Environment and Development Research Group
	School of Resource and Environmental Management Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6

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Sustainability in the Shrimp-Mangrove System of the Indian Coastal Zone of the Bay of Bengal The major purpose of the project is to contribute to policy development in coastal management by examining the ecological-economic linkages and social-distributional aspects of the shrimp-mangrove system on the Bay of Bengal coast of India. This system is a complex, integrated system comprising mangrove forests, shrimp farming and wild shrimp fisheries. At present, expansion in the shrimp aquaculture industry forces contraction in the wild shrimp fisheries, while landless people and small-scale property owners both benefit from and are marginalized by shrimp farm expansion. Reconciling the tradeoffs is the task of policy but must be accomplished by directly engaging the participants in this complex system, including local people with varying interests, as well as policy-makers and managers at the state, national and international levels. This project is in collaboration with researchers at Burdwan and Jadavpur Universities in West Bengal, India and is funded by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute under their Shastri Applied Research Project (SHARP). The main recommendation of our research was the need to adopt a sustainable development strategy for the Indian Sundarbans with some urgency, given the low level of conflict at present but the potential for this to develop in future as shrimp farming expands. This recommendation was based on our findings from a policy scenario analysis that provided clear evidence that stakeholders were looking for a balanced, sustainable and diversified development approach. There were important ecological results from the scenario analysis as well. Our research led to a number of more general findings and broad policy implications related to promoting sustainable development in the shrimp-mangrove system of the Indian Sundarbans. Publications/Reports: Knowler,D., Nathan, S., Philcox, N., Delamare, W., Haider, W. and Gupta, K. 2009. "Assessing Prospects for Shrimp Culture in the Indian Sundarbans: A Combined Simulation Modelling and Choice Experiment Approach". Marine Policy 33:613-623. Knowler, D., Roy, J., Gupta, K., Delamare, W., Haider, W., Gupta, A.C., Philcox, N. and Nathan, S. 2006. Assessing Environmental Management Options to Achieve Sustainability in the Shrimp-Mangrove System in the Indian Coastal Zone of the Bay of Bengal, SHARP program report, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. Nathan, S. 2006. Analysis of Tiger Shrimp (Penaeus Monodon) fishing in West Bengal, India: the impact of development scenarios for the aquaculture industry and the importance of mangroves as an indirect input. M.R.M. research project no. 392, School of Resource and Environmental Management. Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University.   Philcox, N. 2006. An Application of Contingent Choice Modeling to Assess Environmental Management Options in the Shrimp-Mangrove System in the Indian Sundarbans. M.R.M. research project no. 398, School of Resource and Environmental Management. Burnaby, BC: Simon Fraser University.

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last updated: May 2009