Environment and aquaculture in developing countries

The Impacts of Aquaculture Development

on Socioeconomic Environments in Developing

Countries: Toward a Paradigm for Assessment

KENNETH RUDDLE*

Centre for Development Studies

University of Bergen

St3mgaten 54, N-5007 Bergen

Norway

RUDULE, K. 1993. The impacts of aquaculture development on socioeconomic environments in

developing countries: toward a paradigm for assessment, p. 20-41. In R.S.V. Pullin, H. Rosenthal

and J.L. Maclean (eds.) Environment and aquaculture in developing countries. ICLAItM Conf.

Pmc. 31, 359 p.

Abstract

The principal componcnts of a resource ~ystems paradigm for analyzing the human ecological

consequences of aquaculture development in developing countries are presented, specifically br

freshwater pond aquaculture, based on examples fmm eastern Central Africa, southern China and

Panam&. Aquaculture as an innovative food production technology is examined in terms of the main

perceptions in formhg policy design, and the innovation adoption process by small-scale farm

households. The principal social characteristics that influence the manner in which any innovation

is received are discussed and, in terms of those, the impacts at thc household, community and

governmental-international agency levelofthe adoption of aquaculture, as well as major administrative

changes within an old-establishcd system, are examined.

Introduction

Mirroring the great complexity of many
tropical agroecosystems are the tasks of
inducing development in them, whether it
be transforming traditional systems
(Ruddle and Grandstaff 1978) or
introducing new ones. Not only must the
complex interactions of the biological and
physical components of the systems be
understood and accountedfor, but, equally,
so must the complex characteristics of the
human managers of and consumers from
these systems, as well as complicating

*Present address: Matsugaoka-cho 11-20,
Nishinomiya-shi, Ilyogo-ken 662, Japan.

factors introduced by the larger regional,

national and international society, which

impinge on and often constrain local

managerial options.

Thus, the problems associated with

any natural resource development are not

just technical and agronomic, not ecological

andnot socioeconomic. They are essentially

problems in human ecology, which

embraces all these factors and much more.

The Human Ecological

Perspective

The "natural" environment that forms

the context in which any individual,

community or nation exists and functions,