Presentation

While most of the time change in ecosystems is gradual, it can sometimes occur abruptly when some thresholds are crossed. Examples include rapid eutrophication of lakes or estuaries, bush encroachment of grasslands, coral bleaching or melting of Arctic summer sea ice. These phenomena have implications for how we can use economics to inform management and policies. In this lecture I show how carefully acknowledging such complex dynamics in ecosystems can generate new insights on how they are best managed. I also highlight the variety of tools and approaches that can be used to study these phenomena.

Dr. Eren Zink will discuss the strategy that "Why Sida support’s research and research capacity building, our concerns about academic freedom in many parts of SE Asia, why we think it is important to engage in research that is inclusive, transdisciplinary and regional, and why it is important for countries to have vibrant research communities".

The responses of policy makers, individuals, and businesses to COVID-19 contrast with typical responses to environmental issues. In most countries, governments have been willing to act decisively to implement costly restrictions on work and personal life, to a degree that has never been observed for an environmental issue. A number of possible lessons for environmental economists are identified. In addition to valuing natural environments, people also place a high value on social interactions. These two values may interact. Adaptation can substantially reduce the cost of restrictive policies and should be considered when policy proposals are being evaluated. Preparation for an emergency can substantially reduce its costs by allowing a more rapid response. The development of new technologies can play a key role in reducing externalities. As well, the effectiveness of policies that deliver public goods can be enhanced by credible leaders who provide clear, compelling, and consistent information, emphasizing both the private and public benefits of compliance.

The study proposes that the existence of economic value of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in irrigated rice production is predicted on the difference in rice productivities attributable to the differences in the levels of soil fertility. The economic value of SOC stock was, then, computed through an estimated rice profit function model.

Farm input-output data used in the estimation of this function were obtained from 68 rice farmers in the municipalities of Miagao, Tubungan, and Zarraga in Iloilo Province during wet season (June to October) in 2019. Total SOC stock (mtC) data required by the rice profit function model were based from the study of Sugay (2020).

Four sustainable land management practices, which can sequester SOC, were adopted in the study area: (1) crop residue retention (CRR); (2) crop rotation (CR); (3) reduced tillage (RT) and; (4) integrated nutrient management (INM). These practices were adopted in combinations of each other, specifically as follows: System 1 (CRR only), System 2 (CRR-CR), System (CRR-INM), and System 4 (CRR-CR-RT-INM). The estimated mean economic value of SOC sequestration (mtC/hectare/year) that could be paid under each combination of practices were: Php1,042.35 for System 1 (CRR only); Php392.4 for System 2 (CRR-CR); Php210.66 for System 3 (CRR-INM) and; Php207.15 for System 4 (CRR-CR-INM-RT).

Ongoing climate change has created a great deal of affects to deltas’ conditions all over the world. The Vietnamese Mekong Delta (VMD), one of the world’s most three vulnerable deltas to climate change, has seriously suffered different environmental changes, especially the water hazards in particular, such as saline water intrusion, flooding, tropical storm, drought and so on. The accumulation of these hazards is remarkable to induce complex risks to the social-ecological systems, which drives the research was done aiming at identifying the social vulnerability to water hazards-modified by climate change in terms of the association between the obtained vulnerability and infrastructures and socio-economic patterns in Ben Tre, a coastal province of the VMD.

A mix-method of qualitative and quantitative approaches was framed to collect, proceed and analyse necessary data. An implementation of qualitative approach comprising of focused group discussion, individual survey and key informant panel interview was completed and the obtained information then were analysed by RStudio and visualized in Geographic Information System. A five-level classification map was figured out showing the vulnerability range of three survey districts in Ben Tre. There was a strong spatial difference of vulnerability in three clusters, which there is an increasing trend of vulnerability index from the upstream to the downstream of the study area. In addition, the vulnerable levels of current study livelihoods in Ben Tre were vary from the moderately vulnerable (third level) to relatively vulnerable (fourth level). The statistical analysis also found the linear correlations between surrounding socio-ecological factors and the household vulnerability, regarding the dyke system and waterways. Obtained findings contributed significantly to the understanding of possible bio-physical and socio-ecological variability impacts on the community in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.

The correlation, however, seemed to be low though twelve predictor variables were utilised in the analysis. The sampling technique and primary dataset (spatial data) were potentially responsible for this issue. Thus, further research on this field was planned towards improving the vulnerability assessment by adjusting these limitations of this study.

The overall objective of the research is to analyze the households impacts of extreme weather events and to develop adaptation options for climate change impacts. Specifically, it aims to:

1. Assess the impact of extreme weather events on rural socio-economic conditions and climate related hazards for adaptation planning to address climate related issues

2. Assess whether men and women have different preference for climate change adaptation

3. Develop adaptation options for local people in response to climate change impacts

As the 4th largest coffee producer in the world, Indonesia experienced the negative impacts of climate change due to an increase in the global temperature. The available land is no longer suitable while pest occurrence and natural disasters decreased coffee yields. This study employs household survey data of 212 smallholder coffee farmers from 4 districts in Aceh Province, Indonesia collected in 2020. A propensity score matching (PSM) approach was employed to evaluate the impact of climate change mitigation practices on coffee yields and farmers' poverty. The results of this study demonstrate that income can be improved by enhancing access to weather information. This study suggests that the adoption of information technology may enhance farmers' mitigation strategies to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on coffee production.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been increasing interest in the estimation of technical efficiency in fisheries, with many studies also estimating the influence of fisheries management on efficiency. Comparing these studies provides insights into the effect of different management systems on efficiency scores. However, such a comparison is complicated, as efficiency scores are also likely to be affected by other characteristics of the analysis. In this article, we disentangle these factors through a meta-regression analysis, using 326 technical efficiency estimates from 103 studies published between 1995 and 2018. The finding suggest that mean TE of individual transferable quota fisheries are higher than those of input controlled fisheries, which in turn were greater, but not statistically significantly greater, than those of open access fisheries. Given this, we can conclude that mean technical efficiency of fisheries does increase with the strength of quasi-property rights afforded by the management system.

General objective

Enhance the resilience of agricultural production to WS by assessing the current and future levels of water use and scarcity, evaluate its impact and identify policy options/coping strategies that would help address water insecurity in the LMRB.

Specific objectives

• Identify the levels of water use and magnitude of WS problem in agricultural production, most vulnerable provinces to WS;

• Explore the socio-economic impacts of WS on agricultural production and producers’ livelihood in the most vulnerable crops/provinces identified in countries of case studies;

• Investigate farmers adaptation to WS;

• Explore potential coping options for local people, promising pilot initiatives for stakeholders to better dealing with WS in agriculture;

• Improve cooperation among member countries in response to WS in the region;

To sustainably cope with the continuous depletion of fishery stock, adaptation among small-scale fishers is imperative. This study was conducted to analyze the effects of risk preference of small-scale fishers on their choice of adaptation strategies with respect to fishery stock depletion. A multiple price list experiment was conducted to elicit the risk preference of the small-scale fishers. The results showed that small-scale fishers in Guimaras were slightly risk averse. Meanwhile, various adaptation strategies were employed by the small-scale fishers as a response to fishery stock depletion. Based on the results of the multivariate probit regression, more risk-averse small-scale fishers were more likely to reduce fishing effort but less likely to modify fishing gear. These results highlight the need for planned intervention and streamlining of adaptation mechanisms in fishery governance to address the problem of fishery stock depletion, so the livelihoods of the small-scale fishers are not compromised in the process.

The performance of open-access fisheries depends not only on endogenous variables, but also on exogenous factors such as fisheries policies (e.g., subsidies), climate change or other exogenous factors. This study estimates the harvest function to evaluate the effect of those factors on the catch, and measures the profitability of the offshore gillnet in Khanh Hoa province. The study uses survey data for the three fishing seasons of 2008, 2013 and 2018, with a total of 164 observations over three years. The results show that endogenous variables such as engine capacity, number of nets used, number of fishing days and variable costs have a statistically significant positive impact on catches, in which the coefficient of elasticity of catch to the number of nets is the largest (0.463). The results also indicate that a 1% increase in CPUE (the index representing fish stock fluctuations) leads to an increase in catches by 0.387%, suggesting that offshore resources become increasingly scarce. The government's oil support has no effect on the catch in the estimated model, but fishermen's perceptions of climate change have a statistically significant effect. Economic performance analysis shows that profitability in 2018 is lower than that in 2013, even when oil subsidies are included. The study implies that fishermen are more aware of and adaptable to climate change, and that subsidized open-access fisheries will lead to unsustainable development.

Forests are widely believed to provide a water purification service that reduces the cost of treating drinking water, but few empirical economic studies have investigated this service in developing countries, where deforestation rates and thus presumably threats to the service tend to be higher than in developed countries. Even fewer studies have investigated the distribution of the benefits of this service, or any other regulating ecosystem service for that matter, in either developing or developing countries. Using quarterly panel data for 158 water utilities in Thailand during 2004–2014, we find robust evidence that forests significantly reduced the material cost of water treatment. This finding provides economic justification for source water protection in Thailand and the much needed empirical evidence to support Payment for Ecosystem Services.

• Objective 1: Investigate current situations, needs and conditions to develop and implement eco-innovation from indigenous knowledge for creative economy in Mekong River Basin.

• Objective 2: Study the development and implementation process of eco-innovation from indigenous knowledge for creative economy in Mekong River Basin

• Objective 3: Explore lessons learned, knowhow, solutions, and success factors that could be shared and applied to achieve the sustainable eco-innovation and indigenous knowledge among countries in Mekong River Basin.

• Research Question 1: How are indigenous communities in the Mekong river basin develop and implement eco-innovation from indigenous knowledge?

• Research Question 2: What approaches exist to address the development and implementation process of eco-innovation from indigenous knowledge in Mekong River Basin? Who are the main actors of multi-stakeholder and how many levels of each actor involved in the process of Eco-Innovation for indigenous and ethnic minority communities?

• Research Question 3: How can indigenous and ethnic minority communities achieve the sustainable eco-innovation and indigenous knowledge among countries in Mekong River Basin? What are the main solutions, policy briefs as well as the conditional supports need to take into account for raising the capacity of indigenous and ethnic minority communities and multi-stakeholder in achieving sustainable eco-innovation?

The goal of the Social Investment Development Plan/Social Development Management Plan (SIDP/SDMP) of Oceana Gold Philippine, Inc. is to develop the host and neighbor communities that are affected by mining operations. The target of development is improving welfare or sustained development even beyond the mine life. Two opposite ideas regarding the impact of social development and management are: (1) mining operation is welfare reducing for those affected population that have lost opportunities resulting from displacement, (2) mining operation provided opportunities for communities that have gainful living that are not available before the mining operation. This study evaluated the welfare impacts of OGPI-Didipio’s Social Investment and Development Programs (SIDP) which include SDMP, CDP and CSR projects and its financial obligations on the local community, specifically, on its host and neighboring communities. The study used a counterfactual analysis that compares between what happened with the interventions of the SIDP/SDMP and what would have happened without those program interventions. A basic premise for using a counterfactual is how to attribute the current socio-economic condition in the impact areas to the existence of OceanaGold-Didipio. Looking at the existing welfare condition in the surrounding areas does not automatically imply that it is brought about by OceanaGold-Didipio; it is not a straightforward matter to establish that a relationship is causal. We first employed qualitative assessment of the achievement of the program by conducting focus group discussions in order to confirm and validate the theory of change of program implementation as well as conduct process evaluation through key informant interviews that included beneficiaries, planners/decision makers and program implementers including OGPI and the Mines and Geoscience Bureau. Finally, we conducted quantitative evaluation using difference-in-difference and propensity score matching tools in analyzing household survey data to evaluate impacts of SDMP program.

The impact of the SIDP/SDMP on the welfare of households in the treatment area, i.e., Didipio, the host community and 10 neighboring communities were evaluated using theory of change analysis, process evaluation and impact evaluation. The study was conducted starting in September 2018 until August 2019. For the quantitative impact evaluation, which was the core of this study, a Single Difference (SD) method was used for outcomes for which baseline data were not available and a Difference-in-Differences or Double Difference (DID) for outcomes for which baseline data (i.e., 2010) based on recall were available. SD was used mostly for outcomes relating to household income and consumption in 2018 while DID was used for the other identified outcomes relating to infrastructure, human resource development, enterprise development, education, and health. To ensure that differences in the outcomes of interest between the treatment and comparison groups can be attributed to the SDMP, Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was used. The impact estimates generated represent the average treatment effect on the treated (ATT), i.e., the average impact on those who participate in the SDMP. Stata/MP 15.1 was used in the impact estimation. Matched impact estimates generated using PSM are known to provide more reliable ATT.

The use of 1.5% of the companies operating expenses for social development and management are improving the welfare of its surrounding communities relative to other communities without mining operation. The investment in the SDMP improved household income, increased non-mining related occupations and agriculture sources of income, increased consumption expenditures, increased access to telecommunications, piped water system, electricity, farm to market roads, irrigation systems, access to private and public transport, access to schools, increased access to credits and financing, increased access to educational support and increased access to safe drinking water, health services including medicines and infant and maternal care.

Ostracism is one form of real-life punishment mechanisms to penalize uncooperative individuals at the local village level in Thailand. This paper aims to test whether ostracism enhance cooperation in the public good experiment by allowing group members to expel others based on majority voting rule. The study also employed the modified public good experiment to categorize the contributors. The results showed that introducing ostracism increases contribution level about 45 percent on average. However, some participants punished other members, even they contributed less than others or so-called anti-social punishment, suggesting that a third-party punishment may be another solution to sustain cooperation.

This study attempts to value the externalities generated by coal power plants in Western Visayas and determine the efficiency implications of valuing these externalities. Valuing externalities can help determine the appropriate environmental policy, such as the amount of tax that will correct for the inefficiency. Benefit Transfer Method (BTM) specifically unit value transfer, was used to estimate the values of pollution damages. To estimate the externalities of coal power in Western Visayas, this study first looked at the emissions caused by three major advanced coal power technologies: Pulverized Fuel (PF), Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC). The two existing coal power plants in Western Visayas utilize CFB technology, which has a higher fuel flexibility and require a lower capital cost. After which, several studies that estimate the values of greenhouse gas (GHG) externalities were examined. These values were then applied to the emissions of the two coal power plants in the region. Results show that total externalities range from PhP 0.08/kWh to PhP 0.44/kWh. This can increase the current effective electricity rate by 0.65 to 4.1 percent.

In this study, the role of environmental factors will be investigated in order to access their effects on maternal health among slums in the urban area of Hlaing Thar Yar Township in Yangon Region of Myanmar. Therefore, this study will be intended to answer following research questions.

1. Which environmental conditions are predominantly occurred in the slum areas of Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Myanmar?

2. What are the most challenging maternal health problems in slum areas of Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Myanmar?

3. How do the environmental factors relate to the maternal health issues in slum areas of Hlaing Thar Yar Township, Myanmar?

The results of this study could support the policies and strategic plans for the development of slum areas and their well-beings.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of the carbon tax recycling mechanisms to develop renewable electricity in the East Asia region. The results are categorised into three main objectives: economy, environment, and equity. To achieve the objectives of this paper, this paper uses a multi-country computable general equilibrium for East Asia to conduct the analysis. This paper finds that depends on the type of recycling mechanism and economy structure, a country could achieve double dividend or environmental benefits only. Regarding equity objective, this paper finds that recycling mechanisms could alter the distribution pattern across countries in the East Asia region and to some countries could reduce poverty incidences.

While a number of previous studies in several countries quantified the social cost of air pollution caused by PM_2.5, there is no study evaluating this social cost in Thailand. This article aims to assess the willingness to pay of reducing air pollution in Thailand and estimates the social cost of PM_2.5 in Thailand using the subjective well-being approach. Ordered logit regression with air pollution and weather records from monitoring stations and household’s happiness data from the 2019 basic necessity information survey are used for the analysis. The study reveals that PM_2.5 is negatively correlated to household’s happiness. Characteristics of household head, household and locations also statistically determine the happiness level. Values of marginal willingness to pay are ranged from 105 to 337 USD/year/household for reducing 1 microgram/m³ in Mae Hong Son province and Bangkok accounting for 1.94 and 2.21 percent of total annual household income, respectively. If all households were exposed to the air pollution and the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline was used as a threshold of health deterioration, the total annual social cost would reach 55,141 million USD in 2019 accounting for 10% of the gross domestic product. Among top five provinces, Bangkok incurred the highest social cost of air pollution, which was approximately 14,266 million USD, followed by Samut Prakan (1,701 million USD), Chiang Mai (1,603 million USD), Nakhon Ratchasima (1,591 million baht) and Nonthaburi (1,507 million baht), respectively.

Human impacts on wetlands have been continuing for decades, changing both biodiversity and the cover of wetland. The assessments of wetland goods and service are to capture important social – ecological benefits to integrate those benefits into wetland management and human wellbeing. The existing approaches to identify goods and services of wetland are largely based on the wetland function and wetland values. In this paper, we introduce a new approach to identify goods and services of wetland for Vietnam: a stakeholder approach. Without loss of generality, this new methodology is presented within the case of Cam Thanh commune, Hoi An city, Quang Nam province. Researchers can easily carry on other researches using same methodology applied to any other locations in Vietnam to withdraw relevant conclusions. From study site employed to examine goods and services of wetland ecosystem in Cam Thanh to illustrate new approach, it is interesting that a new wetland service was contingently found. It is seen that the utilization of wetland goods and services has its fundamental role of providing more information and enabling the pressures of environment issues to be integrated into environmental policy and wetland management.

The main aim of this research is to investigate the current adoption and adoption intention of green practices among hotels and to explore the drivers around these areas in the framework of ASEAN green hotel.

To achieve this aim, this research proposed three main objectives:

1. To explore and assess green practices that have been used in the ASEAN green hotel awardees in Cambodia

2. To examine the motivation of adoption intention of green practices among hotels and their influencing drivers

3. To estimate the cost-saving of green practice adoption by comparing the costs with/without green practices

4. To draw strategic implications for policy and managerial practices in the hotel sector regarding green adoption

The Mu Koh Thale Tai tourism cluster is comprised of Samui, Koh Pa-ngan, Koh Tao and Mu Koh Ang-Tong national park. It is a very famous tourism spot of Surat Thani province that welcomes more than 75 percent of the total tourists visiting Surat Thani in 2018. In that year, Surat Thani received a revenue of 104,503 million baht from tourism industry, of which 87.5 percent are from visitors to the Mu Koh Thale Tai tourism cluster. Although tourism of the Mu Koh Thale Tai generates a large amount of revenues, it also induces environment impacts on the community. Apart from excessive waste, sewage from rental accommodations as well as air pollution have become more environmentally concerned and produced negative externality to the next generation.

This study aims to analyze the environment impacts that directly involve with the tourism industry. The author adopts the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) and the System of Environmental - Economic Accounts (SEEA) conceptual framework to measure the environmental effects in terms of GHG emissions. We employ the Mu Koh Thale Tai tourism cluster Input-Output table and the TSA approach in order to investigate the environmental flows of water, energy and solid waste relevant to tourism activities. The result of this study shows that accommodation for visitors and food and beverage serving industry are the primary contributor to GHG emission.

Payment for ecosystem services (PES) is widely used in several countries as incentives to motivate upstream communities to adopt sustainable land management practices. This paper presents the economic valuation of watershed ecosystem services from upstream communities’ conservation activities to support the implementation of PES in Mae Sa Watershed, Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand. The benefits of ecosystem services comprised of the benefits of soil conservation, drought loss reduction, recreation, cleaned water and carbon sequestration from reforestation in the areas. The values can be provided as information to all stakeholders in the watershed for raising awareness on the importance of conservation and their payment decisions. Four PES scheme scenarios were designed according to payers, principal groups involved, types of ecosystem services, types of payment and payment modes. Threats and opportunities of each scenario were identified to consider the possibility for implementing PES schemes in Mae Sa watershed.

Megacities in developing countries are constantly exposed to flood risk, with a clear gap regarding insurance protection, and poor risk management by urban populations. This paper analyses the demand for hypothetical index-based flood insurance among households in Jakarta, Indonesia. An expected utility framework tests whether this demand is significantly determined by the basis risk component of the insurance. The paper also investigates the effects on insurance uptake of premium discounts, and risk aversion. Using distance of a house to the reference floodgate station (a proxy for basis risk), we find that demand falls as basis risk increases. In addition, the uptake decreases with price, and shows a double hump-shaped in risk-averse households. We recommend further investment in floodgate stations to reduce basis risk, complemented with premium discounts in the range of IDR 5,000 and IDR 50,000.

The Kuala Lumpur Forest Eco Park is part of the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, one of Malaysia's oldest forests under the Hill Dipterocarp Forest, rich in biodiversity. The depletion of urban greenery in rapid development in the heart of Kuala Lumpur has spurred the stakeholders to conserve this forest as urban ecotourism areas to take part in various recreational, educational, and research activities. However, the market's non-existence, causing biodiversity's economic value is unquantified in monetary terms for these resources. This study aimed to assess economic value through a visitor's willingness to pay (WTP) for conserving biodiversity at Kuala Lumpur Forest Eco Park using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM). This study has randomly distributed a total of 250 questionnaires to international and local visitors to this study. Five bid prices were selected for RM1, RM5, RM10, RM15, RM20 (local visitors), RM30, RM35, RM40, RM45, and RM50 (international visitors) using the Logit Model to estimate the visitor's WTP for biodiversity conservation. These studies have shown that most visitors are willing to pay for conservation of biodiversity influenced by religion, marital status, employment, education, and income. The results show that the WTP mean and median are RM3.81 and RM2.58 per visit, respectively. The estimated economic value of Taman Eko Rimba Kuala Lumpur is RM 1,735,485.81 per year, while the estimated conservation value was RM 17,354,858.10 in 2018. In conclusion, this study could help policymakers manage biodiversity conservation activities' financial planning in the future.

This study estimates people' willingness to pay for the improvement of solid waste management at Monywa, Sagaing Region, Myanmar by employing the contingent valuation method. Regarding the willingness to pay (WTP) questionnaire, a single-bounded dichotomous choice contingent valuation method is employed with six bids: 500 Ks, 1,000 Ks, 1,500Ks, 2,000 Ks, 2,500Ks, and 3,000 Ks. This study finds that most respondents are willing to pay for the improvement of solid waste management, with the mean value of 1258 Ks according to parametric approach, and mean value of 1114 Ks according to non-parametric approach. The logit regression result says that the coefficient of bid, distance, and lengthstay are significant. Accordingly, it can be said that the empirical result is consistent with theory. Higher bid price reduces the WTP of people. The result says that the longer period of stay encourages people' WTP. Greater walking distance makes people to contribute more for the improvement of solid waste management. It is also found that the possible fund for Monywa based on parametric approach is 52.62 million kyats, while that on non-parametric approach is 46.60 million kyats. There is no doubt that this study provides the noteworthy information to policy makers in making a decision for the improvement of solid waste management.

Renewable energy has become a top priority for most countries due to its features of a cleaner energy source. Despite Malaysia’s effort to promote the various forms of renewable energy, the total amount of renewable energy is still low. Therefore, exploring the consumer’s WTP for renewable energy has become vital as this new knowledge can be used by the government to promote renewable energy consumption. This study investigates consumers' WTP for renewable energy sources and other factors related with it via a CVM approach. The findings show that WTP for renewable energy is significantly related to the bid price and income. The results also indicate that consumer on average is willing to pay about RM3.22 or USD0.82 per month. This micro-level investigation can be a useful framework in organizing information on how consumers are willing to contribute towards the development of renewable energy in Malaysia.

The overall aim of the research is to identify possible mechanisms that could buffer post-traumatic stress disorder burdens of older adults.

The specific objectives are:

• To describe heterogeneity of PTSD in older adults from affected communities,

• To investigate covariates of PTSD of older survivors, and

• To investigate how older survivors cope with PTSD symptoms.

The general objective of this study is to understand the gender-wise farmers’ perceptions to climate variability and adaptation strategies to climate change in central dry zone, Myanmar. With this purpose, this study will be carried out, following the mentioned specific objectives:

• To study the local climate variability by the trend analysis of recorded meteorology data

• To understand the farmers’ perceptions towards climate variability by gender

• To verify the male and female farmers’ perceptions of local temperature and precipitation variability by the trend analysis of temperature and precipitation within 20 years

• To observe the local agricultural adaptation strategies by gender

• To analyze the influencing factors on farmer’s perception and adaptation decisions to climate change in the study area

In the recent years, rice farmers in the Mekong River Delta have faced increased risks of weather and pestilence, both of which directly impact the sustainability of their livelihoods. In this regard, the objective of this paper is to investigate the risk facing rice farmers and the impact of risk mitigation strategies on income of the farmers in the Mekong Delta. The results, estimated from a sample of 342 farmers, show that 80 percent of the farmers faced three types of risk. Mitigation strategies of the farmers are (1) adjusting planting schedules and growing techniques, (2) water resource management, (3) rice protection products, and (4) reducing production scale. The results of regression analysis showed that the first and second strategy are found to be positively correlated with farmer's income. It is also revealed that farmers who actively respond to risks have higher profit than passive farmers.

Land degradation is taking place in all regions of Vietnam and is one of the most serious environmental and natural resource problems facing the country. To address the problem, various government agencies have promoted the adoption of sustainable land management practices. For the mountainous region, these practices include agro-forestry systems. In the coastal and delta regions, they include annual crop rotation, intercropping, and nutrient management. To date, adoption of these practices remains limited. This paper uses primary data collected from a farm survey conducted among 826 households in three typical ecological regions and a propensity score matching approach to identify factors influencing the adoption of sustainable land management practices. Farmers’ likelihood of adoption differs across ecological regions and is associated with characteristics of the household head, attributes of farm households, and institutional context. The adopters in coastal and delta regions significantly attained greater incomes than matched non-adopters. Differences in average incomes were not statistically significant in the mountainous region.