i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY TRAN LE THU THAO VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OF ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN IN THANH VAN COMMUNE, CHO MOI DISTRICT, BAC KAN[.]
THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY TRAN LE THU THAO VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OF ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN IN THANH VAN COMMUNE, CHO MOI DISTRICT, BAC KAN PROVINCE BACHELOR THESIS Study Mode : Full-time Major : Environmental Science and Management Faculty : International Programs Office Batch : 2013 – 2017 Thai Nguyen, September 2017 i c DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry Degree program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management Student name Tran Le Thu Thao Student ID DTN1353110242 Thesis title Vulnerability and adaption to climate change of ethnic minority women in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province Supervisor Dr Ho Ngoc Son Abstract: Moving towards to 21st century, a controversial problem over the world is vulnerability and adaptation of women to climate change Indeed, those are living in poverty, especially ethnic groups will be more vulnerable because they have less access to health service, clean environment, useful assets, good education and many other patterns The goal of this study is to evaluate the vulnerability, adaptation of ethnic minority women and their resilience as well as suggest certain ways of addressing women’s difficulties in the context of climate change By using household survey, interview, group discussion methods, the thesis was carried out in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province where is one of the northern mountainous area heavily impacted by climate change As a result, ethnic minority women in Thanh Van are very vulnerable to climate and non-climate stresses because of limited access to services Although they have many difficulties in adaptation process, they adopted various adaptation strategies such as applying indigenous ii c knowledge in agriculture, using local cop species that are drought-tolerant…to adapt to climate risks Hence, increasing adaptive capacity and reducing vulnerability of ethnic minority women are key factors to build their resilience to climate change Key words Climate change, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience, ethnic minority women Number of pages 57 Date of submission 20/09/2017 Supervisor’s signature iii c ACKNOWLEDGEMENT During the research process and completion of the thesis, I received a lot of help from my teachers, my university, my friends and my family First and foremost, I would like to send my deep thanks to Dr Ho Ngoc Son who provided comments and suggestions for the thesis to be completed and gave direct guidance during the research process and completion Moreover, I would like to say thank with staffs of Agriculture & Forestry Research and Development Center for Mountainous Region (ADC) for providing me with useful materials and helping me during the time I stayed in Thanh Van commune I also thank the Tay women, local officials in Thanh Van commune who spent their time to share their experiences during the survey, interview, and activities of mine in the commune Without their enthusiasm and effort, I could not finish my thesis Last but not least, my sincere thanks also go to my family and all my classmates K45 – Advanced Education Program for their supporting, helping and loves throughout my study iv c TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv LIST OF FIGURES vii LIST OF TABLES viii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Research rationale Research’s objective Research questions Limitations PART II LITERATURE REVIEW Climate change in the world Climate change in Vietnam Climate change in Bac Kan 3.1 Impacts of climate change in Bac Kan 3.2 Unequal impacts between women and men 3.3 Responses of women 11 Some features about Thanh Van commune 12 Concepts of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation 13 5.1 Vulnerability 13 5.2 Adaptive capacity 14 5.3 Resilience 15 Linkages of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity 15 PART III METHODS 17 Case study approach 17 Data collection methods 17 2.1 Household survey 17 2.2 Interview 18 2.3 Focus group discussion 19 2.4 Participation method 20 2.5 Reviewing literature 20 Data analysis methods 20 PART IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21 Vulnerability of ethinic minority women in Thanh Van 21 v c 1.1 Causes of vulnerability of ethinic minority women 21 1.2 Reasons of vulnerability of ethinic minority women 25 1.3 How ethnic minorty women are vulnerable to climate change 30 Adaptation strategies 33 2.1 Challenges of ethinic minority women in the context of climate change 33 2.2 Adaptation strategies of ethinic minority women 37 Building resilience to climate change 41 3.1 Increasing adaptive capacity 41 3.2 Reducing vulnerability 41 PART V CONCLUSION 43 REFERENCES 45 vi c LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 A household survey with Tay women 18 Figure 3.2 Group discussion with hazard map making 19 Figure 3.3 Group discussion with historical timeline making 20 Figure 4.1 Average temperature of 50 years in Bac Kan (1960-2010) 21 Figure 4.2 Average rainfall of 50 years in Bac Kan (1956-2006) 22 Figure 4.3 Hazard map of Thanh Van commune 31 Figure 4.4 Historical timeline in Na Ray village, Thanh Van commune 31 vii c LIST OF TABLES Table 4.1 Tay women's assessment about local weather changes in 10 recent years in Thanh Van commune 23 Table 4.2 Tay women’s assessment about frequency of disasters in 10 recent years in Thanh Van commune 24 Table 4.3 Tay women’s assessment about intensity of disasters in 10 recent years in Thanh Van commune 24 Table 4.4 List of diseases in plants and livestock in Thanh Van 26 Table 4.5 Diseases on Tay women suffering from disasters, erractic weather 29 Table 4.6 Historical timeline table in Na Ray 32 Table 4.7 Adaptation of Tay women in Thanh Van 37 Table 4.8 Tay women use indigenous knowledge and modern method in agriculture 40 viii c LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ADC Agriculture & Forestry Research and Development Center for Mountainous Region CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization INSPONRE Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration PRRS Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome VSLA Village Savings and Loans Associations WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change ix c PART I INTRODUCTION Research rationale In the 21st century, climate change is one of the greatest challenges that have caused tremendous changes through extreme climatic events such as rising temperatures, strong storms, heavy rain, floods, droughts and rising sea levels for mankind It is noteworthy that the impacts of climate change are significant and increasing, causing a considerable impact on the national economy, even more strongly on the livelihoods of the poorest groups living in countryside Vietnam is one of the countries most severely affected by the increasing manifestation of these phenomena In addition to policies promulgated by the Government of Vietnam to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the international community has been actively supporting the Government of Viet Nam in climate change response activities, towards sustainable development in localities, especially underdeveloped and poor areas Generally, climate change becomes more serious and unpredicted in the Northern mountainous areas In fact, climate change will cause serious consequences to these areas because the Northern mountainous areas have many factors creating vulnerability status easily such as high poverty rate, limited mitigation approaches, degraded ecology environment, complex terrain, many ethnic minorities, main works depending mainly on agriculture and forestry and the like, which are influenced greatly from natural disasters and weather However, it is inherently more vulnerable in some groups of people such as ethnic minorities, the very old or very young, the sick who have limited access to information, resources and services Especially, c