Sustainable livelihood development is an ongoing challenge worldwide, and has regained importance due to threats of water shortages and climate change. To cope with changing climatic, demographic and market conditions in Vietnam's Mekong Delta (VMD) an agricultural transformation process has been suggested in the recent Mekong Delta Plan. This agricultural transformation process requires the implementation of alternative livelihood models. The majority of current agricultural livelihood models in the VMD have been introduced by the government in a top-down manner. In this study, we applied a bottom-up approach to understand the motivations and abilities of local farmers to adopt alternative livelihood models. It is based on the MOTA methodological framework, which is further tested with the use of multivariate analyses. The study was conducted in Ben Tre coastal province. Results showed that farmers' motivations and abilities to apply alternative models vary substantially among different groups, driven by their perceptions on triggers and opportunities. Acknowledging this diversity is essential to the development of agricultural transformation plans. Furthermore, based on the analysis, a projection of the precise support that communities need to supplement their knowledge, skills and financial capacities, as well as interventions to reduce the risks of new livelihood models, is given.

Water management in delta floodplains worldwide faces many challenges due to the changing climate and increasing human intervention in the hydrological regimes of rivers. Irrigation and drainage systems are necessary components of a water management strategy that aims to support human habitation and agricultural production, but which need effective coordination in order to adapt to exogenous impacts. However, management of such systems often fails for a variety of reasons. In the floodplain of the Vietnamese Mekong Delta, irrigation and drainage systems under dike protection confront ineffective implementation of water management policy, posing a challenge for adaptation to exogenous impacts on the hydrological regime. Over the past two decades, farmers have increasingly cultivated annual triple-rice crops in high-dike compartments, ignoring government regulations that call for flood retention. This study analyses interviews with farmers to identify their motivation for not implementing the triennial cropping off-season advised by the local government (3-3-2 cycle). Our findings show that farmers have avoided implementing the 3-3-2 cycle because of various disadvantages that the system presents for them. Local officials, in turn, have accepted farmers' disregard of the rule. Lessons learnt from this study are considered to explore measures to effectively adapt to future hydrological changes. © 2017 The Authors. RÉSUMÉLa gestion de l'eau dans les plaines d'inondation des deltas du monde entier pose de nombreux défis en raison de l'évolution du climat et de l'augmentation de l'intervention humaine dans les régimes hydrologiques des cours d'eau. Les systèmes d'irrigation et de drainage sont des composantes nécessaires d'une stratégie de gestion de l'eau qui vise à protéger l'habitat humain et la production agricole, mais qui nécessitent une coordination efficace pour s'adapter aux impacts exogènes. Cependant, la gestion de ces systèmes échoue souvent pour diverses raisons. Dans la plaine d'inondation du Delta du Mékong vietnamien, les systèmes d'irrigation et de drainage sous la protection des digues font face à une mise en oeuvre inefficace de la politique de gestion de l'eau, ce qui pose un défi pour l'adaptation aux impacts exogènes sur le régime hydrologique. Au cours des deux dernières décennies, les agriculteurs ont de plus en plus adopté des systèmes d'exploitation basés sur trois cultures de riz/an dans les compartiments topographiquement plus élevés, en ignorant les réglementations gouvernementales qui exigent la rétention des crues. Cette étude analyse les entretiens avec les agriculteurs pour identifier leurs motivations à pas mettre en oeuvre la cycle triennal hors saison conseillée par le gouvernement local (cycle 3-3-2). Nos résultats montrent que les agriculteurs ont évité de mettre en oeuvre le cycle 3-3-2 en raison de divers inconvénients que le système présente pour eux. Les fonctionnaires locaux, en retour, ont accepté le mépris des agriculteurs à l'égard de la règle. Les leçons tirées d...

This paper contributes to global debates on environmental governance by drawing on recent ontological scholarship to ask: What would it mean to ontologically engage the concept of environmental governance? By examining the ontological underpinnings of three environmental governance domains (land, water, biodiversity), we find that dominant contemporary environmental governance concepts and policy instruments are grounded in a modernist ontology which actively shapes the world, making certain aspects and relationships visible while invisibilizing others. We then survey ethnographic and other literature to highlight how such categories and their relations have been conceived otherwise and the implications of breaking out of a modernist ontology for environmental governance. Lastly, we argue that answering our opening question requires confronting the coloniality woven into the environmental governance project and consider how to instead embrace ontological pluralism in practice. In particular, we examine what taking seriously the right to self-determination enshrined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) could mean for acknowledging Indigenous ontologies as systems of governance in their own right; what challenges and opportunities exist for recognizing and translating ontologies across socio-legal regimes; and how embracing the dynamism and hybridity of ontologies might complicate or advance struggles for material and cognitive justice.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract