Exploring fishers' pro-environmental behavioral intention and support for policies to combat marine litter in Vietnam.

This study applies Value-Belief-Norm (VBN) theory to investigate fishers' pro-environmental behavioral intention and their support for policies to reduce marine litter. While pro-environmental behavioral intention is often associated with personal environmental intention at the household level, policy support represents their support for government action at the political level. Therefore, we examine whether fishers are willing to engage in both of these dimensions. Data from 369 Vietnamese fishers are analyzed using structural equation modeling with FIMIX-PLS and PLS-POS. The results show that the sequence of values, beliefs, and personal norms can explain the fishers' pro-environmental behavioral intention and their support for policies addressing marine litter. Two segments of the fishers are detected from the sample with different perspectives of engagement intention. Fishers in segment 1 placed great emphasis on the consequences of marine litter on fishing activities as a motivator for their responsible actions. Meanwhile, fishers in segment 2 express pro-environmental engagement intention driven by the concern about responsibility and moral obligation. A binary logistic regression indicates that the risks of marine litter on fishing activity can provide the explanations for the differences between them. Our findings highlight both fishers' pro-environmental behavior and policy support as important strategies for dealing with marine litter in fisheries. If implemented simultaneously, they hold promise to alleviate the environmental and economic impact of marine litter in Vietnam.

Stakeholder perceptions towards sustainable shrimp aquaculture in Vietnam.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production industry globally and is considered to have the greatest potential to meet the growing demand for seafood and being a solution to overfishing. Despite the benefits of aquaculture, the rapid growth and intensification of production (so-called conventional aquaculture) has raised concerns about food safety, fish welfare, and environmental and social issues stemming from a tragedy of the commons. These concerns need to be addressed to enable sustainable aquaculture development. While the negative environmental impacts of aquaculture have been evaluated using physical and chemical indicators, the social acceptance has not been fully considered when evaluating aquaculture sustainability. With this backdrop, our study investigates knowledge and beliefs towards shrimp aquaculture development among two key stakeholder groups in Vietnam: the public and producers (shrimp farmers). Our results show that stakeholders were concerned about the social and environmental impacts of conventional shrimp aquaculture, although the different stakeholder groups emphasized different aspects. The public believed biodiversity loss and the overuse of antibiotics and pesticides to be more problematic compared to producers, who believed water quality and disease outbreaks were the main problems facing the industry. Following on from this, most respondents perceived sustainable aquaculture production positively, implying social acceptability for its development. Awareness of and knowledge about sustainable aquaculture positively and significantly affected stakeholders' support for expansion, suggesting that communication and education may be effective tools for improving social acceptance of aquaculture.