Climate Change, Adaptation and the Environment in Central Vietnam

This introduction locates Central Vietnam in the international debate on climate change in developing countries, particularly in terms of socio-economic impacts. Central Vietnam is considered the most vulnerable region of the country in terms of exposure to the effects of climate change. The prospects of a rise in sea level, threats to agricultural production in coastal zones, and risks of increasing weather variability imply higher frequencies of storms, heavy rains and droughts. In order to determine how people, communities and public authorities adapt to new circumstances however, these overall challenges must be placed in a real-life context. There is a gap in the international climate change debate between, on the one hand, a reliance on technical approaches and overall mechanical modeling to countries and regions, and on the other, the perspectives that derive from local environmental data collection and socio-economic analysis. Complexities increase dramatically when working at the lower and intermediate levels: the observed processes of change are not only ascribable to climate change, but to globalization, policy changes, marketization, general economic development, and large-scale human interventions in the environment. There is an urgent need for integrated approaches, such as the building of environmental management into climate change responses, addressing the total impact of livelihood stresses in social vulnerability perspectives, and ensuring that overall adaptation policies adequately address social justice.