Funded By: Global Nature Fund
Project Duration: 1st August 2019 to 30th April 2024
Tropical and sub-tropical mangroves are among the most important and productive ecosystems on the earth. The intricate root system of mangroves stabilizes the coastline, reduces soil erosion from storm surge and also provides a favourable environment and nursery ground for fishes, crabs, and other aquatic organisms. In recent decades, due to the expansion of shrimp aquaculture and other anthropogenic causes, mangrove forests have been indiscriminately felled especially, in the countries of South and Southeast Asia. Chemical-intensive aquaculture also played a contributory role in the degradation of this natural landscape and also made this brackish water aquaculture practice unsustainable. To restore mangroves and augment the livelihood of the coastal communities, a sustainable ecosystem-based aquaculture model integrating mangroves has been initiated. This project also aims to bring a modification in the shrimp trade by bringing a transformative change in the existing value chain through the dialogue exchange model. The project has been implemented in India and Bangladesh in collaboration with Global Nature Fund (GNF) in consortium with Naturland e.V, Germany, and Bangladesh Environment & Development Society (BEDS), Bangladesh. Project Objectives: Creation of national, regional, and international dialogue structures; a functioning Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MSP) which will promote more sustainable forms of production of shrimp and other aquaculture organisms in India and Bangladesh. To adapt a model to demonstrate Integrated Mangrove Aquaculture in the Sundarban context. Capacitate the existing brackish water aqua-culturists for doing IMA To establish a standard practice in the culture methodology of integrated brackish water aquaculture integrating Penaeus monodon as a candidate species To integrate aquaculture produce from IMA, into the value chain through the formation of farmers’ institutions for better bargaining power and connect the small and medium farmers to markets- domestic and international. To identify the scope of reduction of blue carbon emissions associated with shrimp farming and brackish water through the integration of mangroves, as a major carbon-sequestering species. Project Outcomes: i. A well-structured value chain for shrimp trading established through dialogue exchange. ii. Anthropogenic pressure on the natural fisheries sources reduced. iii. Increase in Mangrove coverage iv. Augmented livelihood through climate-adaptive shrimp farming with a better price for marginal farmers through collective bargaining v. Reduced blue carbon emissions vi. In the event of water flooding as a result of sea-level rise in the future, the areas would still have a standardized protocol with clear benchmarks for economic activity.
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