Investigating rubber and non-rubber based livelihoods in the mountainous area of Dien Bien District in Vietnam | |
| Author | Do Thi Thanh Duong |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.NR-13-01 |
| Subject(s) | Rubber plantations--Social aspects--Vietnam Rubber plants--Vietnam |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Natural Resources Management, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. NR-13-01 |
| Abstract | Perennial tree plantation is approached in several tropical countries for many purposes like provide agricultural product, increase income for the people in the project area and reduce shifting cultivation. Given these reasons, tree such as rubber, oil-palm, and coconut are grown rapidly in all traditional and non-traditional growing area. As a result, the thoughtful considerations about the effectiveness of the project come into all stakeholders and growers. In Dien Bien province, Northwest Vietnam, the Rubber Tree Plantation Project has been introduced as an alternative practice to shifting cultivation in the mountainous area. The goals of the project are to improve the percentage of green coverage and alleviate poverty for ethnic groups. With these goals, sustainable livelihood for people in the project area is one of the major targets of project management. The model of the project is large-scale investment, of which, farmers participated by contributing in-kind capital like land and labor under the contract. In addition, the Dien Bien Rubber Join-stock Company jointly invested the other capitals including secure market provision. There search was carried out to investigate the livelihood features of local people who have with and without rubber plantation. The existing institutional arrangement and the policy which supports rubber tree plantation were determined in order to find out the policy gaps. Also, the conflicts and effects of the project to local people’s livelihood were addressed to point out some impacts and livelihood strategies for people in the project area. The study areas were taken in Thanh Nua and Muong Pon commune, Dien Bien district, Dien Bien province. Data collection was gathered both by direct observation, interviews, and questionnaire with people in the selected area, and secondary data from related agencies. The sustainable livelihood framework and weighting method were used to assess the differences of people’s livelihood interacted with rubber plantation project. The respondents were divided into three clusters namely Clusters 1that is the households (HHs)who contributed land and working as rubber wage worker, Cluster 2 that is HHs who contributed land for rubber plantation, and Cluster 3 that is HHs who did not involve in rubber plantation project. The result identified that government has implemented several policies to support the involving investors and farmers in this project. However, there are some concerns about its practice,for example low percentage of dividend sharing for farmers, unclear of land use right and the existing situation has not corresponded with the policy intention. The evaluation of livelihood as sets verified the significant differences in sustainable livelihood index between the rubber based and non-rubber based group. The participated clusters achieved the higher average level index which is0.69 for cluster 1 and 0.64 for cluster 2.Whereas,the non-participating cluster received the lowest livelihood index which isonly0.44. It indicated the ability to achieve sustainable livelihood of participating group (Cluster 1 and 2) and the constraint to gain a sustainable livelihood of non-involved group (Cluster3). The improvement for sustainable livelihood should focus on non-rubber based cluster due to it had low livelihood capital index and high rate of poor households. Moreover, in the study area, rubber plantation has expanded to crop land area. It caused a number of conflicts, for example, conflicts between land use for agriculture and land for rubber, and employment conflict. For improvement, a set of strategies and recommendations were given to bring alternative farming and sustain livelihood for the local ethnic minority groups. |
| Year | 2013 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. NR-13-01 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Development and Sustainability (DDS) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Natural Resources Management (NRM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Perret, Sylvain Roger;Shivakoti, Ganesh P.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Grunbuhel, Clemens; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program(IFP), USA; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2013 |