The environmental quality and social justice implications of shrimp mariculture development in Honduras

Development schemes aimed at reducing Central America's social and economic problems historically have stressed intensified exploitation of the region's natural resources through augmented exports of agricultural commodities and forest products, enhanced agricultural productivity, and expanded industrial fisheries. There is plentiful evidence documenting how succeeding waves of export expansion have displaced small farmers from their lands often initiating cycles of repression and violence while also generating or intensifying environmental destruction. This paper explores the environmental quality and social justice implications of the current prevailing development strategy in the region, the promotion of so-called nontraditional exports. Focusing on the expansion of shrimp mariculture in coastal zones along the Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras, it uses political ecological analysis to examine the interconnections among the dominant export-led development model, the policies and actions of the state, the competition among various classes and interest groups, and the survival strategies of an increasingly impoverished population. Analysis suggests that problems of social justice and environmental quality cannot be understood apart from the underlying social structure of the region.