An analysis of environmental policy strategies for coastal land conservation in Thailand.

Abstract

Abstract Addressing externalities in policy decisions is crucial to ensuring the sustainable use of coastal land. This chapter analyses efficient management options and their trade-offs for coastal land use in Krabi Province, Thailand. Various environmental management schemes, such as zoning, green taxation and effluent standards for managing the externalities from shrimp farming, are explored. Multi-objective programming models are set to maximize both net private benefit and net environmental benefit at the same time, subject to technical constraint sets such as land availability, rice consumption and the carrying capacity of receiving waters for shrimp farm effluent discharges. The analysis shows that a policy strategy based on an effluent standard alone would not guarantee an environmentally friendly outcome. Zoning is a promising instrument to control the local impacts of shrimp farm effluent, whereas zoning plus green taxation would result in a fairer distribution of the benefits and costs to society, thus helping mitigate coastal land use conflicts.