The Role of Government for Sustainable Management Systems

Pastor C. Paa, Jr.


Government incentives towards achieving certain goals are always needed. Therefore government policies should focus on giving priorities towards reshaping the economic, social and political sustainability of the country. Sadly, incentives such as subsidies and tax exemptions initiatives in most countries are designed only to produce economic gains, which are mostly a quick fix for ailing economies. Agricultural subsidies such as fertilizer and pesticides, forest clearing, cash crop productions and irrigation systems result in environmental damage. As well, road building encourages more use of vehicles and results to urban sprawl claiming land and creating greenhouse gas pollution.

Such incentives must be eliminated to promote a sensible environmentally sustainable economy. However, it is not enough to just eliminate these bad incentives but rather incentive rewards must be thought of for ecologically sound practices, which will make them attractive. An example is the US Conservation Reserve Program, which rewards farmers for conserving soil. Farmers are rewarded $120 per hectare in rental payments, for planting trees and grass on their most erodible land.

Trade is also one area that governments must look into because it is trade that determines which materials are used and transported to different parts of the world. Trade barriers in the forms of import quotas, tariffs, export subsidies and domestic price supports are undesirable because they restrict competition in the global marketplace. A freer trade environment will eliminate these trade distortions and improve economic efficiency. When third world countries become economically stable, then they can focus more on the improvements of the environment.

Governments therefore should consider one overarching guideline: No net environmental damage. This means that for any project that might destroy forests, add carbon into the atmosphere, or pave over grasslands, additional investments must be required to compensate for these damages. For example, if building a commercial mall will destroy a forested area, investment must be required to reforest an equivalent area elsewhere. Although this might not be a complete compensation, at least some of the ecological benefits of the original forest will be recaptured.



Source:

Brown LB, Flavin C, Postel S. 1991. "Reshaping Government Incentives" In Saving the Planet: How to shape an environmentally sustainable global economy. 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10110: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 131-140 p.

Sustainability

Jun Paa
November 5, 2009

BC Coastal Fish Farming

The present method in BC coastal fish farming is the most harmful aquaculture production systems(1). The industry use open net-cages placed directly in the ocean, where farm waste, chemicals, diseases and parasites are released directly into the surrounding waters. Escaped Atlantic Salmon, the preferred variety, is a threat to the local population of wild pink, sockeye and Coho as the escaped fish can compete with food and habitat(2).

The vast majority of salmon farming operations depend on the use of vaccines, antibiotics and pesticides to control diseases and parasites in often high densities that becomes a major pollutant in the water. Diseases and parasites are transferred easily to the wild stock through the open net cages.

All these combined effects of diseases, parasites and chemical pollutions could easily be the main culprit for this years dismal salmon runs. Furthermore, the seabed underneath these farms where other aquatic natural resources such as crabs and shrimps are detrimentally affected by the pollution caused by excess feeds and feces that form a blanket of organic content, smothering the sea floor(3).

Raising carnivorous fish like salmon that require a high percentage of protein derived from wild fish in their feed also has a significant impact on the environment. More kilograms of wild fish are used to raise salmon than farmed salmon produced, depleting wild fish stock rather than supplementing them.

The BC government, in its pursuit for economic sustainability in the coastal communities is encouraging this type of fish farming(4). Operators prefer this method to the alternative (closed containment) because of the high cost of operation in the alternative methods. Until the BC government recognizes this threat to the local fish industry and the environment as a whole, the forecast for next year’s salmon run is grim.


References

1. Environmental Impacts http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/page/environmentalimpacts

2. McGinnity, P., C. Stone, J. B. Taggart, D. Cooke, D. Cotter, R. Hynes, C. McCamley, T. Cross, and A. Ferguson. "Genetic impact of escaped farmed Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) on native populations: use of DNA profiling to assess freshwater performance of wild, farmed, and hybrid progeny in a natural river environment." ICES J. Mar. Sci. 54 (December 1997): 998-1008

3. EVS Environmental Consultants. In 'Impacts of Freshwater and Marine Aquaculture on the Environment: Knowledge and Gaps (Preliminary Report). Prepared for Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans, June 2000, pp. 12
4. van Dongen, John. 2002. “Why BC Lifted the Moratorium on Fish Farms.” Press Release, Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries, Province of BC. (September 26