The shrimp on your plate has a story.
Over the past three decades, the world’s appetite for shrimp has surged — almost tenfold. Wild shrimp stocks alone can’t keep up with this demand, so farming shrimp has filled the gap.
But this rapid growth has come at a heavy cost. Mangrove forests — which shelter life along many of the world’s tropical coasts and absorb gobs of climate-warming carbon — have been cleared to make way for shrimp farms.
The carbon footprint of this devastation is enormous: A 2017 study found that the climate impact of a steak and shrimp dinner — were it to come from shrimp farms and pasture formerly occupied by mangroves — is the same as driving a small car across the continental United States.
Now, in the coastal village of Lalombi in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, a new chapter to the story is unfolding — one that includes more shrimp and more mangroves.
This June brought the first harvest of shrimp raised using a new “Climate Smart Shrimp” approach pioneered by Conservation International.
“The equation is simple,” said Dane Klinger, who leads the organization’s Climate Smart Shrimp program. “We’re helping farmers grow more shrimp on less land, so that they can return the rest of their farms back to mangroves. It’s a shift that we think could disrupt the entire industry to make it not just more sustainable, but more productive and profitable, too.”
For years, shrimp farms followed a familiar pattern: Clear the mangroves, dig the ponds and harvest what you can.
But as global demand for shrimp has grown, many farmers have pushed their farms to the limit to produce more in the same space. This comes with risks: Crowded ponds can increase disease outbreaks, while runoff pollutes waterways and damages delicate coastal ecosystems. A “boom-and-bust” cycle begins, forcing farmers to abandon or rotate ponds frequently, driving expansion into the few remaining mangroves left.
Young mangroves emerge in restored mangrove habitat.
In Lalombi, that pattern is shifting.
Backed by Conservation International’s local affiliate, Konservasi Indonesia, the Indonesia-based start-up JALA purchased a shrimp farm in Lalombi that had previously been abandoned, low-productivity shrimp ponds. Here, they’ve adopted a more efficient farming model that responsibly boosts production while shrinking the climate footprint of the ponds.
“We’ve made a lot of changes,” said Aryo Wiryawan, founder of JALA. “We’re preparing our ponds more carefully, using better tools to monitor shrimp health, and managing waste more effectively. All of this has helped improve survival rates and allowed us to raise more shrimp in the same space.”
The farmers are paying close attention to everything from how much feed the shrimp receive to the temperature, oxygen levels and salinity of the water — all key to creating the right conditions for healthy growth. Some ponds use aerators to boost oxygen levels or automated feeders to optimize nutrition. Pond liners, often made of plastic or concrete, help provide farmers more control over the environment.
These approaches appear to be paying off. The first harvest at the Lalombi farm brought in 52 tons per hectare — well above average.
“With better survival rates and healthier shrimp, the income per cycle has increased,” Wiryawan said. “This early trajectory suggests that the Climate Smart Shrimp approach — combining smart tech, regenerative practices and better farm management — can deliver both ecological and economic benefits.”
And in spaces no longer needed for ponds, mangroves are being restored, one sapling at a time. Early signs suggest it’s working.
Mariska Astrid, a researcher at Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, helped survey the water quality at the Lalombi farm and the surrounding mangrove areas to assess their natural filtration role.
Scientists from Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency collect water samples during the harvest to assess water quality in the shrimp ponds and restored mangrove habitat.
“Previously, wastewater from shrimp ponds was foamy due to high chemical and phosphorus content,” Astrid said. “After passing through the wastewater treatment system and natural mangrove filtration, the foam disappeared, and the water became clear — safe for discharge into the sea.”
It’s a small but promising sign for Indonesia — one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, but one with one of the world’s highest deforestation rates. Significant portions of the mangroves on Sulawesi have been damaged or destroyed since the 1980s.
Over time, these coastlines once cleared for shrimp could become a renewed haven for native wildlife — from darting schools of fish to mudskippers, fiddler crabs, herons and kingfishers.
“Every shrimp on your plate has a story,” Wiryawan said. “It’s connected to a community, an ecosystem and a farmer trying to make the right choices. What you eat matters — it can drive real change.”
Conservation International has now turned its attention to scaling climate smart shrimp by attracting more investment in the model. A recent grant from Convergence will enable Conservation International and partners to design and raise a loan fund to finance adoption of climate smart shrimp practices across Indonesia.
This project was made possible through the generous support of the Caterpillar Foundation. Since its founding in 1952, Caterpillar Foundation has helped improve the lives of people around the world by investing in the skills people need to join the modern workforce, and the natural and vital infrastructure they rely upon.
Will McCarry is the content director at Conservation International. Want to read more stories like this? Sign up for email updates. Also, please consider supporting our critical work.
