Challenges to Sustainable Development in the Mekong Delta: a regional perspective on important polic

1
Challenges toSustainable Developmentin the
Mekong Deltaa regional perspective on important
policy issues research needs

• Tran Thanh Be MDI CTU
• Bach Tan Sinh NISTPASS
• Fiona Miller SEI
• June 2007

2
Aims of Monograph

• review and analyse existing literature to produce
  a state of knowledge on specific issues
• identify where there is consensus lack of
  consensus and why on key issues
• identify where there are information and
  knowledge gaps, with an eye to identifying
  knowledge gaps to be addressed in future
  research
• provide a regional perspective on each issue
• and make the wider importance and policy linkages
  of each issue explicit.

3
MD agro-ecological zones of VN
( 2002)
4
Mekong Delta

• 3.96 mil. ha most downstream of MR Basin (12 VN
  land area)
• 17 million inhabitants (22 VN
  population)
• Contribution to the country
• gt 50 rice production
• gt 80 fruit production
• gt 60 fish production
• 27 GDP
• 3.21 million ha agricultural land
• 1.85 mil. ha for rice
• 0.22 mil. ha for fruit trees
• 0.22 mil. ha for annual industrial crops
• 0.63 mil. ha for aquaculture
• 0.39 mil. ha for forestry

5
Vietnam GDP structure
Mekong Delta GDP structure
6
MAIN SOILS IN MEKONG DELTA
alluvial soils1.1 mil. ha, 28 actual acid
soils1.1 mil. ha, 28 potential acid soils0.5
mil. ha, 13saline soils0.8 mil. ha, 21hilly
and peat soils0.4 mil. ha, 10
7
Flood
Rainfall 1600mm 90 in rainy season
(May-Dec)Mekong riverwet season 40,000m3/s
dry season 1,800m3/s
Salinity intrusion
8
MDagro-ecological zones
900,000 ha FAZ 500,000 ha
PRZ 400,000 ha LXZ 100,000 ha
HMZ 600,000 ha TBZ 600,000 ha
CZ 800,000 ha CPZ
9
CROPPING PATTERNS IN THEMEKONG DELTA, before
1966(prior to the introduction of IR5, IR8)
gt1000 local varieties early, medium, late
maturing, and floating
Floating
Double Transplanting
Single Transplanting
Mangrove
10
LAND USE 1976
LAND USE 2002
1.4 mil ha R 0.5 mil ha 2R
M
LAND USE 1996
U
R single rice 2R double rice 3R triple
rice R riceother crop F fruits P
pineapple S shrimp M mangrove U unused land
0.7 mil ha R 1.0 mil ha 2R 0.2 mil ha 3R 0.2 mil
ha S
R
R
11
Rice production in MD
12
Monograph structure the 5 papers

• MD sustainable development problems, challenges
  and policies
• MD flood and salinity management
• MD livelihoods and resource use strategies
• MD fisheries policy transboundary challenges
  implications for economic growth and food
  security
• MD water use and competition

13
Regional context and linkagesUpstream
downstream interactions

• Monograph highlights the transboundary nature of
  water and fisheries
• MD downstream region, vulnerable to the impacts
  of upstream developments
• dry season water quantity decline
• water quality decline
• severe floods
• Developments in MD also contribute to upstream
  environmental impacts
• Flood protection dykes in upper delta result in
  banking up of floodwaters in Cambodian part of
  delta
• Modification of floodplain and decline in
  wetlands, and increased agrochemical use,
  contribute to decline in migratory fisheries
• Growing regional integration of economies
• rise in cross-border trade and migration
• Within the delta there are upstream-downstream
  interactions

14
Sub-theme 1Problems, Challenges and Policies
Relating to Sustainable Development in the Mekong
DeltaNVSanh, TTBe and PCHuu

• overview of problems, challenges and policiesfor
  sustainable development in the Mekong Delta
• particular focus on water,considering its
  fundamental role in the environment, economy,
  food security and livelihoods in the delta
• Highlighting some of
• challenges associated with policy implementation
• potential future research areas

15
Sub-theme 2Floods and Salinity Managementin the
Mekong DeltaLATuan, CTHoanh, Fiona Miller and
BTSinh

• Review of 2 main transboundary environmental
  problems confronting MD people
• flood in rainy season
• salt water intrusion in dry season
• Description of current state of knowledge on
  these phenomena and approaches to their
  management
• Conclusions with some recommendations and the
  identification of research gaps

16
Sub-theme 3Livelihoods and Resource Use
Strategiesin the Mekong DeltaNDCan, LTDuong,
Fiona Miller and Eva Lindskog

• Review of changes in farmers livelihoods,
  resources use strategies
• Highlights how society deals with a very dynamic
  natural, economic and policy environment, and
  the impacts of government interventions
• Identifies research needs that can contribute to
  generating appropriate strategic recommendations
  for water resources management, rural development
  and poverty reduction

17
Sub-theme 4Transboundary challenges for
fisheries policy in the Mekong Delta
implications for economic growth and food
securityVTTLoc, LXSinh and Simon Bush

• Overview of current knowledge on fisheries in
  light of the transboundary nature of MD (natural
  resources, production systems, and trade and
  livelihoods)
• implications of national and international
  fisheries policy
• key transboundary environmental challenges for
  fisheries
• implications of national and international
  fisheries policy on food security, quality and
  safety in MD
• Identification of gaps in policy for sustainable
  development of fisheries and future research needs

18
Sub-theme 5Water Use and Competition in the
Mekong DeltaDKNhan, NVBe and NHTrung

• Analysis of water conflicts among water users in
  MD possible options for more efficient and
  equitable water use
• Impacts of current intensive rice and aquaculture
  farming systems and institutional constraints on
  water access and sharing in
• upper irrigated
• acid sulphate soil area
• coastal zones
• Analysis of constraints and possible solutions in
  each specific context for policy recommendations
• Further investigations and recommendations

19
Key findingsSustainable developmentproblems,
challenges and policies

• Conflicts over the use of water occur at
  different levels (regional, local and sectoral)
• need to introduce the integrated water resource
  management in MD to address the issue of
  conflicts over the use of water
• A need to verify and clarify land use for
  agricultural and fishery production in the Mekong
  region

20
Key findings Floods and Salinity Management

• Copping capacity and resilience of local
  communities depend on the changing flood regimes
  shaped by the global climate change.
• The institutionalization of this integration
  principle requires the establishment of a
  mechanism promoting the institutional and social
  learning as well as sharing experience on how
  best manage water resource across provinces and
  sectors in the MD and across Vietnam and
  Cambodia
• Floods and saline instrusion have both damages
  and benefits

21
Key findings Livelihoods and Resource Use
Strategies

• Changes in livelihoods of MD people associated
  with physical conditions, resettlement, canal
  excavation and socio-economic situations and
  government policies.
• Three key policies and economic changes
• From rice intensification to livelihood
  diversification
• Effective land use
• Land and water use conflicts
• Multiple resource interests need to be addressed
  in natural resources management to avoid resource
  conflicts
• Institutional support for farmers needs to
  address technical AND socio-economic issues
• Participation of many stakeholders is required
  when major infrastructure development occurs

22
Key findings Transboundary challenges for
fisheries policy

• Transboundary issues regional fisheries ecology
  (habitat, migration) and fish trade
• Fisheries production from habitat to market
  involved series of scaled networks formal
  informal regulations / norms / rules, including
  EurepGAP GAA
• Domestic fisheries policy challenges better
  regulations though top-down
• Need for continuing support for quality
  improvements within fisheries supply chain
• Lack of strict implementation of environmental
  regulations for protection of aquatic resources

23
Key findings Water Use and Competition

• Increasing water competition between upper and
  lower delta
• Dry-season farming results in a decline in
  freshwater and salinity intrusion downstream
• Expansion of aquaculture in upper delta creates
  water quality problems downstream
• Improvements in water use efficiency needs to be
  seriously considered.
• Most ASS areas have been converted to agriculture
  or aquaculture production creating serious water
  quality problems
• Further expansion of production activities on ASS
  poses serious health and environmental risks, and
  thus requires improved monitoring and assessment.
• Water conflicts in the coastal zone are due to
  both interventions in the upper delta and changes
  in the coastal zone (infrastructure, aquaculture,
  deforestation).
• Conflict has resulted in a rethink of government
  policy and planning in the coastal zone, giving
  greater consideration to multiple water values,
  integrated farming systems and participation

24
Priority research needsDevelopment policies

• Master plan for MDs sustainable development
  regarding multi-sector use of natural resources
  in the socio-economic context of Vietnam as a
  member of WTO
• Master plan for MD people (staff and villagers)
  capacity building in resources (natural,
  financial, technological, human, social)
  management
• Supply chain analysis of main agricultural and
  aquacultural products of MD
• Market (land, financial, labor, main commodities)
  development at provincial and regional levels
• Infrastructure development

25
Priority research needsFlood salinity
management

• Impacts of hydropower dams upstream on downstream
  hydrology and ecology
• Environmental impact assessments of full-flood
  protection dykes upstream and downstream within
  MD
• Effects of global warming scenarios on water and
  land resources, and human activities in MD
• Flood and salinity hazard maps
• Multi-purpose water management
• Impacts of over-exploitation of groundwater
  resources on land depression or arsenic
  contamination in MD
• Conservation of wetland ecosystems in MD

26
Priority research needsLivelihoods resources
use strategies

• Community-based approach to natural resources
  management and the local poor livelihood
  improvement
• Strategies to strengthen the asset base of the
  rural poor aiming to poverty alleviation and
  sustainable development

27
Priority research needsFishery policies

• Measures for a better regional policy integration
  of fisheries ecology, trans-boundary sources of
  aquaculture feed, and for improvement of
  trans-boundary trade of aquatic products in the
  Delta region
• Fisheries sustainable development by appropriate
  chain policy, supply chain quality management,
  and value chain analysis case of the Vietnamese
  Delta

28
Priority research needsWater use and competition

• Improvement of water productivity in rice farming
  and aquaculture for remaining high income of
  production systems and safeguarding the
  environment
• Spatial and temporal patterns of salinity
  intrusion and determinants in the context of
  water resources developments in upstream
  countries
• Maximising economic value of water in aiming at
  less environmental impacts, improved livelihoods
  of the poor and ensuring national food security
• Farmers incentives to water saving practices in
  agriculture and aquaculture
• Mechanisms (cooperation, participation,
  coordination) for secure and equitable water
  access and use at local and delta scales

29
Priority Sumernet Research Needs

• Study of changes in flood situation in upper
  Mekong Delta (Cambodia and Vietnam) and impacts
  on livelihoods
• The role and effectiveness of community
  organisations in coping and responding to
  environmental changes and other risks
• Sustainable fisheries development by appropriate
  supply chain quality management value chain
  analysis of the Mekong Delta with an emphasis on
  regional linkages