Shrimp pond area expansion threatening mangrove ecosystem

Due to massive expansions of shrimp ponds since the 1980s, the world`s shrimp production had increased drastically to 1,084,641 metric tons valued at more than US$6.8 billion, director of the Nature Conservation Mandate Foundation (Akasia) Rasyid Assaf Dongoran said here on Thursday.

"Currently, around 28 percent of shrimp consumption is from shrimp pond aquaculture while in early 1980s it was only five percent," he said.

He regretted a government statement which said that around 860,000 hectares of mangrove areas were available for conversion into shrimp ponds.