Entitlements, Commons and Vulnerability in Vietnam

Neil Leary, START

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

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.

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

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

Common Pool Resources

• G. Hardin, 1968, The tragedy of the commons

• E. Ostrom and others, eds., 2002, The drama of the commons

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

Giao Thuy District, Nam Dinh Province

Livelihood groups in Giao Thuy

• Shrimp farmers

• Rice farmers

• Salt-makers

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

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

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

Giao Thuy exposed to climatic hazards

• June 1992 Typhoon Chuck

• June 1996 Typhoon Frankie

• September 1998 tropical depression

Household income and cyclone losses

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1992 1996 1998

Shrimp farmers

Income

Losses

Income

Losses

Rice farmers

Mil

lion

s V

ND

(19

98)

Source: Huy & Thanh, preliminary results. Do not cite.