Seaweed: The Nature of a Global Cash Crop in the Caluya Islands, Philippines

Abstract

The rapid uptake of seaweed cultivation by smallholder entrepreneurs in the Caluya Islands, Philippines has both transformed rural lives and helped rejuvenate traditional agrarian and fishing livelihoods of people there. While eucheuma seaweed is farmed as an aquaculture cash crop, it has not resulted in the same marginalization that has been documented in other communities reliant on export crops such as shrimp. This paper presents ethnographic research conducted between May and September of 2007. Using political ecology theories, I argue that it is the combination of local socio-economic factors with the unique material nature of seaweed that has created a positive impact for the community and allowed it to be integrated beneficially into existing social structures. My research in this area aims to contribute to an understanding of how certain market integration relations are produced and why particular outcomes lead to marginalization of communities while others, as in this case, have more sustainable and just outcomes.