Organizer: Michael R. DiGregorio, University of California, Los Angeles
Chair: A. Terry Rambo, East West Center
Discussant: Neil L. Jamieson, Winrock International
A. Terry Rambo, East-West Center
The recent lifting of the U.S. embargo was accompanied by a virtual flood of speculation in the media about Vietnam's development potential. Most appraisals were quite optimistic with some suggesting that the country will be Asia's next miracle economy, an instant "NIC" needing only an infusion of U.S. investment capital to achieve overnight prosperity. Such hyperbolic claims are both misleading and potentially harmful. They are misleading in that they downplay or wholly fail to take into account the many difficulties that Vietnam must overcome while overstating the factors, particularly the country's supposedly vast treasury of unexploited natural resources, that favor rapid economic development. Such claims are potentially harmful in that they divert attention from the need to solve the pressing problems of poverty, overpopulation, environmental degradation and decay of the administrative system. To the extent that such claims are accepted as true by the Vietnamese people, they may contribute to rising expectations of rapid improvement in living conditions that may lead to widespread public discontent when reality fails to conform to dreams.
This paper draws on fieldwork conducted on human environment interactions in the Red River Delta, the Midlands, the northwestern Highlands, and the Mekong Delta. It presents a deliberately contrarian view of Vietnam's development prospects, emphasizing the many threats to long-term sustainable development.
Aran Patanothai, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
The Red River Delta of Vietnam is an area of dense human settlement and intensive land use. In the past, villagers have been able to increase production sufficient to cope with increased population. Whether further increases in population can be supported by the land and whether current high levels of production can be sustained are questions which have yet to be answered This paper attempts to answer these questions in the specific context of an agricultural village, Nguyen Xa, in the densely settled Red River delta province of Thai Binh. It draws upon fieldwork jointly conducted in 1991 and 1992 by researchers from the Southeast Asian Agroecosystem Network (SUAN), The Program on Environment at the East West Center, and the Center for Natural Resources Management and Environmental Studies at Hanoi University.
The results of this research revealed that land use in Nguyen Xa was intensive. Almost all the cultivated land was devoted to the production of the village's two crops of rice per year. In addition, about 40 percent of the village's agricultural land produced a third crop in the dry winter season. With the availability of irrigation water, the use of high yielding varieties, and the heavy application of manure and chemical inputs, crop yields were quite high. Rice yields of 6 7 tons per hectare were quite common.
Though production relied heavily on manual labor of villagers, it could not be characterized as backward by any stretch of the imagination. The agricultural system of Nguyen Xa village was technically sophisticated. An outstanding feature in this regard was the elaborate forms of nutrient recycling employed by the villagers. Just about every nutrient possible was captured and recycled to the field one way or another. Though analysis of soils revealed a potentially debilitating accumulation of potassium and a gradual depletion of phosphorous, land thus appeared to be managed sustainably.
Despite these past successes, research indicated that the agricultural potential of village lands may have already been reached. A simulation of rice yields showed that farmers in Nguyen Xa were already achieving 80 percent of their crop's genetic potential and that further yield increases were not likely. Expansion of the area sown in a third crop was also unlikely.
To compensate for the limits reached in agricultural production, villagers have been seeking additional income through subsidiary activities. Reliance on these activities has been increasing in recent years and has generated good incomes to the villagers. With little room left for improvement in agriculture, subsidiary activities may be the only long term means of coping with the pressures of an increasing population.
Le Trong Cuc, Hanoi University
The Da (Black) River watershed encompasses an area circumscribed by the northwest to southeast running summits of the Son La and Hoang Lien Son ranges in northwestern Vietnam. It is an isolated area of strongly dissected river valleys and limestone mountains. The population of the watershed, 973,282 persons in 1989, is sparsely settled and diverse. Although 23 ethnic groups live in the watershed, only five of these, Thai (42 percent), Kinh (lowland Vietnamese; 18 percent), Hmong (17.5 percent), Muong (9.5 percent) and Dzao (4.8 percent), comprise the overwhelming majority.
Each of these ethnic groups occupies a distinct agroecological zone. The Thai, Muong, Tay and Kinh practice irrigated rice cultivation in the fertile valleys within the watershed. The Hmong, Dzao, and Kho Mu people practice sedentary shifting cultivation on the high slopes. In addition, many Kinh migrants raise industrial crops on state farms in the more accessible areas and the highland plateaus found in Moc Chau, Mai Son and Phong Tho districts.
The Hoa Binh hydroelectric dam, which has created a reservoir covering 200 square kilometers at depths of 115 meters, is the single largest project in the watershed. The rising waters of the reservoir have forced the relocation of 58,000 people belonging to 9,305 households in nine districts along its 30 kilometer length and flooded 11,000 hectares of agricultural land, including 4,000 hectares of irrigated rice fields.
The loss of lowland agricultural land has been matched by a loss in upland forest as displaced persons migrated upward with the rising waters. The Ministry of Forestry estimates that 2,000 hectares of forest are lost each year as the former valley farmers turn to upland swiddening. The erosion caused by these practices has reduced the life expectancy of the Hoa Binh hydroelectric dam from 300 to 80 years.
A second, larger dam is now being planned for construction at Son La, also on the Da river. This dam, which would flood 58,277 hectares, the majority forest land, under a maximum depth of 265 meters of water, would force the relocation of 120,411 people.
Under the impact of such massive changes in the physical and social landscape of the Da river watershed, one has to question the significance of the various agriculture and forestry programs established by the state and non governmental organizations. While valuable in their own right, when compared to the large scale displacement brought about by dam construction, these efforts provide insufficient compensation. An alternative approach would examine the benefits of dam construction compared to other forms of energy against the likely impact of such construction on the environment.
Nghiem Phuong Tuyen, Hanoi University
Gender has a profound and complex influence on resource identification and use. Gender work and gender knowledge of the environment, seen through the differing perspectives of men and women, affect the way each identifies, values, appropriates and uses resources. In much of the world, women have responsibility for growing and collecting food. medicines, fuel, and housing materials. In other words, they are often active in producing or collecting for household subsistence. These activities regularly expose women to primary resources-water, wood, land, wildlife-thus giving them an acute awareness to negative changes in the quality of those resources locally. Men, on the other hand. are typically more active in commercial agriculture than women and more often employ unsustainable methods of utilizing resources.
This paper will draw on fieldwork conducted in Da Bac district, Hoa Binh province in the northwest uplands of Vietnam. It will discuss the roles of women in Da Bac as it pertains to the use of land, forests and forest products, water sources and labor.
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