Tropical mangrove forests are important and productive ecosystems on Earth because of their carbon storage potential and ability to shield coastal communities and coastlines against extreme weather conditions. The spread of shrimp farming is one of many contributing factors that has decimated global mangrove forests by 20 percent since 1980. Nevertheless, shrimp farming – as the central economic activity in mangrove areas – has the unique potential to significantly foster mangrove protection and restoration. This holds true for the “non-pond” areas under the management of farms and their communities as well as the aquaculture systems.

This project supports aquaculture farms that use sustainable integrated mangrove aquaculture systems. In pond farming, mangroves are planted in the dams, water channels and directly into the pond. In this way shrimp can exist in symbiosis with mangroves and the ecosystem is preserved.

In consortium with Naturland – Verband für ökologischen Landbau e.V., Global Nature Fund wants to explore this potential and coordinates the project titled “Multi-stakeholder partnership to strengthen transformative processes in shrimp trade as a basis for the protection of mangrove ecosystems in South Asia”, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). A significant part of the project measures will be implemented in the Sundarbans, where the world’s biggest mangrove forest stretches over an area of 10,000 km², more precisely in the federal state of West Bengal in India and the Khulna Division in Bangladesh. The two local collaborating partners are the Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) and the Nature Environment & Wildlife Society of India (NEWS). Germany, on the other side, is an important market for sustainable and certified seafood and will be the setting for linking the market’s demand for mangrove-friendly shrimp with the environmental and social initiatives in the shrimp producing countries.