Improving sustainable water usage in extensive shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh.

Abstract

Achieving sustainable water usage is a key target for the global shrimp aquaculture industry. Current research and intervention strategies are predominantly focused on advanced sustainable water usage technologies for intensive aquaculture systems. Yet, over half of all global shrimp aquaculture land area remains as traditional extensive aquaculture systems in rural low-resource settings, where unsustainable water use is driven by a complex array of socioeconomic, political and environmental factors that reach far beyond the pond. In this study we analysed the available literature and brought together international thought leaders to holistically explore the challenges and opportunities for sustainable water use in extensive shrimp systems in low-resource contexts. Using a Bangladesh case study we first describe the scale of the water use challenges faced by the extensive shrimp aquaculture sector as it intensifies to meet economic and food security targets in the face of increasing climate change pressures. We then discuss opportunities for action at five societal “spheres of intervention”: at individual farm, local community, regional, national, and international levels. We believe this novel interdisciplinary insight can inform and support future holistic, multi-level sustainable water use strategies for low-resource settings, which recognise and attribute responsibility for action both at the pond and beyond.