Research on the climate resilient livelihood in the coastal zone of tien hai district, thai binh province

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN HA MY

RESEARCH ON THE CLIMATE RESILIENT
LIVELIHOOD IN THE COASTAL ZONE OF
TIEN HAI DISTRICT, THAI BINH
PROVINCE

MASTER’S THESIS


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
VIETNAM JAPAN UNIVERSITY

NGUYEN HA MY

RESEARCH ON THE CLIMATE RESILIENT
LIVELIHOOD IN THE COASTAL ZONE OF
TIEN HAI DISTRICT, THAI BINH
PROVINCE
MAJOR: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT
CODE: 8900201.02QTD

RESEARCH SUPERVISORS:
Prof. MAI TRONG NHUAN
Assoc. Prof. NGUYEN TAI TUE

Hanoi, 2021

PLEDGE
I assure that this thesis is the result of my own research and has not been
published. The use of other research’s results and other documents must comply with
the regulations. The citations and references to documents, books, research paper, and
websites must be in the list of references of the thesis.
Author of the thesis

NGUYEN HA MY


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, my appreciation and gratitude go to Professor Mai Trong Nhuan
and Associate Professor Nguyen Tai Tue in Hanoi University of Sciences, Vietnam
National University (VNU) for their great academic guidance and enthusiastic
encouragement during the completion of the thesis.
I would like to thank Mr. Dinh Van Cao, Management Board of Thai Binh Wetland
Nature Reserve, the staffs in the Nam Phu People Committee- Thai Binh Province, and
residents in Nam Phu commune, Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province for their
enthusiastic support in providing materials and assistance in my data collection.
This thesis is hugely supported by the national projects, entitled “Studying on the
scientific and practical fundamentals, procedure to assess the ecosystem quality in
coastal area using the modern technology for natural resources and environmental
protection”, code: TNMT.2018.06.16. for valuable aggregate information about the
study area.
I wish to express my special thanks for all the lectures and Ms. Bui Thu Hoa of the
Master Program in Climate Change and Development, Vietnam-Japan University,
VNU for creating conditions and supporting me to study and research during my
graduate school career.
I could not have completed this work without support from Associate Professor

Nguyen Quang Trung, Director and other staffs of Center for Research and
Technology Transfer (CRETECH), Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology
(VAST).
Last but not least, I would like to express my indebtedness to my families, and friends
who have given me constant encouragement, great patience and utmost love to
overcome all difficulties in the thesis completion.


TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................... I
LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................II
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................... IV
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................. V
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................1
1.1 Background ............................................................................................................1
1.2 Research objectives, questions, and hypothesis ....................................................2
1.3 Subject and scope ...................................................................................................3
1.3.1 Research subject .................................................................................................3
1.3.2 Scope ..................................................................................................................3
1.4 Literature review ....................................................................................................5
1.4.1 International research ......................................................................................... 5
1.4.2 National research ................................................................................................ 6
1.4.3. Key concepts .....................................................................................................9
1.5 Overview of research area ...................................................................................14
1.5.1 Geographical conditions...................................................................................14
1.5.2. Natural resources ............................................................................................. 17
1.5.3. Socio-economic characteristics .......................................................................20
1.5.4 Livelihood models ............................................................................................ 22
CHAPTER 2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ....................... 27
2.1 Methodological approach ....................................................................................27

2.2 Research methods ................................................................................................30
2.2.1 Data sources and data collection method ......................................................... 31
2.2.2 Establishing a set of livelihood resilience indicators .......................................34
2.2.3 Data processing methods..................................................................................41
CHAPTER 3: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS....................................................... 45
3.1 Current status of livelihood in Nam Phu commune.............................................45
3.2 Climate change impact in the study site ..............................................................49
3.2.1 Temperature .....................................................................................................49
3.2.2 Rainfall .............................................................................................................50
3.2.3 Extreme weather events ...................................................................................51
3.2.4 Sea level rise and salinity intrusion ..................................................................55
3.2.5 Impacts of climate change on livelihood ......................................................... 56
3.3 Assessment of climate resilient livelihood in the study site ................................59
3.3.1 Livelihood capitals ........................................................................................... 62
3.3.2. Self-organization capacity...............................................................................69
3.3.3. Learning capacity ............................................................................................ 71
3.3.4. Disaster management capacity ........................................................................73


3.3.5. Eco-shrimp farming versus Intensive farming ................................................76
3.4 Constraint issues of climate-resilient livelihood of households ..........................83
3.5 Limitations of this study .....................................................................................84
CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................86
4.1 Scientific basis .....................................................................................................86
4.2 Practical basis.......................................................................................................87
4.3 Recommendations from aquaculture households ................................................88
4.4 Enhancing the climate-resilient livelihood in Tien Hai coastal zone ..................90
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...................................................................................92
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................94
APPENDIX.................................................................................................................100

APPENDIX A: HOUSEHOLD’S QUESTIONAIRE .............................................100
APPENDIX B: IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS ......................................109
APPENDIX C: FIELD WORK ACTIVITES .........................................................111
APPENDIX D: ANSWERS OF HOUSEHOLD’S QUESTIONAIRE .................112


LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1. The research objectives, questions and hypothesis ...................................2
Table 1.2. Mangrove Forest and aquaculture area in Tien Hai District ......................4
Table 1.3. Time, place and content of the fieldwork sessions .....................................4
Table 1.4. Some definitions of livelihood resilience .................................................12
Table 1.5. Main points of sustainable to resilient livelihoods thinking .....................14
Table 2.1. List of research methods ...........................................................................30
Table 2.2. Number of interviewed households ..........................................................33
Table 2.3. Sets of indicators to assess livelihood resilience to climate change in the
coastal areas represented by Nam Phu Communes ...................................................39
Table 3.1. Description of study commune in 2015-2020 ..........................................45
Table 3.2. Major income of Nam Phu commune in 2015-2020 ................................46
Table 3.3. Change of rainfall (%) in 1958-2014 over 7 climatic regions ..................50
Table 3.4. Number of typhoons and tropical depressions in Thai Binh 1985-1994 ..53
Table 3.5. Damages caused by disasters in the past 10 years ....................................58
Table 3.6. Results of livelihood resilience in aquaculture to climate change in the
coastal areas represented by Nam Phu Commune .....................................................59
Table 4.1. SWOT analysis .........................................................................................87
Table 4.2. Recommendations of households to improve the efficiency of
aquaculture .................................................................................................................88

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Map of study site (Tien Hai District, Thai Binh Province) ........................5
Figure 1.2. Land use land cover map of Thai Binh’s coastline .................................19
Figure 1.3. Intensive (left) and eco-shrimp farming (right) model............................22
Figure 1.4. Area of shrimp and other aquatic products .............................................22
Figure 1.5. Shrimp farming area in Tien Hai district ................................................23
Figure 1.6. Shrimp production and farming in Tien Hai district ...............................23
Figure 2.1. Framework of the thesis ..........................................................................27
Figure 2.2. Logical framework of the study ..............................................................28
Figure 2.3. Climate-resilient livelihood framework ..................................................35
Figure 3.1. Other income sources of households (%) ................................................46
Figure 3.2. Major types of aquacultures in Nam Phu commune (%) ........................47
Figure 3.3. The proportion of aquaculture types in Nam Phu commune ..................47
Figure 3.4. Eco-shrimp farming in Nam Phu commune ............................................48
Figure 3.5. Change of annual average temperature (left) and total precipitation
(right) in 1985-2014 ...................................................................................................49
Figure 3.6. Annual average temperature in Thai Binh (1999-2019) .........................50
Figure 3.7. Annual total precipitation in Thai Binh (1999-2019)..............................51
Figure 3.8. Typhoon hitting the Red River Delta (left) and Mekong River Delta
(right) from 1950 to 2019 ..........................................................................................52
Figure 3.9. The trend of typhoons hitting Red River Delta in the period of
1950-2019 ..................................................................................................................52
Figure 3.10. The changing of rainfall, groundwater level and sea level over time
in Thai Binh ...............................................................................................................55
Figure 3.11. Household’s perception on the impacts of natural disasters (%) ..........57
Figure 3.12. Perception on impact of climate change on production (%) .................57
Figure 3.13. Disaster impact level on production (%) ...............................................58
Figure 3.14. Radar map of indicators of four components of aquaculture
livelihood resilience ...................................................................................................62
Figure 3.15. Technology application in production - L10 (%) ..................................63

Figure 3.16. Technology application in production stages ........................................64
Figure 3.17. Observed quality of water used in production - L11 ............................64
Figure 3.18. Labor availability– L1 (%) ....................................................................65
Figure 3.19. Job creation for other people - L8 (%) ..................................................66
Figure 3.20. Experience years in aquaculture - L2 (%) .............................................66
Figure 3.21. Average aquaculture area of each household - L12 (%) ......................67
Figure 3.22. Annual income of shrimp farming - L4 (%) .........................................67

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Figure 3.23. Household perception of impact of climate change on infrastructure
system - L9 (%) ..........................................................................................................68
Figure 3.24. Amount of bank loans - L6 (%) ............................................................68
Figure 3.25. Support from government/NGO - S1 (%) .............................................69
Figure 3.26. Participation in social groups - S2 (%)..................................................69
Figure 3.27. Participation in the socio-economic development plans - S4 (%) ........70
Figure 3.28. Frequency of participation in training courses on production
- S3 (%) ......................................................................................................................70
Figure 3.29. Support from neighborhood in production - C4 (%) .............................72
Figure 3.30. Education level - C3 (%) .......................................................................72
Figure 3.31. Price change of output products - C2 (%) .............................................73
Figure 3.32. Availability of evacuation goods - D1 (%) ...........................................74
Figure 3.33. Summary of autonomous adaptation practices in aquaculture
- D2 (%) .....................................................................................................................75
Figure 3.34. Livelihood activity replacement due to disaster - D4 (%) ....................75
Figure 3.35. Participation in disaster-related knowledge training - D3 (%)..............76
Figure 3.36. Comparison chart of Livelihood Resilience ..........................................76
Figure 3.37. Radar map of Livelihood Resilience in intensive and eco-shrimp
farming .......................................................................................................................77

Figure 3.38. Climate-resilient livelihood index in Nam Phu .....................................79
Figure 3.39. Annual income of shrimp farming (%) .................................................80
Figure 3.40. Investment costs for aquaculture ...........................................................81
Figure 3.41. Perceived impact of climate change on production (%) .......................82
Figure 3.42. Aquaculture area (%).............................................................................82
Figure 3.43. Participation in training courses on production (%)..............................83
Figure 4.1. Livelihood Strategy Framework ..............................................................87
Figure 4.2. Recommendations of households for climate change adaptation (%) ....89

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
CBA: Community-based adaptation
CC: Climate change
DFID: UK Agency for International Development
FC: Financial capital
HC: Human capital
IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
LR: Livelihood resilience
NC: Natural capital
PC: Physical capital
R:
Resilience
SC: Social capital
SLR: Sea level rise

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ABSTRACT
Although aquaculture contributes significantly to production in coastal areas, it has
been detrimentally affected by climate change. This study selected coastal zone of
Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province with a representative commune - Nam Phu,
where rural resident’s main livelihood is aquaculture, consisting of intensive shrimp
farming and eco-shrimp farming. The objectives of this study are (i) to identify the
impacts of climate change on Nam Phu, (ii) to compare livelihood resilience of
aquaculture activities, and (iii) to propose solutions to enhance resident’s livelihood
and protect environment at the same time.
Based on similar research and self-proposing criteria, a set of indicators to assess
resilience of aquaculture livelihood and livelihood strategy selection was created. Four
evaluation components with 24 indicators, including (1) Livelihood capitals, (2) Selforganization, (3) Capacity for learning, and (4) Disaster management capacity, were
systematized. For index estimation, 100 questionnaires for aquaculture households
were collected and interpreted. The score of overall climate-resilient livelihood in
aquaculture households was estimated by Min-Max formula.
Results show that: (1) Aquaculture households perceived that Nam Phu has been
detrimentally affected by climate change and natural disasters, such as saline intrusion,
typhoons and floods; (2) The median climate-resilient score for aquaculture
households was 0.49, which implied a medium-resilient level. Self-organization
capacity got a less-resilient level, while the three remaining components were scored
as medium-resilient; (3) The eco-shrimp farming households had an average climate
resilient index of 0.49, which was slightly higher than that of intensive farming model
(0.44). To conclude, the research emphasized featured livelihood model of eco-shrimp
farming, which brings sustainable income and mangrove ecosystems conservation. It
also provided useful information for formulating policies to meet the climate change
including

diversifying

eco-livelihoods,

improvement

of

eco-shrimp

farming

technology and policy support.
.

v


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
As a global issue, climate change has been considered as “threat multiplier” that will
exacerbate existing risks for and vulnerability of natural and human systems,
especially for coastal states (IPCC, 2014). Consequently, climate change triggers
damage to communities in countries where their livelihoods rely heavily on natural
resources, causes the food and water insecurity and unsustainable development.
Located in Asia-Pacific, most Asian nations’ economies are depended on natural
resources and vulnerable to climate change risks.
Vietnam, a coastal country in Southeast Asia, is ranked as the top vulnerable region to
climate change. Many of its coastal residents live in geographic areas that are
vulnerable to natural disasters while their adaptive capacity is limited, and countermeasure resources are inadequate. Moreover, their incomes are mainly from livelihood
activities that are sensitive to the impacts of weather changes such as agriculture,
aquaculture, etc.
Tien Hai district, located in a coastal zone of Thai Binh province, is one of the two

major core areas in Red River Delta Biosphere Reserve (together with Xuan Thuy
National Park in Nam Dinh province) and was recognized by UNESCO in 2004. With
such geographical and natural conditions, Tien Hai should have been received more
serious consideration to protect its ecosystem. However, in recent decades, the
consequences from effects of extreme weather phenomena, along with the proactive
indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources have been strongly destroying
mangrove and protective forests, degrading coastal ecosystems, greatly affecting
livelihood in the locality.
Under these circumstances, households take the initiative to protect their livelihoods
from future losses by building climate-resilience. Currently, with the advantage of
being a coastal district and having rich aquatic resources, the main livelihood in Tien
Hai is considered as aquaculture cultivated by several farming models including
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ecological one. In the context of climate change, there have been a lot of research on
sustainable assessment of natural resources in coastal areas as well as a set of criteria
for assessing resilience in ecological models. However, there is a lack of an
assessment of livelihood model resilience in the coastal community in Tien Hai due to
climate change to achieve the goal of sustainable development.
For those reasons, I chose the topic "Research on climate-resilient livelihoods in the
coastal area of Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province". In the following sections,
livelihood types, ecological models and study site will be selected to represent the
coastal area of Tien Hai and serve as a basis for assessing resilience to climate change.
1.2 Research objectives, questions, and hypothesis
General objective:
This research aims to examine the climate resilience of the main livelihood aquaculture in the coastal zone of Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province for enhancing
sustainability. The research objectives, questions and hypothesis are as in Table 1.1.
Table 1.1. The research objectives, questions, and hypothesis
Research hypothesis

Research questions

Research Objectives

Climate change expressed in

How has climate change

To identify the climate

increase of Temperature,

been impacting on the

change and assess its

rainfall, sea level rise and

study site in general and

impacts on aquaculture

induced extreme weather

on local peoples’ main

livelihood in the study

events, strongly impacts on the

livelihood - aquaculture? site

livelihood resilience.
The local households have

How and to what extent

To assess the current

main practice of aquaculture in

do household's

state of climate

maintaining livelihood

aquaculture practices in

livelihood resilience of

resilience to climate change in

the study site contribute

aquaculture households in

the study site; some constraint

to the livelihood

the study site through

issues are available hinder the

resilience?

developing a set of

people’s capacities to increase

indicators

2


climate-resilient livelihood.
The integrated measures to

What are the constraints

To propose integrated

conserve mangrove ecosystems of policy of natural

measures for conserve

and increase livelihood

ecosystems and increase

resource management

resilience to climate change are and climate change

livelihood resilience to

diversifying eco livelihoods,

adaption in the study

climate change.

improvement of eco-shrimp

area?

farming technology and
support policy etc.
1.3 Subject and scope
1.3.1 Research subject
- Aquaculture livelihood activities of the local households in Nam Phu commune;
- Model of eco-shrimp farming in Nam Phu commune;
- Solutions to enhance the resilience and sustainability of livelihood activities in the
buffer zone of Tien Hai District, Thai Binh Province.
1.3.2 Scope
The study was conducted in Nam Phu commune, which belongs to the buffer zone in
Tien Hai Nature Reserve, Tien Hai district, Thai Binh province.
 Reason for study site selection:

The buffer zone of Tien Hai Nature Reserve includes three coastal communes: Nam
Phu, Nam Thinh and Nam Hung. The buffer zone has critical roles in protecting
ecosystem, conserve biodiversity and maintaining the livelihood of surrounding
communities.
Tien Hai has a coastline of over 23 km that has high proportion of agricultural forestry - marine production with 52,5% residents working in this sector, followed by
26,5% of craft and industry (Nam Phu People of Commitee, 2020).
According to the structure of agricultural, forestry and fishery production in 2018,
aquaculture accounts for the highest proportion of 56%, followed by agriculture 43%
(Thai Binh Statistical Office, 2019).Three communes in the buffer zone of Tien Hai
3


Nature Reserve have mangrove forests in the estuaries and coasts (Table 1.2). The
mangroves annually provide aquatic resources for residents and many other ecosystem
services.
Table 1.2. Mangrove Forest and aquaculture area in Tien Hai District
Communes

Mangrove Forest area (ha)

Aquaculture area (ha)

Nam Thinh

226,23

1,350,42

Nam Hung

327,03

290,13

Nam Phu

294,36

1,034,54

Source: (Thai Binh Statistical Office, 2019)
The mangrove forest area in Nam Hung occupies the largest part as shown in Table 1.2.
Aquaculture area in Nam Phu tops the chart and takes responsible for 1,034 ha.
However, a large part of aquaculture area in Nam Thinh is used for clam farming,
while Nam Phu is popular with eco-shrimp farming - a famous aquaculture model
towards the goal of sustainable livelihoods and environmental protection. Nam Phu
has 812 ha of eco-shrimp farming, accounting for 78% its total aquaculture area.
 Research duration:
The fieldwork time in the locality is divided into 3 periods, with specific objectives as
follows (Table 1.3). The research uses the statistical data and related reports on CC,
livelihood etc. in Tien Hai coastal area.
Table 1.3. Time, place and content of the fieldwork sessions
Periods
Period 1:

Place
- Nam Phu People Committee

26 Feb 2021 - - Board of management for
28 Feb 2021

Period 2:

Content
- Overall assessment of the
research and study site selection

Tien Hai Nature Reserve

- Secondary documents collection

- Nam Phu commune

- Demo interviews

- Board of management for

- In-depth interview and case

24 April 2021 Tien Hai Nature Reserve

study

- 26 April

- Do interviews with aquaculture
4


2021

- Nam Phu commune

households

- Con Vanh

- Shrimp pond and livelihood area
observation

Period 3:

- Nam Phu commune

- Do interviews with aquaculture

4 June 2021 -

households (receive support from

8 June 2021

Board of management for Tien
Hai Nature Reserve)

Figure 1.1 Map of study site (Tien Hai District, Thai Binh Province)
1.4 Literature review
1.4.1 International research
In general, livelihood resilience to climate change has been conceptualized in recent
years and focused on developing countries, especially the Southeast Asia region.

However, most researches only evaluated separately the natural disaster’s impact, local
practices and government policies to build counter-measures for CC risks.
Amin et al., (2018) identified the prospect of climate resilient alternative livelihood
activities to reduce the effect of climate change in Bangladesh. This study showed the
5


result of housework and fishing were the most important income generating sectors
and livelihood resilience was highly impacted by natural disasters.
Rudiarto et al., (2019) looked into the conditions of five villages in the coastal area of
Indonesia that suffered the most from tidal flood and tried to measure the livelihood
resilience. Livelihood Resilience Index and Resilience Radar were adapted to calculate
the level of livelihood resilience. This study assessed resilience based on four
dimensions: society, economy, environment and physical infrastructure. This attempt
was to describe the livelihood resilience and help to identify starting point in the
building resilience of communities in tidal flood prone areas.
Galarza-Villamar et al., (2018) presented a step-by-step process to develop and apply a
participatory risk assessment as an approximate way to better understand livelihood
resilience from a local perspective in Ecuador. The research showed that including
local knowledge and interpretation of risk from the beginning of the assessment tool
construction resulted in an easier application in the field and a close link between local
resilience and risk management capabilities.
Review: Researchers worldwide have increasingly concerned with climate-resilient
livelihood, especially for coastal communities in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
However, there’s still a lack of study with a holistic approach for climate-resilient
livelihood.
1.4.2 National research
According to the assessment of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change,
Vietnam is one of the countries that will be impacted severely by climate change and
sea-level rise. These impacts are serious and threaten sustainable development goals of

Vietnam, such as poverty reduction etc. Sea level rise in coastal areas of Vietnam will
be higher than the average global sea level rise. In recent years, Vietnam has placed
greater emphasis on aquaculture-oriented farming practices, such as shrimp and riceshrimp farming instead of rice monoculture in order to respond to climate change and
sustainable development issues.
In Vietnam, some research was carried out to assess the impact of climate change and
sea level rise on livelihood resilience in general and shrimp aquaculture and fishery in
6


particular. Phung, (2012) stated that shrimp aquaculture and fishery are the two
important economic sectors in Vietnam. They have been promoted by the government
to reduce poverty, provide job opportunities and to increase exports to support
economic growth. However, there have been negative effects along with this
expanding process. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of mangrove forest have been
replaced by shrimp ponds and this led to ecological degradation such as water
pollution, saline intrusion and causing shrimp disease outbreaks. These consequences
have negatively affected the sustainability of the livelihoods of millions of coastal
people who are dependent on shrimp aquaculture, mangrove forests and fishing. In the
study of, four indicators were used as proxies of social resilience: economic stability,
resource protection, knowledge building and the creation of relationships. Between the
two improved extensive shrimp farming systems, the extensive mangrove-shrimp
system showed more social resilience and was less risky. It also performed more
ecologically resilient, as it did not put environmental pressure on the mangrove forest.
It needed to conserve part of the mangrove forest that would serve as nursery ground
for marine shrimp and fish species.
Mangrove systems are complex and productive ecosystems, providing crucial
livelihood support to coastal communities in developing countries like Vietnam.
However, the principal threat to mangrove systems is their conversion to aquaculture.
A research conducted in three coastal communities of northern Vietnam, Orchard et al.,
(2015) indicated that greater degrees of aquaculture were associated with: greater

income inequality and lower livelihood diversity and larger and less dense social
networks. A diversity of network ties was required in order to connect various groups
within mangrove system dependent communities. This could enable shared
information and understanding of the issues dealing with mangrove systems in order to
facilitate self-organization and foster the resilience necessary for the sustainable
governance of mangrove systems.
Minh Quang & de Wit, (2020) conducted research in Can Tho City and Ca Mau
province in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam to understand how transformative learning
helped communities achieve better sustainability outcomes. Their findings revealed
that transformative learning enabled experts and practitioners to introduce new ideas
7


and accordingly mobilize local people to make changes without inciting doubt, dismay,
or concern. This research concluded that transformative learning should be
acknowledged as a potentially important part of the broader approach to climateresilient development in vulnerable communities like coastal areas.
Poelma et al., (2021) conducted a study in Kien Giang, Vietnam to examine three
types of agricultural-based livelihoods: monocrop rice farming, rice-shrimp farming,
and extensive shrimp farming. A mixed-methods approach was used consisting of both
in-depth and semi-structured interviews as well as household surveys. Their findings
demonstrated that rice-shrimp farmers’ livelihoods were relatively the most resilient
livelihood to climate change and extreme weather events. On the other hand, shrimp
farmers were generally more able to recover from climate stressors, such as drought
and saline intrusion, whereas rice farming owner who lack of transformative capacity,
were the least resilient. This study concluded that the governmental decision to
transition Kien Giang’s agricultural sector towards rice-shrimp farming has been
relatively successful. This would be a good case study and inspiration for other coastal
provinces in Vietnam.
The major challenge of community-based climate change adaptation is sustainability
and up-scaling of activities. It is not only necessary to sustain the efforts in the longterm, but also required to disseminate the pilot intervention experiences to wider areas.

It has taken for granted that grassroots initiatives or community initiatives are the
responsibilities of the NGOs (Shaw, 2012a). NGOs have been the leading actors in this
field for many years and they have contributed to the development of this field.
However, many of the NGO activities faced up with the problem of sustainability over
a long period of time, especially when the NGOs withdrew from the field. The
maintenance and development of community activities over a longer period of time
needs a policy environment at local level, as well as local institutions to continue those
activities. Therefore, the major challenges of the community-based adaptation are:
sustainability of the efforts in the community level, and incorporation of the
community-based issues in the policy level (Shaw, 2012b).

8


World Bank, (2015) stated in its report on “The social dimension of adaptation to
climate change in Vietnam” that there have been really different strategies for climate
change adaptation in different regions of Vietnam. This indicated that one-size-fits-all
adaptation will not work for Vietnam. Different communities among different regions
will have different ideas about how best to match their development objectives to the
realities of climate change impacts. This includes the need for autonomous and
planned adaptations, hard and soft adaptation, and community and individual
adaptation. This is the most striking finding about adaptation options in this research.
Review: Findings from above studies have shown that (i) shrimp aquaculture and
fishery are two important economic sectors of Vietnam; (ii) livelihood of coastal
communities depend on natural resources and vulnerable to climate change and natural
disasters; (iii) each coastal community has to cope with different difficulty in climate
change adaptation and develop climate resilient livelihood. Therefore, a specific study
is needed for each area to research case study and mobilize appropriate policies.
1.4.3. Key concepts
 Livelihood and sustainable livelihood

The concept “livelihood” is a way of making a living which is made up of three
factors: assets, energy and activities required to make a living (Scoones, 1998). The
UK Agency for International Development (DFID) provides a sustainable livelihood
framework, which shows that different types of livelihoods are influenced by different
vulnerable factors, including trends (e.g.: population trends, economic trends, politics;
technology trends, etc.); shocks (such as shocks related to human health; economic,
social, or natural shocks, etc.) and the nature of the season (e.g.: price, product, etc.)
(DFID, 1999). For assessing the sustainable livelihoods, the DFID framework has on
five main groups of factors: livelihood resources, livelihood strategies, livelihood
outcomes, institutional and policy processes, and external context. In which, livelihood
resources are understood as the human accessibility to resources as the central factor
that includes five types as follows: (1) Natural capital includes resources present in
the natural environment and which humans can use to carry out livelihood activities;
(2) Physical capital includes basic infrastructure to support livelihood activities; (3)
9


Financial capital includes the different sources of capital that people use to achieve
livelihood goals; (4) Human capital includes skills, knowledge, experience, ability to
work, health, education, that these factors help people implement different livelihood
strategies; (5) Social capital includes the social relationships people rely on to carry
out livelihood activities, mainly social networks, members of community
organizations, market access, etc.
 Resilience in ecological and social system
The concept “Resilience” roots from the Latin word resilio meaning "reverse jump".
In different sciences, resilience is defined differently and has different approaches to
research and evaluation. Of the published studies, resilience research is the most
performed in ecology, and currently it is research to reduce the damage caused by
natural hazards to communities (Walker et al., 2002) (S. L. Cutter et al., 2008).
The definition and content of resilience used in ecological studies was first stated by

Holling (1973). In this work, Holling defines “resilience is characteristic of
relationships in a system and is determined by the system's resilience to the effects of
external factors”. Since then, the concept of resilience has been redefined in many
different studies. From the definitions of resilience already used in ecological research
such as in Holling et al., (1995); Lebel et al., (2006); Walker et al., (2006) for the unit
to be studied is an ecosystem, the resilience of a system can be understood in two ways
including:
- Resilience is the amount of external impact that a system can absorb and
endure (even though the system is moved to a state different from the original state).
- Resilience is the amount of impact that a system can absorb and withstand
from external influences and then quickly recover to its original state.
To assess the resilience of an ecological system, it is necessary to evaluate: (1) the
degree of resistance and absorption of impacts and (2) the degree of ability to maintain
and recover from the structure, function, and states of the system before external
influences occur. When an ecological system is able to self-regulate to adapt to
external impact, it will be more resilient and resilient in the future.
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The definitions of resilience used in ecological studies provide important scientific
bases for studying the resilience of social systems and communities to the impacts of
disasters and climate change. The definition of resilience of social systems and
communities was first introduced in 1981 (Timmerman, 1981). According to the
author, the resilience of the social system is understood as the ability of the community
to withstand and recover from the impacts of a disaster. It can be seen that the content
of this definition is quite similar to the definitions of resilience in ecological studies.
Up to now, many definitions of resilience of Mileti (1999), Adger (2000), Walker et
al., (2004), UNISDR (2005), Johnson (2010) S. Cutter (2016);. These definitions of
resilience of a social system emphasize that: Resilience is the capacity (or extent) to
which a system is able to absorb, endure, respond to, and accumulatively experience

and recover from the effects of a disaster. Units used in these definitions include:
individuals, groups of people, communities, societies, assets, infrastructure,
ecosystems and resources that people exploit and use.
 Livelihood resilience and relationship with climate change
Over the years, the resilience concept has paid greater attention to human livelihoods
and surrounding ecologies, especially in the climate change adaption and sustainable
development contexts (Tanner et al., 2014).
The need to focus on livelihoods arises as the livelihoods of the community in rural
areas are dependent on the productivity of ecosystems that are seriously impacted by
disasters and climate change (IISD, n.d.). In order to quantify the impacts of recurring
disasters, the GDP losses are calculated. Economic growth of developing countries
according to CARE (2019) could be reduced by 0.3 to 0.4 percentage points.
Bowen & Kuralbayeva (2015) also implied that chronic and increasing frequent
disasters resulted in huge losses in terms of direct economic costs, reduced economic
growth, and increased poverty. At the household level, means of livelihood are
destroyed, access to food jeopardized and the surrounding environment is degraded.
Households are forced to adopt negative coping strategies, with some having
irreversible impact, especially when lacking support from authorities. Households
have yet to recover from one disaster when another disaster strikes, hindering recovery.
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The uninterrupted cycle of disasters and livelihood loss reduces households to
perpetual poverty and vulnerability.
To break the cycle, households and communities need to protect their livelihoods from
future losses by building livelihood resilience to the disturbances. Up to now,
several definitions of resilience of a livelihood have been mentioned in different
studies as listed below in Table 1.4.
Table 1.4. Some definitions of livelihood resilience
Definition

Sources

Livelihood resilience may be the best way to enhance (Arbon et al., 2016)
residents’

livelihoods

and

promote

their

sustainable

development It refers to the ability of social systems to cope
with and recover from disasters.
Households having more resilient livelihood means those (Tanner et al., 2014)
with better access to financial resources, larger livelihood
diversity and lower reliance on climate-sensitive activities.
The strategies supporting resilience include livelihood
diversification, protection or capacity strengthening. As the
result, losses will be avoided or reduced, and will have less
use of negative response strategies.
Livelihood resilience focuses on how rural residents perceive (Christensen

&

changes in the social environment and how they modify their Krogman, 2012)

behaviors based on existing knowledge and social learning.
Rural residents are the direct main body to deal with and
being affected by natural disaster risks and the basic unit of
disaster prevention and mitigation management.
The resilience of farmers’ livelihoods is defined at food risk (K. Nguyen & James,
by assessing individual responses. Therefore, the ability of 2013)
disaster prevention and mitigation of rural residents in
earthquake-hit areas is crucial to their livelihood resilience.
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Livelihood resilience consists of three parts: buffer capacity, (Speranza et al., 2014)
self-organization capacity, and the capacity for learning.
The resilience of residents’ livelihoods consists of six (Mekuyie et al., 2018)
components: assets, adaptability, and social safety net,
access to public services, stability, income, food access.
Livelihood resilience based on 5 livelihood capitals to create (Quandt et al., 2018)
composite asset index and assess the livelihood resilience.
Livelihood resilience applies a broader set of indicators to
resilience measurement, whilst indicators of social resilience
can be greater narrowly focused inside the sustainable
livelihood’s framework.
Livelihood resilience decomposed into social, economic, (Rudiarto et al., 2019)
environment and physical-infrastructure.
Residents’ livelihood resilience is measured from four (Zhou et al., 2021)
aspects: buffer capacity, self-organization capacity, the
capacity for learning, and disaster prevention and mitigation
capacity.
Community requires skills, assets, and other necessary resources for the communities
to develop their capacities to adapt to those changes, starting with the household level

(Marschke & Berkes, 2006). The capacities of the communities in dealing with the
changes are determined by the degree to which the communities have the necessary
resources and are able to re-organize themselves both prior to and during times of need.
Thus, livelihood systems must be sufficiently resilient and livelihood strategies must
be effective. Then the losses will be avoided or reduced, there will be less of a need to
resort to negative coping strategies and households will become less vulnerable to the
impacts of climate change and recurring natural hazards.
In this research, the concept of livelihood resilience in the context of climate change is
defined as the ability of people to sustain their livelihood, adapt to and recover
effectively from climate stresses based on livelihood capitals, self-organization
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capacity, learning capacity and disaster management capacity. The targets are to
reduce climate-induced stress, protect the environment and at the same time sustain
their livelihood opportunities.
 Sustainability and resilience in livelihood
In current years there have been many disparate makes use of the term sustainability
and resilience. While sustainability was described three sides of environmental, social
and economic approaches, resilience was seen as the capacity of a unit to put together
for threats, take in impacts, recover and adapt disruptive stresses such as disasters or
climate change. Resilience and sustainability have no conflicts. On the other hand,
joint implementation of sustainability and resilience that can maximize effectiveness in
management and minimize conflicts (Marchese et al., 2018).
In terms of livelihood, resilient livelihood is considered to be shifted and developed
from sustainable livelihood. The summary of main characteristics of from sustainable
to resilient livelihoods is shown as in the table as listed below (Table 1.5).
Table 1.5. Main points of sustainable to resilient livelihoods thinking
Sustainable livelihoods

Resilient livelihoods
Resilience by adaptive, absorptive and

Sustainability

transformative capacity

Assets/Capitals

Organizations and assets/capitals

Household and geographical

institution, community, household and temporal

scales

scales

Coping and short-term adaptation

Both coping and adapting –long-term adaption

Source: based on (Nyamwanza, 2012)
1.5 Overview of research area
1.5.1 Geographical conditions
 Location
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