Hue, Le Thi Van. 2002. "Land Allocation, Social Differentiation, and Mangrove Management in a Village of Northern Vietnam." Presented at "The Commons in an Age of Globalisation," the Ninth Conference of the International Association for the Study of Common Property, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, June 17-21, 2002.

Abstract

From the Introduction:

"Giao Lac village is a largely Catholic coastal community located in Giao Thuy district of Nam Dinh province, which lies at the mouth of the Red River. The villages land covers an area of about 481 hectares and it population during the period of this study, 2000-2001, was about 9000. It is an agricultural community, farming rice, but also engaged in animal husbandry and fisheries. It is bordered to the south by the central dike, an intertidal area and the South China Sea. The dike is almost 3 km long. The intertidal area is more than 600 ha, of which 345 ha has been planted with the mangroves, Kandelia candel, Sonneratia and Rhizophora. In addition, there are 5 shrimp ponds in this area. Four out of the 5 ponds and all of the intertidal area belong to the District, which, in turn, mandates the village to manage the ponds and the mudflats.

"Giao Lac village is a community with a long and rich history. Elderly individuals in the village have experienced life under three regimes: the French colonial government, the Japanese occupation and independent Vietnam. They have experienced the great famine of 1945, the war of liberation, the post-independence land reforms, the struggle in the South to unify the country and the American bombing of the North, the post-1975 period of intensive collectivization and, more recently, the period of Doi Moi reform.

"The next sections will explore the ways in which policy reforms and other factors have affected the villagers management of mangrove forests in response to national policy reforms in the village. The analysis examines national policy reforms led to rapid changes in local land use systems and in both the ownership and management practices of these mangrove forests at the village level. It also pays explicit attention to the dynamics of social differentiation in the village, in terms of different access to and control over mangrove resources and different management practices by the rich and the poor as well as by men and women. Typhoon environments pose various kinds of natural uncertainties to communities living within them. The various coping strategies used by villagers are described in the paper.

"The next section discusses the ways in which mangrove forests in Giao Lac have been managed through different periods of time. It highlights the role of different institutions and describes how rights of access to mangrove resources were shaped and have changed over time."