Climate Change Awareness and Impacts on Aquaculture in Poor Rural Coastal Communities, Ben Tre Province, Vietnam

Abstract

Vietnam has been ranked as one of the countries in Asia with the highest vulnerabilities to climate change impacts on fisheries and aquaculture. Eight of those ten provinces are located in the Mekong River Delta, including Ben Tre Province. We conducted a study to identify the impacts of climate change events on Ben Tre province poor rural coastal communities, to evaluate their awareness and the effects of climate change events on aquaculture. Farmers were aware of changing climatic conditions and pointed out indicators of these changes: (1) Changes in production and culturing patterns, (2) Changes in housing designs, (3) Improvement in drinking water collection and increase in water procurement, (4) Pumping of fresh water in the shrimp ponds, and (5) Building of dikes to prevent salt water intrusion. About 90 percent of respondents indicated that they suffered losses from salt water intrusion. Total losses generated by salt water intrusion amounted to VND 1,599,803,000, equivalent to USD 77,151. Age, education and previous effects from climate change events affected knowledge and perception of severity of climate change events. Farmers who were engaged in aquaculture were more likely to be prepared for climate change events than those who were not.EEPSEA and WorldFish Cente