their biota do not conform to national
boundaries. Many waterbodies and
catchments are shared and one nation's
actions affect others downstream or across
the water. Effective environmental
conservation requires transnational
cooperation. Rhodes (1986) found this
possible, cited its proven success in the
eradication of smallpox and expected the
same in the avoidance of nuclear conflict.
Concerning the latter, he stated:
The preeminent transnational
community in our culture is science.
With the release of nuclear energy in
the first half of the twentieth century
that model commonwealth [present
author's emphasis] decisively
challenged the power of the nation-
state.
A leading article in The Economist
(Anon. 19901, tit1ed"Goodbye to the nation
state?", emphasized moves towards
federation in Europe, but found
nationalism and tribalism to be highly
durable and forecast more emergent nation
states over the next 50 years, including
perhaps a quite different map ofAfrica. It
also recognized a "Commonwealth model"
as a future mechanism for action on
transnationalissues in which nation states
retain sovereignty and cooperate on
"foreign policy, defence and some aspects
of trade". Environmental issues were not
mentioned, but clearly the time is ripe for
increasing transnational cooperation in
balancing development and conservation
strategies. The World ConservationUnion
(TCTCN) has an Ecology Commission) a
Sustainable Development Commission and
a new strategic plan basedon sustainability
(IUCN1991), through which some of these
efforts could perhaps be coordinated.
Aquaculture scientists can also help to
set environmental issues in aquaculture
development in such a transnational
context, despite the enduring background
of regional, national and intranntional
vested interests. A well-publicized
nonaquaculture example that adversely
affects developingcountriesis the Common
Agricultural Policy of the EEC. It is,
however, rather unfair to single out
developed countries and regions with such
examples, when in the developing
countries themselves the poor are usually
kept in poverty because the status quo
protects the interests of the rich. Inequity
pervades human endeavor, irrespective of
the stage of development of national
economies.
Grigg (1985) recogn-ized the differing
situations of the main developing regions
and found that in Africa the natural
environment presents still unresolved
problemsfor crop andlivestock ~roduction
which together with civil strife, wars and
lack of skilled personnel have caused a
decline in agriculturnl production per
caput and a shortfall in local supplies in a
majority of countries. His view ofAsia was
that the small size of farms in most
countries need not be a hindrance to
increased food production and there could
be much higher farm yields and income,;
in South and Southeast Asia, as has
happened in East Asia. For Latin America,
he found the problem of reducing
malnutrition to be mainly a matter of
income distribution andland reform rather
than increasing agricultural production.
Ruddle andRondinelli (1 983) provided
a framework for development and
identified the failure of the 'trickle down'
approach, the need for close partnership
with target beneficiaries, and posed the
followingquestions, relevant to the present
underdeveloped status of developing-
country aquaculture:
In what ways could production of
a major resource be increased, made
more emcient or of better quality,
without affecting renewability of the
resource? What are the probable
ecosystemic and sociocultural costs of
recommendedchanges?How can these
be ameliorated? Are thereother major
renewable resources in the area not
being utilized at present that could be