Small-scale and subsistence fisheries, and aquaculture, play important roles in the livelihoods of many rural people throughout the region, although the significance is often hidden in national, regional and international statistics. With the fishery sector as an important sector for human development in Asia, an understanding of the array of stakeholders involved, and indeed ensuring their better participation in policy setting processes and trade discussions, is necessary to bring a more human development-oriented dimension to trade policy.

The goal of this project was to optimise the economic yield from mixed shrimp aquaculture-mangrove forestry farming systems in Ca Mau Province, Vietnam, in a sustainable manner. Specific objectives were to investigate factors controlling the yields of shrimp and wood from shrimp farming-mangrove systems, experiment with shrimp pond and mangrove forest management to evaluate different culture options, identify improved practices and assist government to transfer the results of the project to the wider coastal farming community.

This collection of publications originates from the International Consortium Program on Shrimp Farming and the Environment, which was implemented by the World Bank, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The consortium supported 35 complementary case studies prepared by more than 100 researchers in more than 20 shrimp farming countries.

The sixteen papers in this volume were largely based on the data from a survey of more than 5,000 shrimp and close to 6,000 carp farms in sixteen countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region. They provide an economic and technical efficiency of production analysis for Asian shrimp and carp farming systems. This survey was conducted under the ADB/NACA regional study and workshop on aquaculture sustainability and the environment (RETA 5534).

Knowledge of community fisheries and their capacity is a pre-requisite for co-management. This report illustrates the development of a pilot data collection, sharing and interrogation mechanisms for key information in support of co-management, identifying information requirements and procedures for the transmission and sharing of information between relevant stakeholders. A combination of focus group interviews with the community committee and village leaders, and participatory rural appraisal was used as a means of information compilation.