Tapia Mónica, Zambrano Luis
Office of the President for Strategic Planning and Regional Development, Mexico.
Ambio. 2003 Jun;32(4):252-7. doi: 10.1579/0044-7447-32.4.252.
Aquaculture has been seen as a solution to food/protein availability in rural populations of poor countries. It is mainly based on exotic species, that produce changes in host system dynamics once introduced. Aquaculture not only changes the ecology of freshwater systems, but can also lead to modification of social relations. Until now, aquaculture programs have not been adequately analyzed no questioned enough. We evaluate both ecological effects and local social benefits of common carp aquaculture programs in shallow ponds of rural areas, using a municipality in Central Mexico as a case study. Using an "environmental entitlements" approach, our findings suggest that: i) carp aquaculture increases water turbidity and depletes native species reducing the poor people's access to them; ii) aquaculture mainly benefits pond owners rather than poor peasants. This mainly results from changes in fishing rights. We conclude that aquaculture policy goals and assumptions of benefits should be reviewed, if the negative ecological effects are to be decreased and conditions for people in rural areas are to be improved.
水产养殖被视为解决贫困国家农村人口粮食/蛋白质供应问题的一种方法。它主要基于外来物种，这些物种一旦引入就会改变宿主系统的动态。水产养殖不仅改变了淡水系统的生态，还可能导致社会关系的改变。到目前为止，对水产养殖项目的分析还不够充分，质疑也不够。我们以墨西哥中部的一个市镇为案例研究，评估农村地区浅池塘中鲤鱼养殖项目的生态影响和当地社会效益。采用“环境权利”方法，我们的研究结果表明：i）鲤鱼养殖会增加水体浊度并使本地物种减少，从而减少贫困人口获取这些物种的机会；ii）水产养殖主要使池塘所有者受益，而非贫困农民。这主要是由捕鱼权的变化导致的。我们得出结论，如果要减少负面生态影响并改善农村地区人们的生活条件，就应该重新审视水产养殖政策目标和效益假设。
