Economics Analysis of Different Aquaculture Systems in Coastal Buffer Zones of Protected Areas: a Case Study in Xuan Thuy National Park, Vietnam

The paper aims to achieve two goals. First, it highlights the differences of aquaculture systems in the buffer zones of Xuan Thuy national park, Vietnam. Second, it serves as an assessment of the economic performance and factors that influence net returns of the systems. A formal survey was used to collect relevant data from 138 farmers in intensive shrimp (ISH) and integrated aquaculture-mangrove (IAM) farming systems. Results demonstrated that ISH produced a total 1,017 million Vietnam Dong (mil.VND) value of output per hectare annually which was more than 32.99 mil. VND from IAM. ISH carried a much higher cost of production (695.39 million VND/ha/year) than IAM (13.29 million VND), and ISH obtained relative higher net returns (321.17 million VND) than IAM (19.70 million VND). Ordinal least square (OLS) regression was used to assess relationships between social-economic-environmental factors on the net returns. Maintaining more forestry coverage and reduce the negative effects of polluted water from surrounding rivers are important to achieve greater income of IAM production. Meanwhile, stimulating formal and informal knowledge together with increasing farmers' power in bargaining prices simultaneously reducing negative effects of polluted water, disease occurrence and production costscan help to improve the net returns of ISH production. The expanded analysis is necessary to render value contributions to ensure farmers receive a higher level of economic returns while conserving the natural ecosystem for the protected areas.