Sustaining Fisheries in a Changing Climate : Vulnerability, Adaptation and Employment in Viet Nam’s Mekong Delta

Overview & Synopsis

The Mekong Delta (MKD’s) region fishery sector is the major contributor to Viet Nam’s USD 10 billion seafood industry. Fisheries play an important role in the livelihoods and food security of households across the MKD. However, climate change poses a growing risk for households in the region, particularly fishery households, as the region is among the most climate-vulnerable regions globally, with rising sea levels, salinity intrusion, land subsidence, and extreme weather events threatening freshwater availability and livelihoods. This report’s objective is to examine the income and employment patterns of fishery households, their vulnerability to environmental shocks and long-term environmental change, their responses to shocks, and to assess the role of public policy in supporting their coping and adaptation strategies. The report uses both large household survey as well as qualitative survey, all collected with the purpose to develop a comprehensive understanding of the livelihoods, vulnerabilities, coping strategies, and aspirations of fishery households and workers in the MKD. It combines focus group discussions (FGDs) with fishery workers and local authorities, a large scale quantitative household survey, and a discrete choice experiment (DCE) among fishery sector workers. The report is organized as follows: section 1 gives introduction. Section 2 describes the profile of fishery workers and the practices of marine and aquaculture operations. Section 3 focuses on the income diversification strategies of fishery households and on the job trajectories of fishery workers. Section 4 delves into their coping strategies to environmental shocks and their adaptative capacities to environmental change. The insights from these three sections are used to derive the policy recommendations detailed in section 5.