Abstract
A variety of means have been employed to steer the shrimp aquaculture sector in Southeast Asia towards sustainability, including state regulation, implementation of public/private codes and standards, and environmental performance assessments by civil society organizations working on seafood sustainability. Yet, despite these efforts, shrimp aquaculture across Southeast Asia continues to face persistent challenges. We contend that the reason for this is due to insufficient attention being paid to understanding the relationships between actors who are engaged in co-governing the sector (i.e. collaborative arrangements), and the capabilities these actors have that support the means by which change can occur. Specifically, we argue that there is a need to support and improve governance arrangements so they can enable processes of collaboration that support reflexivity and that operate across scales. We make this case empirically by applying the Aquaculture Governance Indicators framework via assessments of three shrimp-producing countries—Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. In analysing shrimp aquaculture governance, we find that many of the recurring issues within the industry can be explained by weak co-governance which is reinforced by the limited reflexive and rescaling capabilities of actors. Focusing on the relationship between these overlooked elements of governance allows us to identify systemic governance gaps which can guide intervention efforts within the shrimp aquaculture sector to improve areas of coordination, reflexive thinking, learning, and cooperation.