Our Coast - Our Future Pilot: Gender-Differentiated Character of Land and Resource Rights in Mangrove Forests

Decree no. 119/2016/ND-CP, issued in August 2016, covers policies on sustainable management, protection, and development of coastal forests for coping with climate change. The decree is part of a growing interest in understanding how best to manage coastal landscapes in an integrated way. A central part of the challenge is developing inclusive forms of governance and management approaches to improve livelihoods, reduce disputes, and promote sustainable coastal forest management, including mangroves. Promoting gender equality is a critical component of coastal forest management. Vietnam compares favorably against other countries in the region when it comes to gender equality indicators. Positive developments such as the 2006 Law on Gender Equality, 2013 Constitution, 2013 Land Law, and 2014 Law on Marriage and Family were put into motion to bring about greater equality between men and women. However, in practice, there are still deep-rooted socio-cultural practices that tend to discriminate against women and their rights to assets, resources, and decision-making power. In coastal areas, women work longer hours than men and take part in most household-level production activities, but they have less access to and control over assets and resources. It is critical to identify how women and men use different parts of the landscape as well as their role in coastal resource governance, so that when interventions to improve mangrove and coastal management are designed, they can promote gender equality to strengthen the inclusive distribution of rights and benefits. The rights and roles of community members making use of natural resources within a coastal landscape with mangrove forests are shaped by the complex interactions of gender, social class, wealth, and age. The specific type of complex interlinkages depend on changes related to socioeconomic transformations as well as policy and legal frameworks. For example, the economic reforms introduced in the late 1980s significantly transformed how women and men used and worked in coastal mangrove forests. This brief examines the gender-differentiated character of land and resource rights, the particularities of natural resource use, and power dynamics in decision-making. It also highlights the critical role of women's participation and leadership in mangrove planting and management from the mid-1990s onwards. The brief presents findings from the Our Coast – Our Future pilot project, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), on participatory coastal spatial planning and mangrove co-management in Tien Lang district of Haiphong municipality. Key findings indicate that there are significant differences between women's and men's access to and control of coastal natural resources in Tien Lang. Women have had a significant role in planting mangrove forests as well as in running mangrove nurseries, primarily through the Women's Union but also through other mass organizations. They depend more than men on the natural resources that thrive in mangrove ecosystems. Women are mainly involved in either gleaning (which has low income potential) or as workers within aquaculture operations (on a short-term or long-term basis). From an institutional perspective, men hold more formal roles in forest protection agreements and have opportunities to generate income based on aquatic resource harvesting, given their assets recognized in Land Use Rights Certificates and aquaculture contracts. Women are not typically joint rights holders on Land Use Rights Certificates or aquaculture pond contracts. Lacking assets and opportunities to learn the skills and develop the social networks to run aquaculture operations, boat fishing, or clam farming, women remain unable to reap the benefits of their direct work in expanding mangrove forests within Tien Lang's landscape. When it comes to leadership positions at both the village and commune levels, women are only now gaining recognition for their capabilities and public service orientation. As a consequence, their ability to work for inclusive forms of coastal landscape and mangrove management is still nascent. There are various reasons for gender inequities, including the persistence of patriarchal values within rural society, the lack of recognition of women's need to access common area mangroves and mudflats, and the insufficient knowledge, social networks, and financial resources available to women to claim their rights to use the mudflat and mangroves for aquaculture production.