Defis et perspectives de l'expansion aquacole en Thailande (French text)

Since 1970, the territory devoted to aquaculture has undergone a marked increase along the Thailand coast. The principal environmental and social consequences of this expansion have been a deterioration of the quality of coastal waters, the degradation and destruction of the mangrove forest, the rapid abandonment of zones made infertile, as well as conflicts between groups favouring different types of land use. The continued expansion of intensive shrimp production could thus compromise any chance of sustainable development in certain regions of Thailand (or elsewhere, no doubt). A case study of the Kung Krabaen bay in the province of Chantaburi illustrates the issues and challenges of the almost symbiotic relationship between aquaculture and the mangrove forest. Even if available cartographic, statistical and other evidence must be analysed with prudence, they nevertheless enable one to conclude that the aquacultural development necessary for the well-being of the local population is more and more conditioned by the preservation of the mangrove forest and vice-versa.