IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v19y2017i3d10.1007_s10668-016-9781-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Organic certification for shrimp value chains in Ca Mau, Vietnam: a means for improvement or an end in itself?

Author

Listed:
  • Urs Baumgartner

    (Ekolibrium)

  • Tuan Hoang Nguyen

    (Ho Chi Minh City Open University)

Abstract

Eco-certification has been used as a tool to mitigate adverse effects of aquaculture production and might thus be understood as a private approach to sustainable ecosystem management. In production forests in Ca Mau, Vietnam, where mangrove have suffered degradation despite legal protection, different projects have targeted reversing this trend by means of private certification using the ‘Naturland’ organic standard as a reference. So far the outcomes have, however, been proven unsatisfactory. With the aim to better understand the reasons for these poor outcomes, a survey of forty households was conducted in a production forest in Rach Goc commune, Ngoc Hien District. We evaluated farmers’ perceptions on mangrove management, the drivers guiding shrimp farming, and whether there was a difference between participants and non-participants in a former ‘Naturland’ organic project. To complement the survey, a range of stakeholders involved in shrimp value chains were interviewed to better understand the terms and benefits of certification. The results of this survey suggested that, when applied to shrimp–mangrove farming systems in production forests in Ca Mau, ‘eco-certification’ and associated benefits are not very satisfactory. The survey results revealed that certified farms do not show significant differences to non-certified farms in terms of social and environmental benefits. As far as the implementation process was concerned, the survey results showed that a failure to integrate local farmers as participants consequently resulted in households becoming ‘objects’ for certification and not project partners with equal weight and power. It appears that rather than being a tool for improvement, ‘Naturland’ certification for shrimp–mangrove farming systems in Ca Mau’s production forests has become an end in itself.

Suggested Citation

  • Urs Baumgartner & Tuan Hoang Nguyen, 2017. "Organic certification for shrimp value chains in Ca Mau, Vietnam: a means for improvement or an end in itself?," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 987-1002, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:19:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10668-016-9781-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-016-9781-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-016-9781-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-016-9781-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hatanaka, Maki, 2010. "Certification, Partnership, and Morality in an Organic Shrimp Network: Rethinking Transnational Alternative Agrifood Networks," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 706-716, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Belton, Ben & Haque, Mohammad Mahfujul & Little, David C. & Sinh, Le Xuan, 2011. "Certifying catfish in Vietnam and Bangladesh: Who will make the grade and will it matter?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 289-299, April.
    2. Charalampia N. Anastasiou & Kiriaki M. Keramitsoglou & Nikos Kalogeras & Maria I. Tsagkaraki & Ioanna Kalatzi & Konstantinos P. Tsagarakis, 2017. "Can the “Euro-Leaf” Logo Affect Consumers’ Willingness-To-Buy and Willingness-To-Pay for Organic Food and Attract Consumers’ Preferences? An Empirical Study in Greece," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Bennett, Elizabeth A., 2017. "Who Governs Socially-Oriented Voluntary Sustainability Standards? Not the Producers of Certified Products," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 53-69.
    4. Maki Hatanaka, 2020. "Technocratic and deliberative governance for sustainability: rethinking the roles of experts, consumers, and producers," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 793-804, September.
    5. van der Ven, Hamish & Sun, Yixian & Cashore, Benjamin, 2021. "Sustainable commodity governance and the global south," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Atika Wijaya & Pieter Glasbergen & Pieter Leroy & Ari Darmastuti, 2018. "Governance challenges of cocoa partnership projects in Indonesia: seeking synergy in multi-stakeholder arrangements for sustainable agriculture," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 129-153, February.
    7. Lawrence Busch, 2014. "Governance in the age of global markets: challenges, limits, and consequences," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(3), pages 513-523, September.
    8. Vincent Terstappen & Lori Hanson & Darrell McLaughlin, 2013. "Gender, health, labor, and inequities: a review of the fair and alternative trade literature," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(1), pages 21-39, March.
    9. Lemeilleur, Sylvaine & Allaire, Gilles, 2016. "Standardisation and guarantee systems: what can participatory certification offer?," Working Papers MOISA 250275, Institut National de la recherché Agronomique (INRA), UMR MOISA : Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs : CIHEAM-IAMM, CIRAD, INRA, Montpellier SupAgro, Montpellier, France.
    10. Rob Barlow, 2022. "Deliberation Without Democracy in Multi-stakeholder Initiatives: A Pragmatic Way Forward," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(3), pages 543-561, December.
    11. Wijaya, Atika & Glasbergen, Pieter & Mawardi, Surip, 2017. "The mediated partnership model for sustainable coffee production: experiences from Indonesia," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 20(5).
    12. Simon R. Bush & Peter Oosterveer, 2015. "Vertically Differentiating Environmental Standards: The Case of the Marine Stewardship Council," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, February.
    13. Hatanaka, Maki, 2014. "Standardized food governance? Reflections on the potential and limitations of chemical-free shrimp," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 138-145.
    14. Maki Hatanaka & Jason Konefal & Douglas Constance, 2012. "A tripartite standards regime analysis of the contested development of a sustainable agriculture standard," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 29(1), pages 65-78, March.
    15. Carlos F. B. V. Alho & Amanda F. Silva & Chantal M. J. Hendriks & Jetse J. Stoorvogel & Peter J. M. Oosterveer & Eric M. A. Smaling, 2021. "Analysis of banana and cocoa export commodities in food system transformation, with special reference to certification schemes as drivers of change," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(6), pages 1555-1575, December.
    16. Tran, Nhuong & Bailey, Conner & Wilson, Norbert & Phillips, Michael, 2013. "Governance of Global Value Chains in Response to Food Safety and Certification Standards: The Case of Shrimp from Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 325-336.
    17. Jespersen, Karen Sau & Kelling, Ingrid & Ponte, Stefano & Kruijssen, Froukje, 2014. "What shapes food value chains? Lessons from aquaculture in Asia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(P1), pages 228-240.
    18. Maki Hatanaka, 2014. "McSustainability and McJustice: Certification, Alternative Food and Agriculture, and Social Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-21, November.
    19. Laurel Bellante, 2017. "Building the local food movement in Chiapas, Mexico: rationales, benefits, and limitations," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 119-134, March.
    20. Pugliese, Patrizia & Zanasi, Cesare & Atallah, Oussama & Cosimo, Rota, 2013. "Investigating the interaction between organic and local foods in the Mediterranean: The Lebanese organic consumer’s perspective," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-12.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:19:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10668-016-9781-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.