Sustainable Management of Coastal and Marine Resources:
What is the Future of Land and Sea-based Shrimp Farming in Eritrea

Kifle Woldesilassie Hagos
Master's of Arts in Environmental Studies
May 2003

Eritrea is a nation in the Horn of Africa and has a total surface area of 124, 400 km2 with over 360 islands and a 1200 km coastline along the western shores of the Red Sea. Eritrea's population of 4.0 million people has a growth rate of 3.8% is expected to double in the next twenty-five years (UNPF 2001). The country won its independence in 1991 from Ethiopia after a bitter thirty-year struggle. After seven years of peaceful coexistence with Ethiopia, Eritrea resolved a two-year border conflict in 2000, which was aggressively imposed on it by Ethiopia. However, the Horn of Africa region, including Eritrea is this time facing serious drought and internal political tensions that expose the countries of the region to resource scarcity and famine .

At present, the majority of the country's population depends mainly on agriculture and livestock for livelihood and income (SOE 2001), However, due to drought and outdated farming and animal husbandry practices that depend on unpredictable weather conditions, agricultural output has been far too low to provide for food security, thus causing chronic food shortages. This year in Eritrea alone, over a million lives are threatened by drought (FAO/WFP 2002). This drought together with the external aggression that involved huge financial and human resources, and the internal political discontent prevailing in the country, have aggravated the overall socio-economic situation of the people, thus exposing the country to further dependency on imported and donated food supplies.

Eritrea's coastal and marine ecosystems are characterized by rich and diverse coral reefs, isolated mangrove forests, sea-grass beds, bays, beaches and pristine unpolluted waters that are at the critical juncture between development and conservation (UNDP 1998). These ecosystems represent a physical resource base for the potentially rich and unexploited marine fisheries. Moreover, the vast coastal areas with hot, humid and barren uninhabited flat lands, unsuited for agriculture due to saline soils and the deficiency of fresh waters, are appropriate for land-based aquaculture.

The marine fisheries sector of Eritrea has yet to contribute their share to the national economy. In the decade since independence the fisheries sector suffered from the absence of infrastructure, shortage of technical, human and financial input, the weakness of the local business community and the inconsistency in public policy. With full participation of domestic and foreign investment and clearly defined policy the marine resources development strategy should be geared to address three major issues: the provision of food security, the creation of employment opportunities, and the generation of foreign exchange. If properly developed and managed fisheries could be a reliable source of food security as is the case in many developing countries. Considering the perpetual dependence of Eritrea's economy on rain-fed agriculture and livestock husbandry, the potential abundance of under-utilized coastal areas, and the declining trend of marine fisheries at the global and regional levels, aquaculture may have a crucial role to play in the development of the national economy of Eritrea.

The central goal of my thesis is to examine the future of environmentally and economically sustainable shrimp aquaculture in Eritrea, considering perennial food insecurity and existing demands on the coastal and marine resources of Eritrea. My underlying objectives are to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of land- and sea-based shrimp culture and to present recommendations on environmentally and economically sustainable approaches to shrimp aquaculture that could, potentially, contribute to: food security, domestic employment opportunities, generation of foreign exchange, improved management of capture-fisheries in Eritrean waters. They also include, the development of marine sanctuaries and increased tourism, re-forestation of the coastal zone and re-establishment of tidal wetlands, and institutional capacity building.

I analyzed international market data, comparative case studies from Asian and Latin American countries, and scientific and technical information on shrimp culture. I have also employed the best available socioeconomic, geographic and marine resources information from Eritrea to evaluate the future of shrimp culture in Eritrea.

Aquaculture could provide a significant positive contribution to food security through extensive and semi-intensive systems of production in which natural feed for fish predominates. However, certain traditional and modern intensive aquaculture systems have a negative impact on food security. This is due to their unsustainable use of live fish as feed. For example, in some cases the culture of 1 kg of a carnivorous cultivated food fish may require up to 5-6 kg of fresh wild fish for feed which are normally dried or fermented and used as food by poor people (Edwards 1997). This means that in aquaculture operations where the feed conversion ratio (FCR) is very high, the sustainability of the operation is low.

The fisheries sector, including wild-catch and cultured shrimp, is one of the potentially tangible resources that Eritrea could exploit for domestic and export markets. Sustainable development of the resources towards the production of export products generates a dependable source of foreign exchange earnings. Shrimp aquaculture might bring much-needed foreign earnings from exported shrimp, but this positive impact must be weighed against other social and environmental impacts. It can lead to losses in traditional livelihoods, marginalization of local residents and the erosion of their resources rights (Tobey 1998).

The development of aquaculture in Eritrea could also have the additional advantage of creating employment opportunities for Eritrean citizens. Long years of liberation war and border conflict have produced a large army that eventually needs to be demobilized . The development of the fishery industry and aquaculture could open vast opportunities of employment, thus creating a dependable means of absorbing large numbers of ex-combatants and the general population. While economic development is often assumed to lead to increased social benefits for entire populations, but as many cases around the world have demonstrated, development often brings benefits for a few while leaving the majority of the population behind. Increasingly, social equity, benefits and poverty alleviation are being given a higher priority by governments, aid agencies, local communities, and societies (WWF/FAO 2002).

Aquaculture is a new phenomenon in Eritrea. It was introduced first by Dr. Gordon Sato in 1988 during the armed struggle. He experimented mullet culture and mangrove plantation and the sand taught Eritrean freedom fighters how to culture fish in ponds. Dr. Carl Hodges a retired scientist from Arizona, introduced commercial aquaculture in 1998 with the establishment of Seawater Farms Eritrea in Massawa. The company intends to expand land-based aquaculture operations. Aquaculture will, no doubt, play an important role in the country's economy in the future. However, as experience in other countries shows, potential social and environmental impacts may eventually emerge. The Macro-Policy - a public document issued in 1994 - states that measures will be taken to safeguard the marine environment against and fight pollution of the Red Sea in collaboration with the other littoral states (SOE 1994).

This thesis research has critically addressed these and other similar concerns and assessed the advantages and disadvantages of aquaculture, providing relevant examples on the social, economic and environmental impacts of shrimp culture from the experience of the some Asian and Central American countries with similar climatic conditions as Eritrea. The following recommendations are made for the development of sustainable aquaculture.

• Given the present situation of drought and food shortage in Eritrea, necessary measures must be taken to give priority to increase wild fish production and aquaculture operations in order to solve the problem of food security by introducing low-cost of capture and cultured species of fish and integrating them with shrimp farming. Aquaculture has to be carried out by integrating shrimp culture for the export and the Polyculture of different species of fish for the domestic market.
• By way of encouraging domestic and foreign investment in aquaculture and related businesses, it is essential for the state to improve the facilitation of investment procedures and to simplify the provision of land and other resources and investment benefits to ensure the involvement of the private sector without any restrictions.
• Eritrea has yet to utilize the comparative advantage it possesses conducive to the success of the shrimp industry such as: low production costs due to availability and reduced labor costs, open and attractive investment policy, two operating ports in the Red Sea, a new national carrier, three international airports, and the country's well-situated location within easy reach of prospective markets in the Middle East, Europe and the Far East.
• To make these comparative advantages feasible the government needs to make some policy adjustments by way of encouraging private investment through the provision of development loans at low interest rates and reductions on import tariffs of aquaculture inputs.
• Introduce institutional mechanisms and means of allocation of resources to involve artisan fishermen in land and sea-based aquaculture as the case may be, and to create an atmosphere conducive enough to enable them to fully participate in decision-making process pertaining to issues of their concern.
• The future of global shrimp market is uncertain. Possibly global demand for shrimp will continue to increase; assuming the present decline in price is temporary. It may also possibly happen that the continuous expansion of shrimp farming in developing countries will lead to continuing gluts. In both cases the final result will depend on the economic situation in the major shrimp consuming societies of the developed countries and the emerging economies. The trends, however, shows that an increase in production and the current price fluctuations will continue. This may not affect shrimp production in Eritrea as prices have been fluctuating for the last decade and will continue to fluctuate for the foreseeable future.
• Eritrea has yet to adapt environmental laws. At present there is no environmental law to regulate aquaculture albeit one chapter in the Fisheries Proclamation. In the absence of a regulatory mechanism it is tempting for aquaculture and other industries to exploit the situation and avoid the mitigation of externalities. The current shrimp farming enterprise has been operating on self-control basis with little government regulatory measures due to the absence of clearly defined regulations. If correct foundations are to be laid for aquaculture it is time for the government agencies to facilitate the enacting of the relevant laws.