Community Participation and Geographic Information Systems - Chapter 19 potx

Information technologies,
PPGIS, and advocacy:
globalization of resistance to
industrial shrimp farming
Susan C. Stonich
Chapter 19
19.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter investigates the potential of PPGIS to empower local commun-
ities, enhance global civil society, and contribute to public advocacy, especially
in the Third World. It is based on lessons learned during an ongoing applied
research project investigating the role of Information Technologies (ITs) in the
globalization of resistance to industrial shrimp farming in tropical coastal
zones in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The project is multidisciplinary and
highly collaborative – including the efforts of academics/scientists, NGOs,
grassroots groups, and private/public donors – and is aimed at integrating
research and practice. This chapter focuses on the challenges, issues, feasibil-
ity, and potential of scaling-up – that is, linking local/community-level PPGIS
into a global PPGIS in order to advance advocacy, affect global environmen-
tal governance, and further alternative development.
To date, project activities have focused on conducting ethnographic and
survey research among members of the global resistance coalition, with
funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), The University of
California Pacific Rim Research Program, and the Rockefeller Brothers
Fund. Preliminary research included assessment of existing access to and
use of advanced ITs by individual coalition members, the global resistance
coalition, and the worldwide network of industry supporters (the backlash
movement). Project activities have also included a series of meetings and
workshops for project collaborators. Preliminary results suggest the crucial
role played by advanced information technologies such as e-mail, the Inter-
net, and the World Wide Web (WWW) in the formation and maintenance of
resistance and industry networks, in facilitating vital communication among

members of each network, and in each network’s strategy for achieving
short- and long-term objectives. Preliminary work also reveals the virtually
universal desire by the grassroots/non-governmental coalition members to
increase access to, training in, and use of spatial ITs (maps, remotely sensed
data, and GIS) and other ITs (e.g. e-mail, the Internet, the WWW) to achieve
individual organizational and shared coalition objectives (Stonich 1998).
© 2002 Taylor & Francis
Discussion of the formation of the global resistance and counter industry
coalitions, as well as the role of information and communication technolo-
gies in social change, can be found in Stonich and Bailey (2000) and Stonich
(1998).
Current funding for the project includes an NSF planning grant. The
scholarly aim of this phase of the research is to determine the social con-
text and impacts of communications and spatial ITs on the formation,
strategies, and effectiveness of the emerging global coalition of non-
governmental and grassroots organizations that is resisting the expansion of
the shrimp farming industry. Equally important are the applied objectives
of the project: enhancing access to, and effective use of, these technologies
by local individuals, communities, and organizations as well as the global
network. These activities are a cooperative effort to collect, interpret, and
communicate ecological information; to share information; to integrate
scientific data with local knowledge; and to advance public/consumer cam-
paigns. Simultaneously, field research is being conducted in a well-chosen
sample of locales in Asia, Latin America, and Africa in order to identify
information/data needs and assess how ITs, including PPGIS, might meet
those needs.
By using an empirical approach that takes advantage of a dynamic, global
phenomenon, this stage of the project will aim to enhance understanding
and general explanations of information and spatial technologies. Such
understanding is crucial for the design of more appropriate, accessible, and

democratic ITs and systems.
19.2 GLOBALIZATION OF RESISTANCE
TO INDUSTRIAL SHRIMP FARMING
Aquaculture often is promoted as ‘The Blue Revolution’, analogous to the
Green Revolution in agriculture and essential to feed growing human popu-
lations in light of stagnating or declining yields of marine stocks (Figure
19.1). Recently, however, increased attention has been paid to aquacul-
ture’s social, economic, and environmental costs (e.g. Bailey et al. 1996).
Particularly controversial is the explosive expansion of capital-intensive
industrial shrimp farming in coastal brackish water ponds in Asia, Latin
America, and Africa, which critics maintain has promoted social dislocations,
ecological changes, and environmental destruction comparable to those
caused by Green Revolution technologies (Bailey 1997) (see Figure 19.2).
Globalization of industrial shrimp farming has created new institutional
linkages among international agencies, multinational corporations, govern-
ments, and national elites. Globalization also has provoked considerable vio-
lence and the emergence of grassroots resistance movements (principally
NGOs) among the poor in coastal areas of Asia, Latin America, and Africa
260 S. C. Stonich
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Figure 19.1 Intensive shrimp farm in Thailand.
Figure 19.2 Constructing a shrimp farm along the coast of Honduras.
© 2002 Taylor & Francis
(Stonich 1996; Stonich and Bailey 2000). Aware of the powerful political and
economic forces allied against them, resistance groups have sought regular con-
tact with their counterparts in other countries, as well as support from organi-
zations and individuals in industrial nations. Major environmental groups
including Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources
Defense Council, as well as private foundations such as the MacArthur
Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, have supported the network

resisting industrial shrimp farming. These and other organizations and individ-
uals have found common ground with several hundred community-based
NGOs around the world. After a series of international meetings beginning
from April 1996, these groups formed the Industrial Shrimp Action Network
(ISA Net) on World Food Day in October 1997 during a week-long meeting in
Santa Barbara, California. The aims of ISA Net include drawing international
attention to the environmental and social costs of shrimp farming, and sup-
porting the efforts of coastal communities to maintain viable communities,
economies, and environments (Stonich and Bailey 2000).
Currently, ISA Net is made up of 25 member NGOs from 22 countries.
Membership is divided almost equally between organizations in the North
and South. ISA Net’s operating structure includes its members, a secretariat
(who works from ISA Net headquarters in the state of Washington), and a
steering committee of nine individuals representing a subset of member
organizations. Four working groups also exist: communities and commu-
nication, public education, science and industry, and international institu-
tions and national governments. ISA Net maintains close ties with its parent
organization, MAP
1
(Stonich 1998). Although ISA Net is focused on the
human and environmental consequences of industrial shrimp farming,
MAP has a much broader focus that includes the human impacts of destruc-
tion of mangrove and other coastal environments.
19.3 ASSESSMENT OF THE USE OF
COMMUNICATIONS AND SPATIAL
TECHNOLOGIES
An evaluation of access to and use of telecommunications and spatial tech-
nologies by members of the global shrimp farming resistance coalition was
attempted in the following manner:
1 In-depth, semi-structured interviews with NGO leaders were conducted

during various international meetings and at local sites between 1997
and 2000. These interviews focused on access to and use of these tech-
nologies, as well as on perceived obstacles to their use. Leaders were
also asked about the usefulness of these technologies to advancing the
goals/objectives of their organization.
262 S. C. Stonich
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2 MAP records, mailing lists, etc. were compiled, a master database was
created using Microsoft Access, and a sampling frame of 811 MAP
members was constructed.
3 Semi-structured questionnaires were sent by e-mail and postal mail to
a subset of 64 key MAP members. This group was determined by attend-
ance at one of the three international NGO strategy sessions, and
included NGOs, academic advisors, and donors.
4 On the basis of various stakeholders identified earlier in the project
(e.g. NGOs and grassroots organizations, the industry, academics,
governments), an extensive search of WWW sites was done in order to
evaluate and compare the use of the web by each group of stakeholders.
5 Two information technologies workshops conducted during the
October 1997 meetings in Santa Barbara were used as a means to evalu-
ate access to and use of associated technologies. One workshop focused
on the use of e-mail, Internet, and WWW technologies, and the other on
the use and potential of GIS and remotely sensed data.
6 A subsequent four-day meeting was convened in Santa Barbara in June
1998. This meeting was attended by the ISA Net secretariat and an inter-
national group of social scientists engaged in research on the human and
environmental consequences of industrial shrimp farming. Many of the
participants were using GIS in their work. Discussions at this meeting
centred on the feasibility, potential content and alternative structures of
an IT/PPGIS system that would meet the needs of ISA Net in a scientific,

rigorous way.
19.3.1 Project results
Despite significant ideological, political, and strategic differences between
members, members of the resistance coalition share a belief that ITs and
spatial technologies are significant tools with which to achieve their diver-
gent goals. They are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of ITs
to facilitate communication among members and to advance political
action. Although members rely somewhat upon direct networking in the
field, the group is largely maintained electronically via e-mail and the
Internet, and is loosely coordinated by MAP which maintains a member
list-server and WWW site. Of the 64 organizations identified as key mem-
bers of the coalition, 50 (80 per cent) reported that e-mail was their most
frequent means of communication with MAP, ISA Net, and individual
members.
2
Although the majority (70 per cent) of NGOs surveyed used paper maps
extensively, they reported little use of GIS and other advanced spatial
technologies. However, their responses indicated a relatively sophisticated
awareness of the potential of digital technologies to bolster their efforts. In
addition, there is growing cognizance of how these technologies are used by
Globalization of resistance to industrial shrimp farming 263
© 2002 Taylor & Francis
governments and industry to justify the siting of shrimp ponds and other
coastal development. In a letter to Dr Anjali Bahugauna at the India Space
Applications Center on 9 September 1996, Indian NGO leader Dr Bittu
Saghal wrote: ‘I am on the Ministry of Environment’s Coastal Task Force and
am deeply distressed at the way in which technical experts are helping the
government to interpret images to suit development projects. Mangrove and
fragile coastal zones are easily being categorized as having “no ecological
value” so as to facilitate their destruction by roads, jetties, and other kinds of

development I believe that our Coastal Regulation Zone Rules are vital to
the survival of fishing grounds and therefore fisher folk.’ (Saghal 1996).
According to Jorge Varela, Executive Director of the Committee for the
Defense and Development of the Gulf of Fonseca (CODDEFFAGOLF) in
Honduras:
Our objects are the defense of coastal natural resources; development
of local communities and environmental political activities Clearly,
we are interested in obtaining information and spatial technologies—
and in improving our system of communication Spatial technologies
are critically important With these technologies, we could determine,
independent of the government and the shrimp industry, the grade of
destruction or recuperation of various habitats which would make our
studies, conclusions, and recommendations more objective
personal communication 1998
19.3.2 Constraints on the use of ITs and
spatial technologies
In spite of general recognition of the potential of ITs and spatial technolo-
gies by NGO leaders, several significant constraints regarding access and
implementation were identified. These included: lack of economic resources
to purchase equipment (reported by 75 per cent of respondents); inadequate
training in wisely using and properly maintaining equipment (63 per cent of
respondents); inadequate English language skills (56 per cent of respond-
ents); and poor infrastructure in rural areas (56 per cent of respondents).
These constraints were even more significant in terms of spatial technologies,
the use of which raised a number of additional questions: In the process of cre-
ating maps for local, non-science actors attempting to use GIS, will local users
be forced to adopt the ‘correct’ scientific language to use these technologies?
Will such requirements dissuade potential users because they believe they never
win these kinds of science-based arguments? Does GIS involve more than sim-
ply using the tools, but also adopting a whole legal-science discourse? These

questions involve accessibility and user-friendliness, both on the ‘producing’
and ‘consuming’ ends of the technology, and suggest that as much attention
should be paid to public participation in production of PPGIS as in its use.
264 S. C. Stonich
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19.3.3 Current status of the use of ITs
and spatial technologies
Since its founding in October 1997, ISA Net has made some significant
strides in achieving its goal of advancing communication among mem-
bers. These achievements are quite important in light of the extreme divers-
ity of its membership. In 1999, with the help of external funding from
private foundations, ISA Net created a WWW site, imp-
action.org. This site includes information about ISA Net, action alerts and
news, a list of ISA Net members and their individual websites, an archive
of press releases, links to current research and scholars, and contact infor-
mation. Almost all ISA Net members now maintain their own WWW
sites, usually with external financial support. This is quite a change from
1997, when no Southern NGO member had its own WWW site and most
did not have access to the Internet. In early 2000, ISA Net established a
private e-mail list server through E-groups to expedite communication
among members and associated academics. Although ISA Net concen-
trates on facilitating communication among its members, MAP has
assumed the role of providing information to the public, primarily
through a weekly electronic newsletter sent to several hundred individ-
uals and organizations.
To date, ISA Net is not directly using GIS, although spatial technologies
are central to the work of several of the academics who support ISA Net’s
efforts. A good example is the Shrimp Aquaculture Research Group at the
University of Victoria in British Columbia ( />shrimp/). Under the direction of Dr Mark Flaherty, this multidisciplinary
group is engaged in a number of projects focusing on the human and envir-

onmental dimensions of shrimp farming in Thailand. One of these pro-
jects uses GIS to integrate LANDSAT imagery and other digital data
(hydrology, soils, political boundaries, irrigation infrastructure) to invest-
igate inland shrimp farming. A related project investigates the potential of
using RADARSAT imagery to identify shrimp ponds. These projects are
part of a long-term effort to develop a training programme and build spa-
tial analytical capacity in the Department of Aquatic Sciences at Burapha
University.
19.4 CHALLENGES TO SCALING-UP
The many problems involved in public use of communications and spatial
technologies are magnified when the community of users is a heterogeneous
coalition of individuals and institutions throughout the world. In addition
to the formidable financial, technical, and data constraints, significant
social, cultural, and political obstacles also exist.
Globalization of resistance to industrial shrimp farming 265
© 2002 Taylor & Francis
19.4.1 Lack of consensus among ISA Net members
Among the most prevalent and well-documented reasons for the failure of
public participation efforts is failure to take into account and directly con-
front the diversity, contending perspectives, and unequal power relations
among community members. Overcoming these obstacles is difficult at
the local level; it becomes almost insurmountable when the community is
constituted by a global coalition of diverse factors (Stonich and Bailey
2000). This is the primary obstacle to advancing a successful ICT system
and PPGIS for ISA Net, and is more important than either financial or tech-
nological constraints. To some extent, ISA Net is an experiment in estab-
lishing a powerful global coalition of the poor in the local and global arenas
of environmental governance.
The existing information and communication network among ISA Net
members is the result of three years of concerted efforts to reach consensus

among contending coalition members. During the Internet and GIS work-
shops and the subsequent focus groups conducted during the NGO plan-
ning meetings in October 1997, heated discussions occurred regarding
potential alternative designs for a system. However, no consensus was
reached at that time due in part to contending perspectives among partici-
pants about the structure and organization of the global network itself
(Stonich and Bailey 2000). There has been much more agreement among
members regarding the kinds of GIS or spatial technologies information
and data that should be covered by such a system. These included identify-
ing community management areas and use of local resources by artisanal
fishers and farmers; integrating information about the distribution of
shrimp farms, processing plants, and packing facilities, and about employ-
ment generation; undertaking a longitudinal study using historical aerial
photos and satellite imagery to demonstrate the decline in mangrove forests
and fish stocks; and creating a spatial database identifying the distribution
and types of human rights violations and legal protections, and the areas of
successful versus unsuccessful legal protections. Non-governmental repre-
sentatives suggested that these types of information could be used to justify
their community-based development and conservation programmes.
Participants in the workshops also agreed that under the appropriate condi-
tions, access to ITs, training in ITs, and funding for high-potential projects
(e.g. projects focused on specific development, policy, or legal goals) could
significantly increase the probability of successfully achieving their goals.
19.4.2 Heterogeneity and diversity among
members, environments, and ecologies
Local communities affected by the expansion of the industrial shrimp
industry inhabit locales that are somewhat similar environmentally (i.e.
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coastal, tropical, etc.). However, they also are extremely diverse in terms of

nationality, culture, language, technological capacity, wealth, and power.
These differences (and related diversity of interests) among ISA Net mem-
bers are apparent in ongoing debates about the network’s goals and object-
ives, strategies for action, and appropriate ITs. Gender divisions also have
emerged as an important factor. Thus the challenge of designing and
implementing a successful global IT and PPGIS for ISA Net go beyond the
considerable frustrations usually associated with attempts to link data from
different scales and time periods to produce a more comprehensive under-
standing of how people regulate and manage resources. Despite the advant-
ages of spatial ITs in linking different data sources, it remains difficult to
identify for analysis particular social, economic, political, environmental,
and ecological factors and relationships among diverse human, geographic,
and environmental contexts. A critical requirement in this regard is to
create a system that is at once sensitive to local diversity (among people,
perceptions, knowledge, environments, ecologies, political systems, institu-
tions, etc.) and capable of synthesizing information and demonstrating
regional and global patterns and conclusions.
19.4.3 Technological capacity and training
Although confronting the constraints presented by diversity and lack of con-
sensus among members is crucial, obstacles related to technology, financing,
and training also are serious and must be addressed. Diversity in techno-
logical capacity is apparent among ISA Net members. Not surprisingly,
Northern members such as World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense
Fund, and the Environmental Defense Fund enjoy considerable technolo-
gical advantage over their Southern colleagues. Representatives of these
Northern NGOs also are fluent in English and have more resources at their
disposal than do their Southern counterparts. Although it is tempting to
work through these more powerful organizations, they do not necessarily
represent the interests of the Southern NGOs, many of which are com-
munity-based organizations comprised largely of poor people from coastal

zones. Working with the more powerful Northern NGOs may serve the
North’s interests at the expense of those of Southern NGOs. Making things
more complex, Southern NGOs themselves differ significantly among them-
selves in their capacity to utilize advanced ITs. Thus, working with local
groups in the South greatly reduces the speed of design and implementation,
although doing so enhances representation and effective participation.
19.4.4 Cultural and social considerations
People from the South may be suspicious of technologies that are seen as
Western or Northern, and with which Northern partners have a higher level
Globalization of resistance to industrial shrimp farming 267
© 2002 Taylor & Francis
of expertise, familiarity, and financial investment. Southern partners may
not want to use such technologies because they feel that the playing field is
not level. Even if they participate in e-mail discussions, some participants
feel that the medium does as much harm as good because of the potential
for misunderstanding inherent in e-mail messages. Research suggests that
the Internet does not build trust as rapidly as face-to-face encounters. In the
West, people have become very accustomed to phones, fax machines, and
the Internet as communication media. But in international networks that
involve people who do not use telephones or other technologies on a regu-
lar basis, it may take quite some time before the trust is there to use them.
Nor is it simply a matter of others ‘catching up’ with technology. There are
legitimate criticisms of the Internet and valid arguments in favour of face-
to-face encounters. It will likely be impossible to sustain any Internet net-
work without occasional face-to-face meetings and discussions. Although
this may seem obvious, face-to-face meetings require large amounts of
funding that simply may not be available to citizen action or international
civil society networks. The Internet seems to work best in situations where
people have already met in person one or more of the people they are com-
municating with, allowing Internet communications to develop from a per-

sonal basis, rather than the reverse.
19.4.5 Counter mapping, politics, and the
ownership of information
As discussed elsewhere (Stonich 1998), the characterization of ITs, GIS, and
other spatial ITs as capable of democratizing or reinforcing extant power
relations is ambiguous. On which side of the line such efforts fall depends
on a number of diverse factors. Mapping, especially counter-mapping, is
frequently an extremely political endeavour, and must be viewed within the
broader social, economic, and political framework in which it occurs.
An IT/PPGIS as generally envisioned by members of ISA Net certainly
enhances the potential danger of surveillance, conflict, and co-option of
local knowledge and resources by power elites (including the shrimp indus-
try). At the same time, it also has the potential to advance advocacy, make
visible the claims of those most affected by the expansion of industrial
shrimp farming, counter the claims of the industry, and promote new
visions of development. The considerable agreement among resistance
coalition members about the kinds of useful spatial knowledge and infor-
mation that could be distributed through the Internet and at the local level
remains a very significant (but unrealized) potential. The expansion of the
shrimp farming industry already has provoked considerable conflict. The
essential requirement here in terms of PPGIS is that the political conse-
quences of such an effort must be thoroughly investigated and taken into
account.
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NOTES
1. MAP (Mangrove Action Project) is a non-governmental, environmental organi-
zation located in Washington State (outside Seattle). Its mission is to conserve
mangrove and other coastal ecosystems. It is made up of more than 300 other
NGOs, private foundations, and individuals from all over the world.

2. Other means of communication included: facsimile (9 per cent), postal mail
(9 per cent), and telephone (2 per cent).
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