Luận văn vulnerability and adaption to climate change of ethnic minority women in thanh van commune, cho moi district, bac kan province

i THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY TRAN LE THU THAO VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OF ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN IN THANH VAN COMMUNE, CHO MOI DISTRICT, BAC KAN[.]

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY

TRAN LE THU THAO

VULNERABILITY AND ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE OF ETHNIC MINORITY WOMEN IN THANH VAN COMMUNE, CHO MOI DISTRICT, BAC KAN PROVINCE

BACHELOR THESIS

Study Mode : Full-time

Thai Nguyen, September 2017

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DOCUMENTATION PAGE WITH ABSTRACT

Thai Nguyen University of Agriculture and Forestry

Degree program Bachelor of Environmental Science and Management

Thesis title Vulnerability and adaption to climate change of ethnic minority

women in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province

Abstract:

Moving towards to 21st century, a controversial problem over the world is

vulnerability and adaptation of women to climate change Indeed, those are living in poverty, especially ethnic groups will be more vulnerable because they have less access to health service, clean environment, useful assets, good education and many other patterns The goal of this study is to evaluate the vulnerability, adaptation of ethnic minority women and their resilience as well as suggest certain ways of addressing women’s difficulties in the context of climate change By using household survey, interview, group discussion methods, the thesis was carried out in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province where is one of the northern mountainous area heavily impacted by climate change As a result, ethnic minority women in Thanh Van are very vulnerable to climate and non-climate stresses because

of limited access to services Although they have many difficulties in adaptation process, they adopted various adaptation strategies such as applying indigenous

knowledge in agriculture, using local cop species that are drought-tolerant…to adapt

to climate risks Hence, increasing adaptive capacity and reducing vulnerability of ethnic minority women are key factors to build their resilience to climate change Key words Climate change, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, resilience,

ethnic minority women

Date of submission 20/09/2017

Supervisor’s

signature

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

During the research process and completion of the thesis, I received a lot of help from my teachers, my university, my friends and my family

First and foremost, I would like to send my deep thanks to Dr Ho Ngoc Son

who provided comments and suggestions for the thesis to be completed and gave direct guidance during the research process and completion

Moreover, I would like to say thank with staffs of Agriculture & Forestry

Research and Development Center for Mountainous Region (ADC) for providing

me with useful materials and helping me during the time I stayed in Thanh Van commune

I also thank the Tay women, local officials in Thanh Van commune who spent

their time to share their experiences during the survey, interview, and activities of mine in the commune Without their enthusiasm and effort, I could not finish my thesis

Last but not least, my sincere thanks also go to my family and all my classmates K45 – Advanced Education Program for their supporting, helping and loves throughout my study

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv

LIST OF FIGURES vii

LIST OF TABLES viii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix

PART I INTRODUCTION 1

1 Research rationale 1

2 Research’s objective 2

3 Research questions 3

4 Limitations 3

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW 4

1 Climate change in the world 4

2 Climate change in Vietnam 6

3 Climate change in Bac Kan 7

3.1 Impacts of climate change in Bac Kan 7

3.2 Unequal impacts between women and men 9

3.3 Responses of women 11

4 Some features about Thanh Van commune 12

5 Concepts of vulnerability, resilience and adaptation 13

5.1 Vulnerability 13

5.2 Adaptive capacity 14

5.3 Resilience 15

6 Linkages of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity 15

PART III METHODS 17

1 Case study approach 17

2 Data collection methods 17

2.1 Household survey 17

2.2 Interview 18

2.3 Focus group discussion 19

2.4 Participation method 20

2.5 Reviewing literature 20

3 Data analysis methods 20

PART IV RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 21

1 Vulnerability of ethinic minority women in Thanh Van 21

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1.1 Causes of vulnerability of ethinic minority women 21

1.2 Reasons of vulnerability of ethinic minority women 25

1.3 How ethnic minorty women are vulnerable to climate change 30

2 Adaptation strategies 33

2.1 Challenges of ethinic minority women in the context of climate change 33

2.2 Adaptation strategies of ethinic minority women 37

3 Building resilience to climate change 41

3.1 Increasing adaptive capacity 41

3.2 Reducing vulnerability 41

PART V CONCLUSION 43

REFERENCES 45

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 A household survey with Tay women 18

Figure 3.2 Group discussion with hazard map making 19

Figure 3.3 Group discussion with historical timeline making 20

Figure 4.1 Average temperature of 50 years in Bac Kan (1960-2010) 21

Figure 4.2 Average rainfall of 50 years in Bac Kan (1956-2006) 22

Figure 4.3 Hazard map of Thanh Van commune 31

Figure 4.4 Historical timeline in Na Ray village, Thanh Van commune 31

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 4.1 Tay women's assessment about local weather changes in 10 recent years in

Thanh Van commune 23

Table 4.2 Tay women’s assessment about frequency of disasters in 10 recent years in Thanh Van commune 24

Table 4.3 Tay women’s assessment about intensity of disasters in 10 recent years in Thanh Van commune 24

Table 4.4 List of diseases in plants and livestock in Thanh Van 26

Table 4.5 Diseases on Tay women suffering from disasters, erractic weather 29

Table 4.6 Historical timeline table in Na Ray 32

Table 4.7 Adaptation of Tay women in Thanh Van 37 Table 4.8 Tay women use indigenous knowledge and modern method in agriculture 40

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

ADC Agriculture & Forestry Research and Development Center for

Mountainous Region

CARE Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization

INSPONRE Institute of Strategy and Policy on Natural Resources and Environment

IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

PRRS Porcine Reproductive & Respiratory Syndrome

VSLA Village Savings and Loans Associations

WBGU German Advisory Council on Global Change

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PART I INTRODUCTION

1 Research rationale

In the 21st century, climate change is one of the greatest challenges that have

caused tremendous changes through extreme climatic events such as rising temperatures, strong storms, heavy rain, floods, droughts and rising sea levels for mankind It is noteworthy that the impacts of climate change are significant and increasing, causing a considerable impact on the national economy, even more strongly on the livelihoods of the poorest groups living in countryside Vietnam is one

of the countries most severely affected by the increasing manifestation of these phenomena In addition to policies promulgated by the Government of Vietnam to adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the international community has been actively supporting the Government of Viet Nam in climate change response activities, towards sustainable development in localities, especially underdeveloped and poor areas

Generally, climate change becomes more serious and unpredicted in the Northern mountainous areas In fact, climate change will cause serious consequences

to these areas because the Northern mountainous areas have many factors creating vulnerability status easily such as high poverty rate, limited mitigation approaches, degraded ecology environment, complex terrain, many ethnic minorities, main works depending mainly on agriculture and forestry and the like, which are influenced greatly from natural disasters and weather However, it is inherently more vulnerable

in some groups of people such as ethnic minorities, the very old or very young, the sick who have limited access to information, resources and services Especially,

women are often particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to few educational opportunities, spending more time and effort on care-giving to parents, children, and the sick, having limited voice in society, lacking of skills to survive from

a disaster or extreme weather and many other reasons

In particular, with diverse, complex terrain, midlands and high mountains very steep slopes up to 20° (CARE, 2013), tropical monsoonal climate, plentiful river systems and low literacy level, financial woes, Bac Kan which is belonged the Northern mountainous areas is dealing with many difficulties about complicated happening of climate change, harmful effects and solutions

For the reasons mentioned above, this topic was chosen as “Vulnerability and adaptation to climate change of ethnic minority women in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province" to assess the impact of climate change on people's livelihoods, daily life, and the vulnerability of ethnic minority women in the context of climate change and its complexity This will provide the basis for proposing appropriate solutions and strategies to improve the livelihoods of households in the face of increasingly complex climate change and to help women raise their voice, improve adaptive capacity and reduce the vulnerability in the future

2 Research’s objective

- To analyze impacts of climate change on ethnic minority women in Thanh Van and their adaptation strategies

- To assess how ethnic minority women are vulnerable

- To analyze how could they become more resilient

- How are ethnic minority women in Thanh Van vulnerable to climate change?

- How are they adapting to climate change impacts?

- How could they become more resilient?

4 Limitations

There was very few in-depth semi-structured interview results of local officials in Thanh Van commune

PART II LITERATURE REVIEW

1 Climate change in the world

In the geological history of our planet, climate change has happened many times with cold and warm periods lasting thousands of years that we call ice ages and interglacial period Last glacial period have occurred 10,000 years ago and now that is warming period of interglacial period In terms of the causes of climate change, we can see the precession and tilt changing in the earth’s axis, changing the Earth's orbit around the sun, the position of continents and oceans, and especially changes in atmospheric composition

While the first causes are the cause of the planet, the final causes are the huge impacts of human that we call that it is heats the atmosphere or greenhouse gases It is understandable that: the average temperature of the earth's surface is determined by the balance between absorbed solar energy and heat returning to the universe When the heat is retained more in the atmosphere, it will make the earth's temperature to rise A big number of CO2 in the atmosphere will affect as a layer of glass to keep the heat radiating back into the Earth Beside, there are some other gases are called collectively greenhouse gases such as NOx, CH4, CFCs…With the strong development of industrial production and the use of fossil fuels (oil, coal, ), the observational data indicate a global surface warming of 0.74 °C (+/- 0.18 °C) since the late 19th century (NOAA, n.d.)

In 2015, one billion people still lived in extreme poverty and many depended on their surrounding natural resources for survival Poverty and inequality, which we have been working to improve for decades, will only get worse with climate change

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because disadvantaged groups do not have the resources to cope with effects such as extreme flooding or droughts that may displace them or change their way of life (Rosaly Byrd, 2014) Many poor people live in regions that are susceptible to changes

in the climate, for example drought-prone sub-Saharan Africa, or in marginal areas such as floodplains or unstable hillsides As already poverty-stricken people lose what little economic stability they have and are unable to subsist, villages are abandoned and previously settled people become refugees Poor families become trapped in poverty when they have limited or no access to resources, and no way to break the cycle According to the United Nations Development Program, developing countries suffer 99% of the casualties attributable to climate change (Global citizen, 2012) At the same time, the least 50 developed countries of the world account for a tiny, imbalanced, 1% contribution to the worldwide emissions of greenhouse gasses that create global warming Climate change is hitting hardest on the poorest people and the poorest countries

Global climate change is a significant long-term challenge for the whole world Across the nations, individuals, businesses, and federal, state, and local governments are already consciously making decisions to respond to climate change It is generally assumed that adaptation to changes in climate is not new Some examples of adaptation: breed crop varieties that are more tolerant of heat, drought, and water logging from heavy rainfall or flooding, promote land and wildlife management practices that enhance ecosystem resilience, implement early warning systems and emergency response plans to prepare for changes in the frequency, duration, and

intensity of extreme weather events, learn more about adaptation in the areas of forests, transportation, and society…etc

2 Climate change in Vietnam

In recent years, climate change in Vietnam which has very long coastline, high dependence on agriculture, and relatively low levels of development in rural areas has been a source of controversy because it will be one of most vulnerable countries in the world According to projections, by the end of the 21st century, the annual temperature

in Viet Nam will increase by between 1.1-1.9°C and 2.1-3.6°C rainfall is likely to increase by 1.0-5.2% and 1.8-10.1%, and sea level is likely to rise between 65 and 100cm, in comparison with the period 1980-1999, under low and high emission scenarios respectively (ISPONRE, 2009) This is particularly the case for rural ethnic minority groups those remote and rely heavily on natural resources

The statistics data shows that the community of ethnic minorities in Vietnam include about 14 million people, currently live in an area of 17 million hectares, accounting for over 50% of the territory of Vietnam but they live mostly in mountainous and midland, coastal, estuarine and watershed forest regions and river basins where are always affected strongly by natural disasters It is clear that the variability of the weather and the climate tend to more complicated and cause many consequences, severe damages that have strong effects on the nature, key socio-economic sectors, especially human beings

Unfortunately, the mountainous areas are in worse and worse conditions due to not only impacts of climate change but also lacking of organizations’ attention This has the potential to further limit the ability of remote ethnic minorities to access

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support and resources to adapt to climate change Under this circumstance, Vietnam offers a great number of strategies to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, reduce the vulnerability of society and look after status of mountainous regions

3 Climate change in Bac Kan

3.1 Impacts of climate change in Bac Kan

Changes of climate have plenty of disadvantages on natural and social factors

of Bac Kan province For agricultural production, higher frequency and strong intensity of cold weather has caused damaging cold weather that killed livestock and crops For instance, in February 2008, damaging cold weather made over 4,000 buffaloes and cows die Climate change with the prolonged heat wave is the main cause leading to continuous forest fires in the dry season Transport sector also suffered many losses due to climate change causes The torrential rains with high intensity occurred frequently that broke transport infrastructure, affected to travels and costly for remedial works Since 2005 - 2009, natural disasters caused losses of about

43 billion VND, with the volume of soil erosion is 584.466m3 positive talus, negative talus landslide minus 75 positions and 20 points of congestion (X.N, 2010)

Thousands of meters of irrigation canals, dams was washed away by flood, buried by soil and rock affected to agricultural production Thousands of homes and thousands of hectares of agricultural land of the people were washed away and destroyed resulted from climate change For example, torrential rains in7/2009 induced deaths to 13 people of Pac Nam district, homes and crops were buried, transportation, irrigation were destroyed so it wasted of over 100 billion Another typical example is

that due to the storm Chan Chu in October 7/2010, Ba Be, Bach Thong, Cho Don has suffered many damages to houses and farms (X.N, 2010)

As a province with abundant river systems, with four major river systems are: Cau, Nang, Pho Day, Bac Giang rivers, Bac Kan has faced water scarcity in domestic and production in the dry season Meanwhile, the impact of mining operations made the pollution of river water was increasingly more serious (X.N, 2010)

Climate change also affected to public health This is because the change in the temperature, photoperiod, and rainfalls has caused many species of bacteria, insects, diseases carriers that grew, thrived and harmed to human health and also agricultural production (X.N, 2010)

The percentage of ethnic minority in Bac Kan is over 80 including Tay, Nung, Dao, Mong and things (Nga).Bac Kan province is one of the poorest provinces the northern mountainous region and in Vietnam overall The poverty rate in 2010 was 32.1% (CARE, 2013) As a result, the poor and ethnic minorities in Bac Kan province are particularly vulnerable to climate change yearly That is because they live mainly

on the high mountains and border area of the province that vulnerable to wearing away

of soil, flooding, storms and other natural disaster without reliable shelters They have

to cope with financial difficulties, limited knowledge about climate change and solutions, many diseases, lack of money to buy health insurance as well Moreover, in recent years, the Bac Kan is one of the largest losses in agricultural production caused

by weather conditions and climate patterns Ethnic minority communities are heavily reliant on natural resources so the loss of productivity such as rice, maize, chickens, cows and the like has great effect on their likelihood, domestic use and finance

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3.2 Unequal impacts between women and men

Climate change does not affect to women and men equally due to some reasons First of all, the work characteristics make the different impacts on women and men According to the United Nations Women Watch, Women make up 45 percent to 80 percent of the food-producing workforce in developing countries (Diep, 2015) Many women in developing countries are farmers with responsibilities such as sowing seeds, weeding, tending the plots and harvesting which are ongoing throughout the year but

as for men, they do plough, pump water and spray pesticides which are in shorter periods It is clear that women in rural areas go to forest to collect mushroom, bamboo shoots, firewood and other resources for their families When the climate is sensitive

to change, crop yields decrease, the planet is warmer, it increases burden placed on women who depends on agriculture which are food, fodder, medicines, construction materials, and other items, must travel further and work longer to access their works during stress problems Although women play an important role in their families, their works are not income generation They also do not have time to learn new skills, or even rest

Secondly, ethnic minority women are more vulnerable to disasters and climate change impacts than men because their voice in families and communities are poor To family, men usually make final decisions when they have discussion with women about cropping patterns, land use, buying new equipment and things because women have lower education that may result from early marriage or poverty Hence, women’s adaptive capacity is available more limited To community, women spend more time

to work outside, face to many tasks so they are less available for social and cultural activities such as formal socio-political organizations and community meetings about

mitigation of climate change, adapting to extreme weather and the like Due to limited participation, women are not aware of the importance of personal targets and also difficulties in changes of climate and they have no chance no to share opinions, enhance knowledge and learn more experiences

Thirdly, women and children in developing countries are at higher risk of health problems during and after natural disasters Combined with the accelerated spread of diseases and infections, the breakdown of the social order and the malnourishment that sometimes accompanies climate change have led to higher rates of dengue fever, malaria, HIV, and STI transmission, especially for women (Lane, et al., 2009; Rodenberg, 2009) This is because they have to take part in post-flood recovery activities such as cleaning, clearing houses of debris, environmental sanitation and ditch dredging so they are exposed to infected environment Typically, when women are pregnant or breastfeeding, the food shortages and scarce clean water may cause nutritional problems and increased sicknesses for them They do not have chance to access health care services and facilities to cure and improve their health Their illnesses may become worst because of too late treatment or unclean environment Another possible reason is cultural norms that prohibit women from learning to swim,

or from visiting relief centers alone, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute (Diep, 2015)

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3.3 Responses of women

In the context of the fact that climate change is causing more and more obvious influences, people need to mobilize forces from all parties to be able to manage disaster risks more effectively Women, with the capacity, skills and their knowledge are valuable force On September 5, 2016, there was a discussion with topic "Actions for Climate Change: Women held solutions” at the United Nations Ms Mary Robinson, Special Ambassador of the United Nations in El Nino and Climate Change has listened to opinions of women from Bac Kan, Ben Tre, Dong Thap, Hue which are most severely affected from natural disasters and climate change in Vietnam (Bo Lao dong Thuong Binh va Xa hoi, 2016) These women shared about the impact of climate change and natural disasters on their lives, the challenges and the solutions that are proposed In this case, comments of women are one of essential response to process of planning about disaster risk reduction and adaptation to climate change

Moreover, the study results of ADC's Center at Thai Nguyen university of Agriculture and Forestry in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi District, Bac Kan province showed that indigenous knowledge should be respected in the program of socio-economic development to improve effectively plan of adaptation to climate change in Bac Kan For example, Tay, Dao ethnic minorities also use indigenous knowledge in agriculture, especially women in there who depends on agricultural activities Ethnic Tay, Dao also use indigenous knowledge in agriculture Tay ethnic grows maize on contours and Dao has intercropping techniques to reduce drought, increase soil fertility Through monitoring the weather, the Tay and Dao localities also have more experiences about forecasting, climate and harvest If Tay people find soil fungi

(Bjooc Din) growing in forests that means raining For Dao people, if they see crabs in stream crawling to the road or the mountain, it is going to have a flood (Diu, 2014)

Overall, the women are keenly aware of their environments because of primary responsibility for growing food and collecting water, firewood Therefore, they can play a paramount role in the management, conservation, use of natural resources, all aspects of disaster risk management and resilience building However, these roles are mostly invisible, rarely acknowledged and not included into formal systems (United Nations, n.d.)

4 Some features about Thanh Van commune

Thanh Van is a commune in Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province, Vietnam The commune is located: North has borders with Quang Thuan (Bach Thong) commune, Nong Thuong commune (Bac Kan city) The East has borders with Hoa Muc commune, Cao Ky commune The South and West have borders with Thanh Mai commune According to the Government Portal, Thanh Van commune covers an area

of 29.69 km², has a population of about 2,306 people and has a population density of 77.7 persons per km² Thanh Van has an inter-communal road to Nong Thinh commune and connects to Bac Kan city center There are Quan Lang stream and some lakes, including Tan Minh Lake is the biggest lake in the commune Thanh Van commune is divided into villages: Pjo, Na Ray, Na Don, Phung Khao, Quan Lang 1, Quan Lang 2, Na Kham, Na Chua, Pa Lai and Khau Chu (Wikipedia, 2017)

a response to the purely hazard-oriented perception of disaster risk in the 1970 (Schneiderbauer, 2004)

In additional, some authors distinguish between social vulnerability which deals with the susceptibility of human and the condition necessary for their survival and adaptation and biophysical vulnerability on the other (WBGU, 2005) In this context, biophysical vulnerability is a concept developed from global environmental change research, where it is widely used to describe the extent to which a system is vulnerable

to adverse effects on climate change and to what extent it is able or not to adapt to such impact (WBGU, 2005) In the study of evolution of approaches to vulnerability originated in the social and the natural sciences, Adger (2006) concludes that vulnerability is most often conceptualized as being constituted by components that include exposure to perturbations or external stresses, sensitivity to perturbation, and the capacity to adapt (Gilberto, 2006)

However, in this research, it can be underlined vulnerability as an intrinsic predisposition to be affected by or to be susceptible to damage, that means

vulnerability represents the system or the community’s physical, economic, social or political susceptibility to damage as the result of a hazardous event of natural (Cardona, 2004) In terms of climate change, vulnerability determines how severe the impacts of climate change might be There are three dimensions of vulnerability to climate change: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity

5.2 Adaptive capacity

Adaptive capacity in this research is defined as the ability of a system (human

or natural) to adjust to climate change (including climate variability and extremes) to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with the consequences (CARE, n.d.) One of the most important factors shaping the adaptive capacity of individuals, households and communities is their access to and control over natural (safe water resources, productive land, etc.), human (knowledge of climate risks, conservation agriculture skills, etc.), social ( women’s saving and loan groups, traditional welfare, etc.), physical ( irrigation infrastructure, seed and grain storage facilities, etc.) and financial (micro-insurance, diversified income sources) resources (CARE, n.d.) According to Brooks and Adger (2005), the presence of adaptive capacity has been shown to be a necessary condition for the design and implementation of effective adaptation strategies so as to reduce the likelihood and the magnitude of harmful outcomes resulting from climate change (IPCC, 2007)

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5.3 Resilience

The concept of resilience is important to understanding adaptive capacity to climate change Resilience refers to the ability of a human system (such as a municipal water system and the community that supports it) to withstand contemporary shocks and to anticipate and plan for future shocks (Yarnal, n.d.) Others believe that resilience implies the ability of a system to perform properly even when placed under pressure or the ability of systems to absorb and recover from the impact of disruptive events without fundamental changes in function or structure (Virendra, 2014)

However, Adger (2000) defines social resilience as the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political, and environmental change (Gilberto, 2006) In this research, resilience can be defined as the ability of a system (human or natural) to resist, absorb and recover from the effects of hazards in a timely and efficient manner, preserving or restoring its essential basic structures, functions and identity (CARE, 2007)

6 Linkages of vulnerability, resilience and adaptive capacity

Vulnerability is the propensity of a system to suffer significant transformations

as a consequence of its interaction with external or internal processes or events which

is called perturbations (Gallopín, n.d.) Central components of vulnerability are exposure (degree, duration and/or extension in which the system is in contact with, or subject to, the perturbation), sensitivity (the degree to which they could be harmed by that exposure) and adaptive capacity(ability of the system to adjust to or resist the perturbation, moderate potential damage, take advantage of opportunities, cope with the consequences of the transformations that do occur)

A system with more adaptive capacity will tend to be less vulnerable because of changing the sensitivity of the system to perturbations and reducing the exposure of the system to perturbations In other words, some people and the things they value can

be highly vulnerable to low-impact climate changes because of high sensitivity or low adaptive capacity, while others can have little vulnerability to even high-impact climate changes because of insensitivity or high adaptive capacity Climate change will result in highly variable impact patterns because of these variations in vulnerability in time and space (Yarnal, n.d.) According to Holling (1973) resilience

is “the capacity of a system to absorb and utilize or even benefit from perturbations and changes that attain it and so to persist without a qualitative change in the system structure” (Kumar, 2012)

It can be seen that there several relations between resilience and vulnerability: a resilient system is less vulnerable than a non-resilient system, resilience is not clearly related to the sensitivity component of vulnerability, a sensitive system may be resilient or not, an insensitive system may exhibit low vulnerability and also low resilience, resilience does not encompass exposure, but a history of exposure may be important to build resilience (at least in ecological systems) Therefore, systems with high adaptive capacity are resilient and able to reconfigure themselves to deal with climate change Systems with low adaptive capacity are much less resilient and much more vulnerable to climate change

In conclusion, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity are related in nontrivial ways If care is not used, the field of human dimensions research can become epistemologically very messy (Gallopín, n.d.)

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PART III METHODS

1 Case study approach

It is undeniable that vulnerability and adaptation to climate change of ethnic minority women topic is a huge research To understand deeply, researcher should choose a case study In fact, the case study approach is particularly useful to employ when there is a need to obtain an in-depth appreciation of an issue, event or phenomenon of interest, in its natural real-life context (Crowe, 2011)

The case study of Tay women in 4 villages including Phieng Khao, Pa Lai, Na Don and Na Ray in Thanh Van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province in northern mountainous region will provide a deep insights and also an overview of the topic

2 Data collection methods

2.1 Household survey

The Food and Agricultural Organization defines a household survey as “a descriptive cross-sectional survey that mostly provides quantitative information on the current status of a particular situation – on whatever study topic – in a given population It aims at quantifying the distribution of certain variables in a study population at one point in time” (FAO, 2004) A household survey was carried out in Thanh van commune, Cho Moi district, Bac Kan province to be more familiar with local people and their likelihood perspectives 30 Tay women in 30 different households in Thanh Van were chosen to ask about household characteristics, economic aspects, memberships in organizations and also status of climate change (Figure 3.1)

Figure 3.1 A household survey with Tay women

2.2 Interview

In-depth semi-structured interviews was conducted in Thanh Van commune The Head of Women’s Group was interviewed about the relation between organization and local people in livelihoods security and diversification, support disaster risk reduction efforts and adaptive capacity; which policies and programs has been done and results; which policies and organizations have responsibilities for the future plans

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2.3 Focus group discussion

A group of 5 Tay women who have general knowledge about climate change in

Na Ray village has took part in discussion day This group was gathered in a house and hazard map and historical timeline method were conducted during the discussion Hazard map was used (sketching simply a map with hand-drawn symbols) to identify the hazards and which areas and resources are the most affected Moreover, the researcher asked participants list major events and disasters in chronologic order in historical timeline to understand the past and present situation in the commune (Figure 3.2 and 3.3)

Figure 3.2 Group discussion with hazard map making