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
30
Shrimp farmers
25
Millions VND (1998)
Income
Losses
20
15
Rice farmers
Income
10
5
Losses
0
1992
1996
Source: Huy & Thanh, preliminary results. Do not cite.
1998