Asia Solidarity against Industrial Aquaculture (ASIA) was created to bring together people's movements that are organizing resistance and raising voices against the crimes of the shrimp industry in the global south. ASIA has an 18 member General Body. All members are Asian grassroots organizations or networks with a strong field-programmes. ASIA does not admit organizations that do not have field-level intervention as part of their principal strategy.
Tropical shrimp farming violates human rights, consumer rights, indigenous peoples rights, and labour rights; it degrades the coastal ecology, and depletes fish stocks. It is founded on a lie:
"Farmed tropical shrimp helps develop local economies by bringing in much needed export-led profits."
The "solution" to the impending "protein-crisis" that the aquaculture industry proposed was: sardines would be fished in Peru, shipped to Indonesia, and ground into fishmeal; the fish-meal was then shipped to Bangladesh and other parts of the world, and fed to shrimp; the shrimp would then be shipped to Europe and the US. All this was said to be environmentally sustainable. Ironically, the people who caught fish, those who made fish-meal, and those who farmed, processed, and packed shrimp could not afford to purchase shrimp. The 'export-led profits' are divided among wholessale exporters, importers and supermarkets in Europe and the US.
The environmental and economic consequences are quite clear now. Island and coastal communities that had conserved their mangrove forests escaped the destruction of the tsunami in 2004 because the mangroves absorbed the impact of the tidal waves. Coastal communities that had destroyed their mangroves to create did not survive. Shipping shrimp and fishmeal around the world is not sustainable. It is better to produce food by suspporting sustainable local farmers and fishers, than to grow shrimp for export.
Twenty years later, consumers are being told the same old story with a few changes.
"Eating "certified" shrimp will help small-scale farmers earn a livelhood; farmed shrimp is now certified to strict guidelines that greatly reduce its environmental and social impact; farmed shrimp is produced "responsibly."
The same old story is appropriate to the same old lie: "certified" farmed tropical shrimp sold today has the same socio-economic consequences as the shrimp that was sold to you years ago. The only major difference is that nowadays a portion of the profits is siphoned away by certifiers like the Aquaculture Certification Council (ASC) and others. These self-appointed cardinals exist solely to offer absolution to the shrimp industry at a price/kg rate.
Industrial Aquaculture promotes itself as a sustainable solution to the problems of over fishing, but farmed carnivorous species such as prawns, still need fish in their diet, and many of these so called “trash fish” are sourced from the oceans around south east Asia, with devastating effect.
Grinding Nemo was produced by The Swedish Society of Nature Conservation in cooperation with Swedwatch and Ecostorm. Read other articles by the film-maker, Jim Wickens at The Ecologist.
Nijera Kori is one of the founding members of ASIA. It is a grassroots organization in Bangladesh with a long history of work with landless farmers and workers in Bangladesh. The ASIA Secretariat is hosted by Nijera Kori.
ALRD is the federating body of 273 NGOs, peasants and landless organizations in Bangladesh, which are involved in the struggle to establish land rights, rights to food, rights to livelihood, and rights of the indigenous people of minorities.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), a non-profit and non-governmental organization of lawyers was set up in 1992 with the objective of establishing a sound environment and ecological order for all using law as tool.
Centre for Environmental Justice works towards good governance and environmental justice. The organisation assists people to protect their environmental rights and conservation of nature.
The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) is a grassroots non-profit, civil society organisation based in Malaysia; established in 1969 to promote critical awareness and action among people in order to uphold consumer rights and interests.
FIAN International, the FoodFirst Information and Action Network, is the international human rights organization that advocates for the realization of the right to food. FIAN International consists of national sections and individual members in over 60 countries.
Institute for Motivating Self-Employment (IMSE) is a non-governmental organisation (NGO), voluntary organisation, operating in the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa in India.
The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) is an international non-governmental organization that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just,self-reliant and sustainable fisheries.
KIARA works with coastal communities in Indonesia and is committed to to strengthening the fishermen's groups and people living in coastal regions and small islands.
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth, Malaysia) is a grassroots, community-focused non-governmental organization championing environment and development issues.
Founded in 1984, Tambuyog called attention to declining fishery resources and unabated poverty in coastal communities through interdisciplinary research, creative information and education campaign, community organizing, policy advocacy and constituency building.
Unnayan Onneshan is a progressive think-tank that undertakes research for advancing ideas and building constituencies for social transformation.
The Indonesian Forum for Environment is the largest forum of non-government and community-based organisations in Indonesia. It is represented in 25 provinces and has over 438 member organisations.
Yadfon Association is a non-government organization based in Trang Province, southern Thailand, which works with local communities to promote the sustainable management of natural resources. Yadfon's director, Pisit Charnsnoh is a Goldman Environmental Prize winner.
A network of African NGOs and CBOs working in the field of sustainable management of marine and/or coastal ecosystems.
Committee for the Defense and Development of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca -- CODDEFFAGOLF. Jorge Varela Marquez, the founder, is a Goldman Environmental Prize winner.
Forest Peoples Programme supports forest peoples to secure and sustainably manage their forests, lands and livelihoods. FPP work on the issues of land rights, environment and development and indigenous affairs.
MAP's mission is partnering with mangrove forest communities, grassroots NGOs, researchers and local governments to conserve and restore mangrove forests and related coastal ecosystems, while promoting community-based, sustainable management of coastal resources.
A network of grassroots NGOs in South and Latin America.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) is a non-profit environmental organisation with the power to bring about change. We spread knowledge, chart environmental threats, propose solutions and influence politicians and authorities, both nationally and internationally.
A curated news-feed from Mangrove Action Project and other partners. To read the original article, click the Read More button. We try to keep the links up-to-date but occasionally these may be broken. If you find a no-functional or dead link, please cut and paste the headline into your browser search bar. In most cases you should be able to locate the original story.
The Consumers' Guide to Shrimp Certification is a critique of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council's Shrimp Standard. The guide was compiled in 2014, shortly after the release of version 1.0 of the standard. It remains valid for the most recent version of the standard (version 1.1, released in 2021). Download.
A GAP analysis of the processes and tools used to create a standard applied to the ASC Shrimp Standard. Presentation notes, 2015. Download.
The Stockholm Branch of the Swedish Society of Nature Conservation (SSNC) sent a detailed questionnaire based on Consumer's Guide. ASC's response was called "Reality vs. Fiction." They paraphrased the questions to suit their needs and then proceeded to 'answer' them Read the ASC's response.
Fiction vs. Reality was ASIA's response to this outrageous attempt to dodge responsibility. Read ASIA's response.
Organizations working on diverse range of fields — human rights, mangrove restoration, labour rights, marine and coastal conservation, climate change mitigation and indigenous peoples rights — signed an Open Letter to the WWF-ShAD Steering Committee. The letter pointed out the many systemic flaws in WWF's attempt to launch a certification scheme for farmed tropical shrimp. WWF has not responded to the letter. Download.
NGOs express deep concern over latest certification initiative based upon years of collective experience in working to counter the negative effects of the shrimp aquaculture industry and severely flawed existing certification processes. Download.
Participants from 17 countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe came together to discuss and plan an awareness campaign in the North. They issued a strong statement — The Lampung Declaration — against the shrimp industry. This document is in the PDF format. Download.
A significant number of participants at a meeting organized by NOVIB, IUCN-NL and EJF in Bangkok, in 2006, issued a joint statement expressing their concerns regarding certification and their stand on the issue. ASIA invites your comments and endosement of the Bangkok Declaration.The document is in the PDF format. Download.
European Environmental Agency.
US Environmental Protection Agency.
Queensland Government, Australia.
Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration.
Mangrove Action Project's Marvellous Mangroves Curriculum.
Mangrove Action Project's Workshops.
A report on ASC-certified farms violating the ASC Shrimp Standard -- an investigation in the Honduras by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Stockholm Branch. Read the Report.
Murky waters The environmental and social impacts of shrimp farming in Bangladesh and Ecuador.
Do You Know What Your Dinner Ate for Breakfast? A report on fishmeal.
The problem with certified shrimp. Why does the Swedish Society of Nature Conversation, an organization that owns one of Europe's most trusted environmental labelling programmes, urge consumers not to eat farmed tropical shrimp. (Auto-translated from Swedish.)
Skip Scampi. Why you should skip eating shrimp? (Auto-translated from Swedish.)
ASIA Secretariat
Nijera Kori
7/8 Block C, Lalmatia, Dhaka
Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh
Telephone: 9144085, 9127639
Fax: +880-2-8122250
secretariat @ [remove this and all spaces] asiasolidarity.org