Improved land tenure not the driver of economic development in a Vietnamese community

TitleImproved land tenure not the driver of economic development in a Vietnamese community
Annotated RecordAnnotated
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsKnudsen CMS, Mertz O
Secondary TitleGeografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography
Volume116
Issue1
Pagination82-84
Key themesAgriculturalModernization, Formalisation-titling
Abstract

During the restructuring of the Vietnamese economy in 1986, the Communist party of Vietnam (CPV) took the decision to leave central planning and build a market economy in Vietnam. In order to promote rural development and deal with deforestation, poverty and declining agricultural profitability, the government implemented the forestland allocation policies (FLA) and started a process of decentralization. This research note examines the impact of FLA policies on the agricultural practices of an upland community in central Vietnam and discusses the effects of increased tenure security. It is shown that the promotion of a sedentary production system has altered the sustainability of swidden agriculture leading to declining profitability and that a transition towards new crops and specialized crop cultivation has compensated for the loss. Furthermore, it is argued that the FLA policies have increased the villagers’ incentive to invest, their access to credit and the forest area of the village, but that the CPV has been the main driver of these changes rather than the increased tenure security.
URLhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00167223.2015.1096745
Availability

Copyrighted journal article
Countries

Vietnam
Document Type

Journal Article

Annotations

Overall relevance: 

The research evaluates the impacts of the Forestland Allocation (FLA) policies on the agricultural practices of an upland community in Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam and analyzes the effects of increased tenure security. Forestland Allocation (FLA) imposed restrictions on swidden agriculture and land expansion in the village, which led to a decline in the profitability of swidden. However, government support for the introduction of new crops, subsidized seeds, fertilizers, training, and loans, resulted in an increase of income for community members which compensated for the loss. The research concludes that tenure security is not the main driver of this development as villagers’ perceptions of tenure security remained unchanged from before LFA. Rather, villagers’ higher incomes, increased access to credit and willingness to make long-term investments in tree production, was a result of support from governmental development activities. Likewise, the increase in forest area originated from national forest protection policies rather than community decisions. The study challenges the conventional assumption that secure land tenure is a primary driver of economic progress, particularly in agricultural societies.

Key Themes: 
  • Agricultural modernisation: key ideas and debates relevant to land tenure security - The Forestland Allocation Policy (FLA) in Vietnam aimed to address poverty, deforestation, and to increase the agricultural profitability of upland areas by promoting modern agriculture and forestry. Under the FLA, members of the village under study were forced to abandon traditional agricultural practices like swidden cultivation in favor of a sedentary production system with permanent fields. Other studies examining the impact of FLA policies on communities have found these changes to result in reduced income and food security for communities due to the failure of the government to provide villagers with viable livelihood alternatives. In contrast, this case study finds that government support for sedentarized new crops and specialized crop cultivation has been successful in compensating villagers for their lost swidden production leading to net increases in income and community investments. Nevertheless, the transition also resulted in other challenges such as unequal land distribution and rising inequality within the village.
  • Land rights recognition/formalization/titling/collective tenure - The study challenges conventional wisdom which suggests that secure land tenure is a key driver of poverty alleviation and economic development. The authors find that FLA policies increased villagers' incentive to invest, access to credit, and forest areas, but that government support for new crops, subsidized inputs and loan provisions (implemented in top-down fashion) was the primary driver, rather than increased tenure security. The authors point to a disconnect between legislative land rights and local perceptions, since villager’s perception of their tenure security remained unchanged since the introduction of the FLA policies. Overall, the study highlights complexities in the relationship between tenure security and economic outcomes.
Research basis: 

The research is grounded in qualitative research methods and field observations conducted in Bho Hoong village, located in central Vietnam's Quang Nam province. The study involved in-depth interviews conducted with 20 farmers and community leaders between October 2013 and January 2014. (Provided by Nguyen Thi Thuy Hang)