Entitlements, Commons and Vulnerability in Vietnam Neil Leary, START

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Entitlements, Commons and Vulnerability in
VietnamNeil Leary, START
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Entitlements

• A. Sen, 1981, Poverty and Famines, an essay on
  entitlement and depravation.
• Starvation is the characteristic of some people
  not having enough food to eat. It is not the
  characteristic of there being not enough food to
  eat.
• Statements about starvation are statements about
  entitlements, not production

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Case studies of Vietnam

• L.Q. Huy and N.C. Thanh. An assessment of social
  vulnerability to climate change in a time of
  renovation. Preliminary results from an AIACC
  project.
• N. Adger, M. Kelly and N.H. Ninh, Living with
  Environmental Change Social vulnerability,
  adaptation and resilience in Vietnam.

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Changes in entitlements

• Doi moi, policy of economic renovation
• Privatize agricultural land
• Dismantle cooperative system, and their
  restrictions on markets for farm inputs, outputs
• Labor market liberalized, more opportunities but
  guarantee of employment lost
• Mechanization of agriculture promoted

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Changes in performance of agriculture sector of
Vietnam

• Higher prices for farm outputs
• Increased investment and other inputs to
  agriculture, improved farm management
• Dramatic increases in output
• Diversification of livelihoods
• Rising incomes
• Underemployment of farm labor migration of male
  laborers for off-farm income
• Income distribution becoming less equal

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Common Pool Resources

• G. Hardin, 1968, The tragedy of the commons
• E. Ostrom and others, eds., 2002, The drama of
  the commons

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Common pool resource

• Valued resource that can be used by more than one
  person
• Use by one person subtracts from what is
  available to others
• Subject to degradation from overuse
• Exclusion is costly

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Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province
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Livelihood groups in Giao Thuy

• Shrimp farmers
• Rice farmers
• Salt-makers

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Changes in entitlements to mangroves

• Mangroves had been common property, managed by
  collectives
• Relied on primarily by poorer households
• Transferred to private property
• Beneficiaries generally the better off households
• Privately owned mangroves converted to
  agricultural lands and shrimp farms

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Consequences of privatizing mangroves

• Entitlements of poorer households decreased
• Productivity of fishery degraded
• Incomes of poorer households reduced capacity
  for coping, adapting reduced
• Entitlements expand for households allocated
  rights to mangroves
• Incomes increased capacity for coping, adapting
  increased
• Distribution of income becoming less equal

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Does growing inequality add to vulnerability?

• Inequality implies households less homogenous in
  their interests, perspectives
• Diminished likelihood of successful collective
  action?
• Non-cooperative exploitation of fishery increased
• Conflict over conversion/preservation of
  remaining mangroves, access to fishery
• Failure to continue investment in coastal
  protection systems
• But informal credit unions developed

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Giao Thuy exposed to climatic hazards

• June 1992 Typhoon Chuck
• June 1996 Typhoon Frankie
• September 1998 tropical depression

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Household income and cyclone losses
Shrimp farmers
Income
Losses
Millions VND (1998)
Rice farmers
Income
Losses
Source Huy Thanh, preliminary results. Do not
cite.