Resisting the blue revolution: Contending coalitions surrounding industrial shrimp farming

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

A content analysis of the e-mail exchanges and conference calls during this period revealed significant debate among participants. The most important of these included contending views regarding the pace at which global coalition building should take place, as well as on the structure, leadership, and objectives of such a global coalition. Coalition partners from the United States and other industrialized nations have access to scientific, organizational, financial, and communications resources of vital importance. Despite this, participants debated whether leadership of the coalition should be closer to where the struggle takes place, in developing countries (i.e., the South). Other questions that were debated included: Should the coalition encourage exchange of views and experiences, or should it be an activist organization? Should the coalition focus on using scientific methods to document environmental, social, and other consequences of shrimp farming, or should it be primarily a vehicle for political advocacy-or should it move forward on both fronts simultaneously? Should a consumer boycott of farm-raised shrimp be attempted?

Analysis of these discussions demonstrated significant differences within the group on the appropriate pace of global coalition building as well as contending points of view regarding the leadership, structure, and goals of the proposed coalition. To address these contending views, more than 30 NGO leaders from more than 14 nations met for a joint strategy planning forum in Santa Barbara, California, in October 1997. Representatives of community groups and environmental organizations were joined by a number of concerned scientists and experts. After a week of heated discussion, the group agreed to create the Industrial Shrimp Action Network (ISA Net) on World Food Day-October 16, 1997. During this meeting a secretariat, steering committee, and several working groups were established. After long discussions about whether the secretariat should be in the North or the South, MAP was chosen as the site of the ISA Net secretariat. The organizations elected to the steering committee attended most, if not all, of the international organizing meetings. They include 9 NGOs from the North and 12 from the South. Northern members of the steering committee include MAP (U.S.), the NRDC (U.S.), the Forest Peoples Programme (U.K.), and Greenpeace International. Steering committee members from the South include the Committee for the Defense and Development of the Gulf of Fonseca (CODDEFFAGOLF, Honduras), Consumers Association of Penang (Malaysia), Fundacion Ecologica de Muisne (FUNDECOL, Ecuador), Nijera Kori (Bangladesh), and PREPARE (India).

The aims of ISA Net, found within its mission statement, include drawing international attention to the social and environmental costs of industrial shrimp farming and supporting the efforts of coastal communities. Echoing the Choluteca Declaration of 1996, among the first actions of this network was to call for a moratorium on further expansion of the shrimp farming industry, pending adequate social and environmental assessments. Three major areas identified for actions include damage to mangrove forests and reduced oxygen levels in estuaries; social consequences such as displacement of subsistence fishers; and food safety and biological risks to U.S. shrimp stocks due to the potential spread of disease from imported shrimp.