Livelihood vulnerability to climate change: Indexes and insights from two ethnic minority communities in Central Vietnam

Abstract

Ethnic minorities living in secluded regions are usually framed as the most vulnerable to climate change given fragile environments and limited access to resources. Nonetheless, their livelihood vulnerability to climate change has not been adequately assessed, especially in the mountainous areas of central Vietnam. This study thus sought to fill that knowledge gap by applying the livelihood vulnerability index referencing the IPCC framework (LVI-IPCC) to examine the vulnerability of the Pa Co and Co Tu minority communities in upland regions of Thua Thien Hue province, central Vietnam. The results disclosed that the Pa Co tends to be more vulnerable than the Co Tu, mainly due to the higher sensitivity index to natural disasters (p<0.05). In addition, our findings underscored the greater vulnerability of poor or single-parent households. We argued that the livelihood vulnerability of minority households is closely interrelated with poor status, often causing a loop of the poverty trap. Recognizing these, we proposed several managerial recommendations and practical implications to help ethnic minority communities escape such dilemmas while improving their adaptive capacity to climate variability.