Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and lead by People’s Committee of Soc Trang Province (PPC),the project aims to manage Soc Trang Province’s coastal resources which are heavily used for aquaculture and rice cultivation. As part of aquaculture, shrimp production was found to be the most profitable sector to drive economic growth.
Areas of the coasts are sold or leased out to investors who want to farm shrimps, resulting in the poor locals being forced to live further inland instead. The community and authorities were incompetent in sustaining their environment as their interests for economic growth clashes with the well-being of their natural resources.