Climate Change, Gender Roles and Hierarchies

Socioeconomic Transformation in an Ethnic Minority Community in Viet Nam

Phuong Ha Pham, Donna L. Doane

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429941429
• Topic: Ciencias físicas
• Subtopic: Calentamiento global y cambio climático

This book examines changing gender roles, relations and hierarchies in an ethnic minority community in Central Viet Nam. After decades of war, the community continued its self-sufficient way of life in this remote forested mountainous region, but in recent years has been forced to respond to severe climate threats combined with sudden and destabilizing socioeconomic and regulatory change.

Through the use of both qualitative (interview-based) and quantitative research methods, the book offers insights into the complex interactions between climate, regulatory and socioeconomic changes – including, paradoxically, the emergence of significant problems for both the community and the environment in the wake of policies designed to protect the natural environment. Facing greatly increased food and livelihood insecurity, the women and men of the community were pushed into the mainstream market economy without being fully prepared to participate in an economy that is still very new to them. These sudden transitions caused major shifts in gender roles and hierarchies, opening up new possibilities for women to increase their social status in a highly patriarchal context, but also at a cost for both women and men as women's burdens increased and men's traditional roles and livelihoods were lost. The book examines recent trends, including unanticipated changes and new possible policy-related approaches, and draws international comparisons with other ethnic minority, indigenous and remote communities facing similar complex forces of change.

This book will be of interest to scholars and postgraduate students of climate change, gender, environment, and public policy and development studies.

1 Introduction

Gender and climate change in a previously self-sufficient ethnic minority community

This study is concerned with gender and climate change, specifically within the context of a previously remote and self-sufficient ethnic minority community in a mountainous part of Central Viet Nam that is now facing serious challenges. It not only examines the destabilizing impacts of a changing climate, it also explores the complex interactions of climate change combined with rapid socioeconomic and regulatory policy changes – including, paradoxically, significant problems that have emerged for both the community and the environment as a consequence of policies designed, in part, to protect the forests and the natural environment. As a result of these changes, the Co Tu community in Ca Dy Commune of Central Viet Nam is experiencing food and livelihood insecurity and is being pulled into the mainstream cash-based market economy, even though they are in many ways not fully prepared to participate in an economy that is still very new to them.

All of these rapid changes have had major impacts on gender roles in the region, coming in the wake of the elimination of men’s traditional livelihood activities and, as a result, the introduction of heavy new burdens placed on women to ensure their family’s survival. The study has parallels in other parts of the world where previously remote and self-sufficient communities are suddenly disrupted by a number of simultaneous changes, including the crucially important impacts of climate change and other changes that render earlier agricultural and forest-based livelihood systems no longer viable as a means to sustain the local communities.

This study, using both qualitative interview and quantitative household survey research methods, grew out of the lead author’s research for her PhD thesis and is supplemented by additional research visits, further analyses, and international comparisons with other similar cases.¹ The present expanded study will detail the impacts of these rapid transitions on gender roles, relations and hierarchies in this ethnic minority community.

It will be argued that even though these changes have created serious new problems, they have also opened up new possibilities for women to increase their social status; however, the women do this through overwork as they earn and support their families by taking on both the livelihood and reproductive burdens of the family and community. In contrast, the initial response of a majority of men in the community was idleness – contributing very little while older and younger women worked – given that their traditional roles were eliminated in this new context. This has parallels in many countries where men’s earlier livelihood activities are no longer available (e.g., by being prohibited or made obsolete), and men find it difficult to move away from their previous roles and positions in society. The gender-related changes analyzed here go further and examine the additional impacts on younger generations, who now have to confront a new, difficult and challenging world unknown to the older generations in the community – again with very different responses based on gender.

The study thus aims to draw lessons that will be relevant to contexts where climate change is having a major destabilizing impact, and together with other factors is forcing previously remote, poor and isolated communities into a new and unequal relationship with the mainstream cash-based economy. This can cause major shifts in gender roles and hierarchies, as both women and men attempt to cope – and not always successfully – with their new physical, socioeconomic and interpersonal environments.

Background to the research

Viet Nam is ranked ninth among the ten countries most affected by climate change from 1998 to 2017, according to the Global Climate Index 2017 (Eckstein et al., 2018). With 3,200 km of coastline and 70% of its population living in low-lying deltas and coastal areas, the country is highly vulnerable to natural hazards. Of the country’s population, 10.8% will be severely impacted by one meter of sea level rise – the highest in the region (Dasgupta et al., 2007). It is predicted that climate change will increase sea levels and add significantly to damage caused by natural hazards. As an example of Viet Nam’s vulnerability to climate-related disasters, in 2017 persistent weather extremes, including Tropical Storms Kirogi and Talas and Typhoon Damrey, caused hundreds of deaths, destroyed thousands of houses and severely damaged infrastructure and water supplies (Eckstein et al., 2018).

These climate-related changes already have had major impacts on virtually all sectors of the economy, particularly on agricultural and forest-based production systems. Of note is the serious negative impact on food production from continuously increasing temperatures and significant rainfall variability in Viet Nam. For example, in late 2004 and early 2005, it is estimated that 60 million USD in agricultural production was lost due to a sharp reduction in rainfall, and 1.3 million people did not have access to clean water (Tran, 2009). A 2009 study conducted in Ninh Thuan Province by Oxfam and UN-Vietnam found that the severe drought conditions caused land degradation, a lack of drinking water and serious reductions in crop yields; more recently, conflicts resulting from drought conditions have also been documented in Central Viet Nam (Van Huynh et al., 2019).

By 2070, the rice crop, in particular, is projected to decrease 3–6% as compared to the 1960–1998 period. In a developing country such as Viet Nam, agricultural production is crucial to food security for the entire nation, and the impact of climate change is even more critical than is true for countries that are less dependent on agricultural production (Kryspin-Watson et al., 2006; Tran, 2009; UN-Vietnam, 2009). The concern is that the pressures caused by food insecurity as a result of climate change will undermine the efforts to erase poverty – not only in Viet Nam but in all such affected countries.

More than any other group in the country, the poor and marginalized communities living in rural areas are believed to be the most vulnerable to climate change because they remain highly dependent on local natural resources for food security and for their livelihoods. Furthermore, they are said to have the least capacity to adapt as a result of their poverty and isolation (Abeygunawardena et al., 2009; Dankelman et al., 2008; Parry et al., 2007).

In addition to climate-change impacts associated with poverty and marginalization, climate change is widely recognized internationally as having important gender implications, and this is as true in Viet Nam as it is elsewhere. Women are very often found to be among the most adversely affected by climate change.

Women in Viet Nam are disadvantaged in many aspects: They are more likely than others to be subject to poor economic conditions, have less access to education and suffer from a lack of opportunities to become involved in public events and decision-making processes because of social constraints and stereotypes held by a society that remains influenced by Confucian and related ideologies (Tran et al., 2006). In addition, women in Viet Nam – who account for two-thirds of the rural labor force – play a crucial role in subsistence agriculture. In many developing countries, including Viet Nam, women have traditionally been required to take on the responsibility for providing daily meals and other basic necessities for their families. For this reason, rural women are very vulnerable to climate threats because of their designated responsibilities as well as the nature of their livelihoods, which depend heavily on natural resources (Chaudhry & Ruysschaert, 2007; Dankelman et al., 2008; Oxfam & UN-Vietnam, 2009; UN-Vietnam, 2009). It is widely recognized that rural women are among the groups most vulnerable to climate change due to a combination of poverty, food insecurity and gender inequality (Brody et al., 2008; Lambrou & Nelson, 2010; WEDO, 2007).

It is also increasingly recognized that the impacts of climate change are shaped by local institutional and socioeconomic contexts (Chaudhry & Ruysschaert, 2007; McElwee, 2010). In Viet Nam, ethnic minorities often have very limited cash income and are much more dependent on natural resources than the Kinh population, the ethnic majority group.² With the exception of the Khmer and the Cham, who are settled in the Mekong Delta and the Southeast Coast, respectively, most of the ethnic minority population lives in the more mountainous and forested parts of Viet Nam (Swinkels & Turk, 2006).

For these forest-based and upland ethnic minority communities, even minor changes in their forest and agricultural systems have serious impacts on food security. Here, both direct impacts of specific climate events (e.g., floods, droughts and storms) and indirect impacts of climatic variation – including, for example, negative impacts of extreme temperatures or rainfall on vegetation, wild game, fish and livestock, along with other environmental impacts – would make them vulnerable to increases in both food and livelihood insecurity. Climate threats, therefore, can have devastating impacts on local peoples’ lives and wellbeing.

In Viet Nam, climate change–related studies have focused primarily on large-scale events affecting coastal communities (e.g., unprecedented rises in the sea level) as well as those living in flood-prone parts of the country. Nonetheless, climate change has also had profound impacts on other communities, including those living in mountainous areas, and we find that it is in these fragile mountain regions that not only the environmental impacts but also the social impacts of climate change need to be studied in much greater detail. This would include impacts on gender roles and responsibilities in the wake of severe climate variations and destructive and ongoing climate threats. In Viet Nam, this is particularly important given the central role gender plays in determining food and livelihood security in vulnerable communities – in other words, in determining the means of survival for these local populations.

Focus of the research

Ca Dy Commune is located in a forested mountainous area about 70 km from the center of Quang Nam Province and about 10 km from the nearest town of Thanh My in Central Viet Nam (see Figure 1.1, showing the province, district and the specific commune that is the focus of this study). Of the total population in this commune, 86% is made up of the Co Tu ethnic minority group.³

Figure 1.1 Study area – Ca Dy Commune, Nam Giang District, Quang Nam Province

Source: GADM (www.gadm.org) 04/2018

Traditionally, the livelihoods of the Co Tu community in Ca Dy Commune were based primarily on forest resources, including the collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs), swidden (also known as slash and burn, or shifting) cultivation, the cutting and gathering of trees for houses, hunting, small-scale animal raising, and upland agriculture. This area was previously considered to be a remote and isolated part of Viet Nam, but changes have come due in part to the construction of the National Route 14B (a part of the Ho Chi Minh Highway) in 2004–2005, when the road began crossing through the commune and linking it with other parts of the country.

A study from 2011 analyzing the relationship between climate variations and land use in Quang Nam Province found that average air temperatures have increased about 0.06–0.1°C per decade from 1980 to 2010 (Vo, 2012). From 1991 to 2010, monthly rainfall has also been increasing with a standard deviation of 500–700 mm in most areas in the province. Due to the intensifying variability of rainfall, the frequency of floods and droughts in this province has also increased in recent years. In line with this, the Co Tu population living in this province has been experiencing significant climatic variations in recent decades, specifically regarding temperatures, rainfall and climate extremes. As a result, they find that their agricultural livelihoods have been under serious threat from climate change, as will be discussed in detail in the following chapters.

Apart from climate change, the Co Tu community in this area has also experienced major impacts brought about by changes in the land use and forest-protection laws and policies. The 1986 Doi Moi reforms initiated the implementation of a series of regulatory changes (i.e., changes pertaining to rules, laws and policies) throughout the country. The study area has been affected in particular by the 1991 Law on Forest Protection and Development and the 1998 Forest Land Allocation (FLA) program that allocated forestland to individual households, among other forest protection and forest management-related programs.

Due to these regulatory changes, the local community no longer has free access to the natural forests they depended on for generations. As a result, swidden cultivation – the most critical traditional livelihood of Co Tu women – was banned, and on top of this serious development, hunting – the most important livelihood activity of Co Tu men – has been strictly prohibited. The gathering of NTFPs has also been limited due to these restrictions. As a consequence of a changing climate in the context of a changing regulatory and social environment, the community’s access to food and livelihood security has declined, forcing Co Tu women and men to cope and adapt as a means of survival.

In a world with a changing climate, harmonious relations between men and women can play an important role in enabling coordinated efforts and adaptation strategies. However, in this case, under pressure from the need to respond rapidly to a destabilizing climate and other changes, the established patterns of gender relations in the Co Tu community have been disrupted. New patterns of gender relations and new challenges to gender hierarchies are emerging and not always in a smooth and harmonious way.

Gender in a context of climate, regulatory and social change: a survey of relevant literature

As noted, the focus of this research is an examination of changing gender relations in an ethnic minority community under the serious impacts of a changing climate in the context of regulatory and socioeconomic change. Climate change by itself is already a major challenge, and its impact is intensified when compounded by...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of photos
• List of tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: gender and climate change in a previously self-sufficient ethnic minority community
• 2 Impact of a changing climate on an ethnic minority community in a remote mountainous region of Viet Nam
• 3 The Co Tu of Ca Dy Commune: vulnerabilities in the face of rapid change
• 4 The struggle for food and livelihood security: changing livelihoods, gender roles and gender hierarchies
• 5 Summary of findings and possible ways forward
• Appendix
• Index