Building solutions to ensure sustainable livelihood for poor people in the rural area in the Mekong Delta in the context of climate change and rising sea level
| PURPOSE | – Analyze, assess the current level of vulnerability caused by the impacts of climate change on different groups of livelihood of poor households in the rural areas of the Mekong Delta and forecast for the future.
– Synthesize the typical livelihood converting activities deployed in the survey sites; assess efficiency and adaptability of livelihoods to actively adapt to climate change and rising sea level for the poor in the rural areas of the Mekong Delta. – Assess current policies in livelihood support for the poor to adapt to climate change and rising sea level. – Propose solutions to secure stable livelihood and adapt to climate change and rising sea level and offer some suggestions for planning policies on labor, jobs, rural agricultural labor transformation and poor reduction for the poor in the rural areas of the Mekong Delta. |
| MAIN FINDINGS | – According to the scenario of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in 2012, 70% acre of Mekong Delta would be intruded by seawater, approximately 2 million hectare of arable land would be lost; many provinces would be submerged; period of flooding would be prolonged, 90% acre of the Deltawould be salinized; arable land would be acidified and loseproduction ability; biodiversity in coastal areas would be lost; many creatures would be distinct, mangrove ecosystem would be changed.
– The Mekong Delta had approximately 4 million hectare of natural land, of which 2.4 million hectare was agricultural land for rice production (more than 85%). Currently, this Delta produced nearly 21 million tons of rice per year, occupied over 50% of the total national production. Due to climate change, production structure, types of crops and livestock, economic professions had to be changed; social costs and costs for infrastructure construction increased; distribution of population and supporting services fluctuated; industries structure was changed and pressure on new skills training for the workers rose; plans, planning and orientation for socioeconomic development as well as community structure and relations were changed. |
| SOLUTIONS RECOMMENDATIONS | – Change approaches to the poverty issue in the Mekong Delta and clarify relationship between livelihoods of the poor and the ecosystem, clarify the gain-loss relationship between economic benefits and environment as well as social affairs, change the decision making methods of the household owners in livelihood strategy.
– Concentrate the steering of the levels and the industries; actively integrate content of adoptability to climate change into the plan on the local development, livelihood strategy of households; apply effectively knowledge on local areas into actions to reduce negative effects of climate change and rising sea level. – Continue testing the cultivating, producing, agricultural livelihood building, breeding, fisheries model environmental-friendly and adaptable to climate change and sea level rise. Besides, continue to build information system on product consuming market, improve management and aquaculture techniques. – Strengthen the cooperation among economic industries, functional agencies, units, business organization to build data system on the occupation changes, jobs within each sector of the economic industries, time, age, gender, qualifications, occupational skills, groups of objects to be active in skills training and jobs orienting for the workers aiming at adapting to the climate change and rising sea level. – Research, construct disaster insurance model; create risk sharing mechanism from the producers to the consumers based on products value chain; clearly identify limitations and suitable conditions for the opening of covering limits and services quality for the participants. |
Prof. Dr. Nguyễn Bá Ngọc and research team
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