According to the results of “Research on the impact of climate change on the livelihoods of people in Bac Kan province”, Dr. Bui Thi Thu Trang (Hanoi University of Natural Resources and Environment) stated that due to the steep mountainous terrain and strongly fragmented terrain, Ba Be is often affected by extreme weather phenomena caused by climate change. Meanwhile, the livelihoods of the people are mainly agriculture and forestry, accounting for 60.59% of the district's economic proportion.
People's response capacity is still low
Specifically, in the period from 2008 to 2018, natural disasters such as flash floods, landslides, and hail occurred with greater intensity, increased in frequency, and changed erratically; causing serious damage to the livelihoods of local people, reducing crop and livestock productivity.
Through the survey, flash floods, landslides and hail have direct and serious impacts on crop production, especially rice cultivation because rice is mainly cultivated in areas near streams, which are prone to flash floods and landslides on the banks of fields, causing flooding and burying crops. Regarding livestock, due to limited economic development conditions, the application of modern livestock farming methods is still facing many difficulties. Livestock farming is still small-scale, household-scale. The main damage is loss of livestock land, damage to barns, disease outbreaks, and death of livestock.
In forestry, flash floods, landslides and hailstorms increase disease outbreaks and reduce the resilience of forest ecosystems, causing forest quality to decline. In addition, climate change alters the composition and structure of some forest ecosystems, forcing species to migrate and adapt to new living conditions.
The study assessed the capacity to adapt to climate change through five sources of livelihood capital of households: human capital, people's awareness of climate change, natural capital, financial capital, and physical facilities. Overall, the capacity to adapt remains low.
In Ba Be district, households have an average income of about 3 - 5,000,000 VND/month. The lowest household income is 2,000,000 VND/month, mainly agricultural households, and the highest is 10,000,000 VND/month, mainly business households and drivers. Of the total number of interviewed households, poor households account for 21% and near-poor households account for 19%. In addition to 30% of the interviewed households whose main source of income is from non-agricultural occupations, most households do not have stable jobs when facing natural disasters, leading to low income, especially poor and near-poor households who are vulnerable, when they do not have or lack land for production as well as no savings.
Although affected by climate change, the results of the survey reflect the opinions of the people. They believe that the people responsible for responding to climate change belong to the local government (95%) and local environmental officers (82%), only 4% of people believe that local people are responsible for responding to climate change. When asked about their willingness to participate in activities to improve adaptability and mitigate the impacts of climate change, most agreed. According to Dr. Bui Thi Thu Trang, in reality, although human capital is abundant, the number of dependent workers is still high, people's awareness and understanding of climate change is at an average level, so livelihoods will be vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters; because then jobs will be limited, income from the main workers is not enough to support the family.
In terms of infrastructure, stilt houses with tiled roofs are the main type of housing for people here. However, the constructions are no longer solid and unsafe against extreme weather events such as whirlwinds and flash floods. Schools are not concentrated due to the large area of the commune, difficult transportation, and many schools are built temporarily. There are almost no village cultural houses, and some villages that have cultural houses are built temporarily with small areas. In addition, the characteristic of ethnic minorities in the highlands is that they live scattered among the hills and mountains, so the exchange of information is mainly by the village chief going to the place to notify. Thus, when extreme weather occurs, it is difficult for the village chief to notify all villagers due to travel restrictions. On the other hand, the response capacity of mass organizations such as the Farmers' Association, Veterans' Association, and Women's Association still has many limitations.
Disaster prevention, building sustainable livelihood models
Based on assessments and field surveys, the study has proposed solutions to respond to climate change based on people's livelihoods. First, it is necessary to prioritize mapping land use planning with the goal of protecting upstream forests and planting forests in locations at high risk of flash floods and landslides, including the upstream area of the Nang River including two communes of Khang Ninh and Cao Thuong.
Along with forest protection is increasing the durability of embankments by planting Vetive grass, preventing erosion and landslides along the taluy communes of Dia Linh, Yen Duong, Ha Hieu, and along the banks of the Nang River.
Propaganda and education work needs to be carried out regularly. For management staff, it is necessary to train and improve knowledge of climate change through training courses and drills on climate change prevention and response, periodically twice a year. For people, it is necessary to organize training sessions, seminars, and community meetings to disseminate knowledge about climate change and advise on the application of sustainable livelihood models, periodically three times a year. Through loudspeakers, it is possible to propagate knowledge about climate change every day to create habits for people.
The study also proposed two livelihood models based on farming habits and natural conditions. Locally, each year there are about 87.6 hectares of monoculture corn cultivation on hilly land that are often eroded, degraded, washed away, and water sources are depleted, leading to low productivity or total loss. Therefore, the study proposed converting to a model of intercropping ginger with Western bananas. Both Vietnamese ginger and bananas have local sources to purchase products from the model. The majority of people have previous experience in small-scale cultivation, as well as experience in preservation.
The favorable conditions are that local policies always encourage people to change crop structure, increase land use efficiency, limit abandoned land, and reforest bare hills. However, the transportation of fertilizers and seeds, and harvested products still face many difficulties due to the steep terrain. The banana market is mainly sold to traders, so it is not guaranteed to be stable in the future because of the lack of a comprehensive understanding of market demand.
Another model introduced is growing mung bean on single-crop rice land. In Ba Be district, some spring rice areas are ineffective, have low productivity or are completely lost due to the impact of drought. Growing mung bean monoculture or mung bean intercropped with corn, adapting to drought, on fallow land or on single-crop rice land, is a farming system that adapts to adverse weather phenomena such as drought and the erratic nature of local weather.
All types of land with one rice crop in the summer and fallow land in the spring can grow mung beans. Native bean varieties are popular in the market, most people have experience in planting and preserving seeds. This type of plant also has many advantages to meet the needs of increasing income without wasting land of the people.
Serious implementation of the models will help achieve these goals and contribute to making people more proactive, reducing vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.
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