, sustainable shrimp farming, socioeconomic consequences, local, community, and livelihoods.

The Foundations of Local Resistance and Transnational Networking

Industrial shrimp farming has induced processes of social dislocation, ecological change, and environmental destruction comparable to those that stemmed from many Green Revolution technologies. The destruction of mangrove and other coastal ecosystems associated with the siting and construction of shrimp ponds, pollution from pond wastes, and disruption of hydrological systems (including salinization and depletion of aquifers) are among the most serious ecological threats (Barraclough and Stich 1996). Natural resources from coastal ecosystems traditionally have been critically important to the subsistence and commercial economic strategies of the rural poor, providing food, medicine, shelter, fuelwood, and marketable commodities (Kunstadter et al. 1986). Social and environmental justice concerns associated with industrial shrimp farming stem from degradation of coastal ecosystems by the shrimp industry in association with reduced access by coastal residents to vital natural resources. These processes pose a direct threat to the welfare of the rural poor who are reliant upon resources from mangrove and other coastal ecosystems for their survival. Not surprisingly, the social consequences of shrimp aquaculture have become increasingly contentious, encompassing issues of social equity; loss of goods and services from coastal ecosystems; property and use rights; spiraling land costs; competition for credit, land, and other resources; and the concomitant marginaliztion of small producers (Bailey et al. 1996; Bailey and Skladany 1991; Cruz-Torres, 1992, 1996; Flaherty and Karnjanakesorn 1995; Primavera 1991, 1993, 1996). Despite notable differences in the structure, technologies, and operation of the industry, local results have been similar-the establishment of highly capitalized, environmentally vulnerable, and energy-inefficient farming systems, and the emergence of grassroots resistance movements among the poor (Stonich 1996; Stonich, Bort, and Ovares 1997).