sea turtle, often a by-catch (or collateral damage) of tuna fishing have aroused concern. This has led to the attempts to develop technologies that are more specific to the species to be harvested and eliminate or substantially reduce by-catch. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Spe­cies of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) requires certificates of origin for cultured species on the endangered list, before they can be traded.
     A trade issue that has come up recently and is likely to play a more important role in the future is that of "dump­ing" (see 3.2). With not only lower wages, but also more ef­ficient and large-scale processing and production techniques, Asian countries are low cost producers in a range of fishery products. Their exports at sustained lower prices threaten livelihoods of producers in developed economies.
     With growing demand for fish and fish products (fish is a superior good, in that its consumption increases as world per capita income rises), capture fisheries obviously cannot meet market demand. The attempts to increase the quantity of capture fish has frequently led to the collapse of vari­ous fisheries, most spectacularly North Atlantic cod fishery. Subsidies to fishing boats have contributed to increases in the over the limited catch capacity over which countries are competing. This is a classic case of the tragedy of the un-managed commons, compounded by subsidies. Aquaculture has developed as a technology that can increase production beyond the natural limits of capture fisheries. It can help reduce pressure on wild stocks and thus help ecosystem re­habilitation. However, aquaculture too has its own ecologi­cal problems.
     The best-known ecological problem is related to marine shrimp culture. For one, it has been based on collection of fry and juveniles from the wild, leading to an over-collection of such stocks. With numerous individuals collecting wild fry in an open access manner, there is no way in which sus­tainable harvesting limits can be maintained.
     More important, however, has been the degradation of coastal environments by shrimp farming. Mangrove forests, important as the spawning ground of numerous species of fish, have been destroyed in the course of shrimp farming. Saline water intrusion has further degraded coastal lands. The inability to sustain productivity in shrimp farming has further led to the financial collapse of shrimp farming in many areas and a locational shift to other areas. More re­cently, attempts have been made to mitigate these negative impacts, through zoning and replanting of mangrove areas in Thailand.
     There are other impacts of aquaculture, including ma­rine aquaculture. There are concerns about escape of cul­tured into wild stocks, spread of pathogens from the former to the latter, discharge of effluents and solid wastes and so on. Some of these concerns have been met by improved site selection and improved management practices.
     There is also the matter of dependence on fish meal pre­pared from "trash" fish, with the likely depletion of these stocks. This is the case for carnivorous fish, like salmon and shrimp. But, with the exception of marine shrimp, the bulk of aquaculture production in Asia comprised omnivorous/ herbivorous fish, while 74% of aquaculture production in developed countries was of carnivorous species. There is a need to develop feed feeds that reduce dependence on fish

meal. This would reduce dependence on capture fisheries.
     With pressure to increase production per hectare of the earth's surface and to increase the incomes of small cultiva­tors, there has been an extension of aquaculture into sys­tems of rice monoculture. This extension tries to utilize the synergies between rice and fish, either in simultaneous or in alternating systems of cultivation. While this is a new system of production, it is, however, a new management practice rather than a new technology.
     Fisheries has seen little of the genetic improvement of stocks to increase yields. These have yielded spectacular re­sults in agriculture, with wheat yields going up by 50% and rice yields by 25%. In terrestrial animal management, there have been higher yields of milk or meat with genetically im­proved stocks.
     In fisheries the attempt to genetically improve stocks, through selection and breeding, was first undertaken in the North Atlantic for salmon and trout. Such an attempt was then made for tilapia, a fish of African origin, but now widely cultured across Asia. The genetic improvement of tilapia was undertaken in the public sector, with the World Fish Center playing the leading role. This attempt resulted in what is known as GIFT (Genetically Improved Fish Tilapia), which was then distributed to various countries in Asia. The improvement in the rate of growing in GIFT as compared to other tilapia, however, was just 10%. Possibly this rate of increase in yield is not enough to result in its widespread adoption by small farmers, as the increase in yield could eas­ily be negated by poor management or insufficient inputs.
     The success of the GIFT project, however, illustrates that it is not necessary, as some argue, that research and de­velopment of new technology be undertaken in the private sector and that the incentives of high rents from patents or licenses are essential to provide the incentives for investment in research and development. Scientists and officials work­ing in public sector institutions can as well develop new technologies.
     While GIFT itself is in the public domain, it is intriguing that its further development has been handed over to a Nor­wegian private sector company. Having made the necessary initial breakthrough there seems no reason why the further development of GIFT could not have been left also in the public domain.
     The question of the relation between public and pri­vate domains is also raised by a new marine based medical development. Australian firms are testing the use of brown seaweed (Undaria pinnatifida) as an anti-viral agent, includ­ing its use in treating HIV. The medical use of Undaria is an established practice in the Korean peninsula. This possibly is the original knowledge on the basis of which an innovation is being developed. What should be the relation between the original knowledge and the likely subsequent patent?

3.4.7     Forestry
In the ESAP region, a net loss of forests of about 792,000 ha per year in the 1990s was reversed into an annual gain of 1 million ha, largely due to increased plantation activity in the region, particularly in China. However, in South and Southeast Asia there continued to be an annual net decline in forest area of about 2.7 million ha per year (see 2.2.3).
     With the growth of trade in timber, there was an initial