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Expansion of aquaculture in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve (SBR) is irreversibly replacing agricultural land and the drivers of this change are disputed. Based on in-depth interviews with 67 aquaculture farmers, this paper characterizes major aquaculture types in the SBR, their impacts, and identifies drivers of conversion from agricultural land. Aquaculture types included traditional, improved-traditional, modified-extensive, and semi-intensive systems. Extensive capture of wild shrimp larvae is environmentally harmful but constitutes an important livelihood. Semi-intensive aquaculture of exotic shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has much higher unit-area profitability than other types but involves greater financial risk. Profitability is the main driver for the transition from agriculture, but environmental factors such as lowered crop yields and cyclone impacts also contributed. Many conversions from agriculture to aquaculture are illegal according to the stakeholders. Existing legislation, if enforced, could halt the loss of agriculture, while the promotion of improved-traditional aquaculture could reduce the demand for wild seed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Triggered by such claims, we decided to investigate the fast expanding aquaculture industry, which resulted in the 1989 I Ambio i paper 'The role of ecosystems for a sustainable development of aquaculture' (Folke and Kautsky [5]). We proposed that sustainability leadership by such Keystone Actors could result in cascading effects throughout the entire seafood industry and possible enable a much needed transition towards improved management of marine living resources and ecosystems (Österblom et al. [19]; Jouffray et al. [13]). For the first time, the initiative connects the global seafood business to science, connects wild capture fisheries to aquaculture, and connects European and North American companies to Asian companies. Aquaculture and ocean stewardship: This article belongs to Ambio's 50th Anniversary Collection. [Extracted from the article]