Development and government policies of the shrimp farming industry in Thailand in relation to mangrove ecosystems

Intensive shrimp farming arrived in Thailand during the 1980s and developed virtually unregulated until 1987. Subsidised by the government, it quickly became an important export industry and Thailand has been the world's largest producer of tiger shrimp since 1991. However, the development of the shrimp farming industry in Thailand over the last 20 years in relation to its use of mangrove ecosystems is an example of sequential exploitation of natural resources witnessed through the shift in farm development from one region to another. This sequential exploitation has caused widespread degradation of mangrove ecosystems, and the benefits of the industry may be less than perceived as a result of subsidies and environmental and social impacts. This study follows the development of shrimp farming in Thailand from the 1940s to 1997 and studies national legislation and associated government policy as examples of driving forces behind this development, From our findings it appears that the development of legislation has not followed the same pace as the development of the industry, neither temporally, nor in content nor implementation, and contradictory policies have arisen. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.