Introduction

Poverty, people's livelihood strategies, and the natural environment are inter-linked in both space and time.  Some of those inter-linkages are distinctly spatial phenomena, which can be measured using household surveys and remote sensing technologies and mapped using geographic information systems, while other inter-linkages are more context-specific and difficult to observe. The method of Participatory Analysis of Poverty, Livelihoods and Environment Dynamics (PAPOLD) was developed to capture local specific issues of these inter-linkages. The method is asserted to be more comparative than other methods because it is participatory, dynamic and comparable. It is a refinement of the Stages of Progress (SoP) developed by Anirudh Krishna of Duke University in the USA. In Vietnam, it was modified by ICRAF team in collaboration with Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and Vietnam Institute of Economics in 2007 to better address links between poverty and environment in Vietnam. By integrating PAPOLD with sustainable livelihood approach, poverty and environmental linkages are seen in a comprehensive way.

Table 1. Applied methods in Vietnam

Case study:  Land Use Strategies and Impacts of Resource Access on poor tea growers in Hoang Nong commune (Dai Tu, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam)

Hoang Nong commune, Dai Tu District in Thai Nguyen Province, belongs to the buffer zone of Tam Dao National Park. The population of the study village comprises six ethnic groups. Currently, most households mainly get their incomes from agricultural activities, such as paddy farming, rearing cattle and tea cultivation. Among them, livestock rearing, especially cattle rearing, gives the highest economic return for farmers. Local farmers, especially poor households, also earn their living through forestry-related activities, such as hunting, wildlife trading, etc.  PAPOLD was used together with other Participatory Rapid Appraisal (PRA) tools in order study land use strategies of the upland rural households in dealing with the changes in the commercialisation processes. Two villages representative of the two most dominant ethnic groups, Kinh in Doan Thang and Dao group in Dinh Cuong, were selected for the study. Village representative groups in two villages (about 30 per cent of the total households in each village) defined the local notion of poverty, identified “stages of progress” that households in the villages might go through as they obtained more and more investment funds, and characterised each household in the village according to its current and past stage. Focus groups also characterised livelihood strategies. Two focus groups of tea growers per each village were selected using representative criteria related to wealth, age and gender.

Summary of the findings of PAPOLD in Hoang Nong

Poverty and policy linkages:  The timeline of Hoang Nong commune showed land use changes over time in relation to land and cooperative reforms. Particularly in the early 90s, together with land privatisation and the establishing Tam Dao National Park, no lands were left for young households. This was the main reason that led to young households becoming poor.

Poverty indicators: The common poverty indicators were house, land areas, labour, and income, tea price, loan and furniture (Table 2).
Self poverty lines:  most of the poor villagers are in stage 1 (Table 2), which is specified as lacking land, bad health, lack of labour. The medium farmers (stages 3-7) seemed to have a more diverse crop and animal mix, which gave them higher security and sometimes benefit enough to expand or invest. The better-off households (stage above 5) either had larger land holdings from the beginning or they had managed well in investments and had bought more land and therefore advanced from being medium to become better-off.

Poverty changes over time in each household: Wealth changes over time showed that access to land, credit and labour were the main drivers that helped local farmers to get out from poverty (Table 3).

Strategies for getting out from poverty:  Having land to grow tea and having money for more fertilisers, wage employment, population control, reduced expenditure and wild food collection.

Table 2. Example SoP in Doan Thang village

Table 3. Change in household (HH) poverty over time in Doan Thang village, Hoang Nong commune, Thai Nguyen District, Vietnam (Stages 1, 2 are under poverty line; 3, 4 are average; above 5 is well-off, see Table 2)

Discussion

The method help researchers to understand the livelihood strategies that people use to get out of poverty and how much these key livelihoods have positive or negative impact on the environment. The fact that using fertilisers are the main way to get out of poverty indicates the complexity of harmonising between environmental protection and livelihood improvement for the poor. However, the poverty and wealth lines as well as the poverty indicators show future solutions to gradually address the issues via promotion of livestock raising and clean tea.

References

Dr. Krishna and colleagues have produced a training manual for the method as well as a number of journal articles summarising the results. His work is gathered on the website: http://www.pubpol.duke.edu/krishna/. This includes a training manual and results from India, Kenya, Uganda and Peru.

Hoang Minh Ha, Nguyen Le Hoa, Pham Thu Thuy, Mai Hoang Yen, and Be Quynh Nga, 2007. Comparative Analysis of Market and Resource Access of the Poor in Upland Zones of the Greater Mekong Region (MMSEA project). Vietnam case study. ICRAF Vietnam working paper.

Hoang Minh Ha, Pham Thu Thuy, Brent Swallow, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, Thai Phuc Thanh, Nguyen Van Huan and Dao Ngoc Nga. 2007. Understanding the Voice of the Poor- Participatory Poverty Analysis with Environment Focus,  United  Nation  Development  Program  and  Ministry  of  Natural  Resources  and  Environment  of  Vietnam, Hanoi.

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