Abstract
This paper examined how forest has contributed to rural households’ livelihood in Da river basin, the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam. The results revealed that forest predominantly contributes to the total income of rural residents in the region. Specifically, forestry land area, access to non-timber forest products, and payment for forest environmental services significantly affected household’s income in the region. However, rural people in the region have still faced several difficulties that constrain household’s livelihood. Of these difficulties, lack of financial capital, epidemic diseases in animal husbandry, limited access to market information and natural disaster are popular barriers to livelihood of people in the region. This paper also recommended several policies to improve rural livelihood in Da river basin. These includes: (i) integrating issues regarding payment for forest environmental services and REDD+ into socioeconomic development plan; (ii) improving awareness of local people on sustainable natural capital use through ecosystem conservation policy; (iii) providing preferential credit and training on agricultural production techniques; and (iv) encouraging market-oriented agriculture.
Highlights
Hydropower development has benefited economies of several countries in different aspects such as electricity generation, increase in irrigated areas and reduction of flood and drought (Kuenzer et al, 2013; Sayatham and Suhardiman, 2015; Intralawan et al, 2018)
With most of the forest in the region still being natural forest, it serves as a watershed area which is very important for the development of hydroelectric plants in Vietnam
This paper aims to test how natural capital including forest and other livelihood’s assets contributed to rural livelihood in the northwest mountainous region of Vietnam
Summary
Hydropower development has benefited economies of several countries in different aspects such as electricity generation, increase in irrigated areas and reduction of flood and drought (Kuenzer et al, 2013; Sayatham and Suhardiman, 2015; Intralawan et al, 2018). Hydropower development has degraded mainly natural capital which is a major factor affecting people’s livelihood (Sivongxay et al, 2017). Analysis of factors influencing riparian households’ livelihood in the hydropower reservoir is necessary to help affected people confront negative impacts of hydropower development and reach sustainable livelihood (Sivongxay et al, 2017; Colombo et al, 2018). Da River locates in the northwest mountainous region where most of people are forestdependent (Thoai and Rañola, 2010). The northwest mountainous region is homes to many ethnic minority groups that have low income and have limited access to infrastructure, education, health services, nonfarm employment, and other welfare-related services (Thoai and Rañola, 2011; Tran, 2014).
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