Climate Change Adaptation in Fisheries Livelihoods Associated with Mangrove Forests in Xuan Thuy National Park, Vietnam: A Case Study in Giao An Commune, Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province

Abstract

As a commune leading in movements of implementing climate change adaptive fisheries livelihood models associated with mangroves such as improved extensive shrimp farming and community-based mangrove management, Giao An has obtained great achievements in all three areas of the economy, society, and environment. Compared with similar models carried out in other regions, the models have created linkages for the development of production activities. The following sharing is expected to contribute more useful information and recommendations for the livelihood development of the study site as well as to be a source of reference for areas with the same conditions.

1 Introduction

Giao An, a commune located in the southeast of Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province in Vietnam, is one of five communes in the buffer zone of Xuan Thuy National Park with a history associated with the development of the Red River Delta. About 300 to 400 years ago, this land was comprised of pristine beaches with lots of reeds and mudflats. Over time, the people of Giao An built dikes, encroached on the sea, and leveled the land. By the end of 1860, Giao An was established, comprising Trung Uyen, Hanh Thien, Xuan Hy, Thuy Nhai, Hoanh Lo, Tra Huong, and Tra Lu villages (divided into 16 hamlets). The period from 1960 to 1985 was characterized by continued expansion of arable land by building dikes under the motto, “Rice encroached on sedge, sedge encroached on Bruguiera (genus of mangrove plants), Bruguiera encroached on the sea”. At this stage, the commune had reclaimed approximately 300 ha of land from the sea, close to the foot of Ngu Han dike, and established six hamlets in the Dien Bien New Economic Zone Area (from hamlet 16 to hamlet 22). The period from 1985 to 1995 was characterized by the adoption of the marine economic development strategy under the motto “Bruguiera encroached on the sea, shrimp encroached on Bruguiera”, which created thousands of hectares of shrimp ponds in Bai Trong and Con Ngan. Due to economic development, the natural mangrove forests in ​​Giao An Commune decreased, especially in Bai Trong.

However, realizing the important role of mangroves in coastal area protection, the local government has implemented numerous solutions, simultaneously, such as planting more than 1000 ha of mangrove in Con Ngan and a part of Con Lu from 1997 to 2003. In addition, Giao An has pioneered the development of climate change (CC) adaptive fisheries livelihood models, taking advantage of mangroves which are improved extensive shrimp farming and community-based mangrove management. These models have not only improved resilience and response to CC, but they have also stabilized the incomes of local people as well as developed the area by making economic activities more sustainable.

The study used the following three approaches to investigate CC adaptation in fisheries livelihoods associated with mangrove forests in Giao An Commune: (1) systematic, interdisciplinary approach; (2) combined top-down and bottom-up approach; and (3) Department for International Development’s sustainable livelihoods approach. Furthermore, tools from sociological research methods (e.g., questionnaires for households) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (in-depth interviews as well as establishment of seasonal calendars and a calendar of events) were used. One hundred households and twenty-four civil services were interviewed to collect relevant information.

2 Results and Discussion

The average annual temperature fluctuated between 23 °C and 24 °C. In 30 years, it tended to increase by about 1.0 °C (Fig. 7.1). In particular, from 1989 to 1998, the average annual temperature increased by 0.4 °C, while from 1999 to 2008, the temperature decreased by 0.2 °C, and the remaining period from 2009 to 2018 it increased by 0.6 °C per annum.

Fig. 7.1

Trend in average annual air temperature in Nam Dinh Province in the period 1989–2018. Source: Department of Natural resources and Environment of Nam Dinh Province (2019)

Moreover, the total annual rainfall of Nam Dinh Province from 1989 to 2018 fluctuated in the range of 1750–1800 mm. 2007 was the year with the lowest annual rainfall (1086 mm) and 1994 was the year with the highest total annual rainfall (2988 mm) (Fig. 7.2).

Fig. 7.2

Trend in total annual rainfall in Nam Dinh Province in the period 1989–2018. Source: Department of Natural resources and Environment of Nam Dinh Province (2019)

All surveyed households confirmed that the natural disasters in Giao An Commune in recent years have been atypical, with “typhoon”; “tropical depression”; “lightning”; “heavy rainfall”; “extreme hot weather”; “extreme and damaging cold” and “hoarfrost” being considered to be the main natural disasters in the study area (Table 7.1). The frequency of most of these above natural disasters was rated as “rare”, but the intensity was “stronger” than before.

Table 7.1 Assessment of survey respondents about natural disasters that have occurred in Giao An Commune in recent years

During the survey, in addition to in-depth interviews with local people and authorities, the impacts of natural disasters were reported as follows (Table 7.2).

Table 7.2 Calendar of natural disasters in Giao An Commune

In addition, agriculture and fisheries were the main livelihood activities accounting for a large proportion of the local economy (67%) (People’s Committee of Giao An Commune 2017). In terms of fishery production, two activities are very important: aquaculture and capture fisheries (or called community-based mangrove management). The entire commune utilized an aquaculture area of 669.2 ha, which comprised a freshwater area of 59 ha and a shrimp pond area of 610.2 ha. The total aquatic production in 2019 was estimated at 2200 tons (People’s Committee of Giao An Commune 2019).

a. Aquaculture

Peaks in aquaculture production coincided with the different types of natural disasters. Consequently, without careful preparation, the risk to aquaculture households was quite large. The natural disasters markedly affected these activities in the Giao An Commune, especially “typhoon”, “tropical depression”, “heavy rainfall”, “saltwater intrusion”, “extreme hot weather”, “extreme and damaging cold”, “hoarfrost” and “other”, which comprised changes in climate and weather. Together, these phenomena “reduced productivity”, “changed the water environment”, which can lead to “lost all aquaculture products”. Table 7.3 shows the valid percent of impacts of natural disasters on aquaculture households that are engaged in fish, shrimp, and clam farming.

Table 7.3 Assessment of the effects of natural disasters and CC impacts on aquaculture

b. Capture fisheries

Capture fisheries were exploited regularly depending on the health of the participants, weather conditions as well as the tidal calendar. However, surveyed households emphasized that weather and climate were reasons for the decline in aquatic capture production. Not only that, if “typhoon”, “tropical depression”, “heavy rainfall”, “extreme hot weather” or “extreme and damaging cold” occurred, households would temporarily also stop production activities (Tables 7.4 and 7.5).

Table 7.4 Seasonal calendar in fisheries activities of households in Giao An Commune (according to the lunar calendar)

Table 7.5 Summary of impacts of natural disasters due to CC on the fisheries livelihoods of Giao An Commune

Due to the above impacts and the complexity of CC, Giao An deployed several CC adaptive fisheries livelihood models taking advantage of mangroves. These models improved extensive shrimp farming and community-based mangrove management.

c. Improved extensive shrimp farming

Since the 1980s, the wetlands of Giao Thuy District (formerly Xuan Thuy district) had been converted into fishing and shrimp ponds. Giao An was a leading commune in this movement. By the mid-1990s, due to declining natural aquatic resources, people began to develop improved extensive shrimp farming. This model started to become more widely implemented at this time.

The basic technique of the model is described as follows: Black tiger shrimp are stocked in small ponds that are built inside the main ponds where they are fed a certain amount of industrial feed. Then, when the weight reaches 35,000 shrimp/kg, or after about 1 week, feeding is stopped and only food from nature is used. In the process of raising shrimp, farmers still can exploit other aquatic species from the wild. Typically, the value obtained from natural resources accounts for about 50% of the total income. When implementing this model, it is necessary to ensure that the mangrove forests cover an average of 30% of the total aquaculture area.

The improved extensive shrimp farming model associated with mangrove forests in Giao An Commune was assessed to “increase resilience to weather and CC” (87%); “improve life for local people” (72%) and “stabilize income of participating households” (71%) (Fig. 7.3). Compared with the traditional extensive shrimp farming model (without adding food during aquaculture), this model has higher productivity and economic efficiency. For the current intensive whiteleg shrimp farming, the improved extensive shrimp farming has a higher ability to adapt to CC as well as being less harmful to the environment, despite the lower profit (Table 7.6).

Fig. 7.3

Effectiveness of implementing improved extensive shrimp farming model (%)

Table 7.6 Comparing improved extensive shrimp farming model and industrial shrimp farming model (intensive whiteleg shrimp farming)

d. Community-based mangrove management

Giao An Commune is a pilot locality for a community-based mangrove management model being funded by the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD). Up to now, there have been 27 individuals/households participating in this model with a total management area of ​​567.2 ha that was divided into 14 plots. The participants can harvest some aquatic species under the mangroves, such as mollusks and fish, but must not affect the ecological balance of the area. At the same time, they must strictly comply with regulations on environmental resources protection in the buffer zone of Xuan Thuy National Park, such as not cutting trees or causing forest fires; not changing the landscape; not polluting the environment, not exploiting, destroying, and depleting aquatic resources; not hunting, trapping or chasing other wild animals and birds.

Compared with similar models being implemented in other areas, the new feature of these models is that in Giao An Commune there are linkages for mutual development in production activities. The improved extensive shrimp farming households in Giao An have links with traders. The linkage method is as follows: households record their shrimp production before traders transfer all of those goods to Hanoi. After the calculations, traders will reimburse households (Fig. 7.4).

Fig. 7.4

Some pictures related to improved extensive shrimp farming in Giao An Commune

In capture fisheries, there is a self-governing team. The team was established in 2015 under the leadership of Mr. Pham Van Bong (head of the hamlet 18). As of 2019, 17 ships and boats were operating near the shore participating in this group, including some of the ships in Giao Thien Commune. Each month, the team holds a meeting. The purpose of the team is to support each other with production, and to perform rescues if the boats experience difficulties at sea. In addition, the team is entrusted by the Border Guard to manage the mangrove forests. Every day, in addition to fishing, the team members will patrol the area to check for acts of harming the environment. From there, they notify the forest rangers, the local police, border posts, and local authorities to handle every situation. Moreover, the group also plays a role in loan clubs, with each member contributing two million VND/month. Borrowers must pay the initial amount plus the interest rate of 0.5%/month. This fund is mainly to support the team members if they need to repair ships or equip new fishing grounds.

Community-based mangrove management model not only “protects and restores mangrove forests” (82%); “restricts unsustainable exploitation of forest resources” (80%) but also “creates livelihoods for local people” (77%) and “stabilizes income for participants” (75%) (Fig. 7.5). According to the survey, the average income from this activity ranges from 200–300 thousand VND/day/person.

Fig. 7.5

Effectiveness of implementing community-based mangrove management model (%)

In addition to the positive effects, these models still have some problems related to human capital and social capital.

e. Human capital

The education level of the survey participants is low, with most people having attended secondary school being the largest group (73%) (Table 7.7). This is a major obstacle in improving the level of human capital and diversifying different types of livelihoods as well as applying science and technology to production.

Table 7.7 The educational level of survey respondents

Regarding training, 6% of the people were selected by the commune and were sent to training, conferences, or programs related to fisheries activities organized by the Commune Agricultural Production Steering Board/Giao Thuy Division of Agriculture and Rural Development/Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nam Dinh Province or Red Cross Association and Xuan Thuy National Park. The form of training was focused-training. In particular, more than half of the surveyed people wanted more knowledge, and to gain experience and learn techniques related to aquaculture.

f. Social capital

Although Giao An Commune has basic links to fishery production activities, there is not yet a close linkage or value chain in this sector. For example, in capture fisheries, only a small percentage of households participate in a Self-governing team (17 ships). Or households engaging in extensive shrimp farming have not been proactive in setting prices because it is highly dependent on traders and market prices. Therefore, they also cannot avoid facing price squeezes.

3 Lessons Learned

Mangroves played an important role in the households of the Giao An Commune. In particular, the roles of “disaster prevention in cases of typhoons” (87.4%); “stabilizing mudflats” (51.7%); “increasing income for fishermen” (51.7%), and “protection of shrimp and clam ponds” (44.8%) all scored highly (Table 7.8).

Table 7.8 Surveyed participants assessed the roles of mangroves

Giao An has made effective use of mangrove forests to build livelihood development models which have improved extensive shrimp farming and community-based mangrove management. The new issue, compared to other localities, is the linkages in production to promote livelihood development. These models not only bring economic value, but they also contribute to the resilience of the local people to CC as well as ensuring sustainable development in the region.

The models of fisheries livelihoods and how they can be used to adapt to CC associated with mangroves have generated positive results. To continue to develop livelihood activities as well as the models, the local authorities of Giao An Commune need to focus on two livelihood assets; human capital and social capital. For human capital: (1) Organizing training courses, short-term and long-term courses depending on the characteristics of the livelihoods to equip local people with the necessary knowledge and skills in production activities in the context of CC; (2) Organizing community events combined with contests related to CC. For social capital: Studying how to create more effective production groups, teams, and areas. For example, establishing an aquaculture farming group with the task of equipping necessary knowledge and skills in aquaculture through exchanging, sharing experiences as well as supporting and helping each other in areas of finance, mechanization, or equipment.