Community Resilience to Climate Change: Theory, Research and Practice

143 Confidence to secure homes that would not be affected by floods such as the 2000 flood As reported by most participants in FGDs, the flood in 2000 can be seen as the historical flood. In flood years, many homes were submerged or destroyed by flooding. The flood level in 2000 was considered as the threshold for designing housing structures by most rural households. Through field observation and FGDs with participants in three study sites, it was found that both richer households and poorer ones that resided in residential clusters were more likely to be confident that their houses would not be submerged or destroyed by a flood as large as the 2000 flood. This indicator reflects the threshold that rural households can cope with floods in terms of the housing sector. Two items (items 2 and 3) which formed the factor explaining the threshold were included (Table 3). Interest in learning and implementing flood-based livelihoods during floods As noted by Paul (1984, 1995, 1997) and Shaw (1989) floods are hazards as well as resources for development. Some people may see floods as disasters, but others consider floods as benefits (Lebel et al. 2006). The large flood event in the MRD led to significant costs to households and communities, but farmers can also benefit from the resources that the floods give to people. In particular, such floods bring abundance of aquatic resources such as fish, crabs, and snails. Many farmers rely on income from collecting fish, crabs, and snails during the flood season for maintaining livelihoods. However, poor people may not have enough financial resources to buy fishing tools (a small boat, nets, or traps), which may make them more vulnerable to food insecurity during the flood season. In some cases, they borrow informal credit for purchasing a boat and nets. However, they may incur debt during large floods that may sweep away their nets. The following in-depth interview illustrates the ways that people completely adapt to the flood season in the highest flood prone region. A rice farmer in K9 hamlet, aged 45, Phu Duc commune, has one hectare of rice land. He traps fish during the flood season. He loves the flood season very much because he can earn an extra VND 200,000-300,000 per day from this off-farm activity (in-depth interview on 15th September 2010). Interestingly, rural people have adapted to floods using an innovative way for improving their household income in the moderate flood prone region. The golden snails have been seen as pests for rice farmers in the MRD. However, they become resources for people who can collect golden snails for maintaining livelihoods during flooding. Most poor and medium income households engage in these livelihood activities because they require less capital investment as well as labor. In particular, young couples who are poor and landless are more likely to participate in this activity for survival, while medium-income households are more likely to accumulate capital by conducting this business. The household income of a medium-income farmer in TMT commune, aged 45, relies on rice farming (two crops) and collecting golden snails during the flood season. He said that local people are very interested in livelihood activities during the flood season. He uses a small motorboat to travel to many places in An Giang, Dong Thap, and Kien Giang provinces to collect snails. He can earn a net income of around VND 300,000 (~USD 15) per day. He can save at least VND 10.0 mil (USD 480) in a flood season, which equals the net income from 2.0 ha of rice. Mr. Luoc realized that the water season is a wonderful income season for his family and his neighbors. Fish, prawn, and duck farmers can buy low-priced snails, a cheap source of protein to feed their stock. Children and old people in his neighborhood can earn about VND 50,000 (~USD 3.5) a day to take off the snail shells for him [in-depth interview on 5th January 2010]. Local people not only benefit from exploiting the natural fish, crabs or snails from the floodplain, but also they create new farming activities that are totally adapted to floodwaters. For example, medium and better-off farmers who have paddy land are more likely to grow Neptunia prostrate (a type of aquatic vegetable), integrate duck and fish farming systems, and cultivate prawns during the flood season. These farming activities were introduced by farmers in 2001. The activities were first tested on an individual basis and expanded to the community level. The stories that follow show that farmers are more resilient to floods by transforming flooded fields into flood-based farming practices. A 61-year old man, living in Trung An commune, owns 3 ha of rice land. He grows two rice crops in the dry season and uses an integrated farming system during the water season. In particular, Mr. Sau raises ducks and fish in the flooded paddy fields using net fences to keep ducks and fish inside. He started to implement this system five years ago and the system is quite sustainable. He said that after harvesting the summer rice crop, he put nursery fish into the paddy fields. Fish eat rice straws, worms, and falling rice husk. Additionally, he adds ducklings and ducks into the paddy fields. Ducks also eat the remaining falling rice husk. After four months, he harvests fish, ducks, and eggs. The net benefit of these resources is much greater than the net benefit of the main rice crop. The fish and ducks make the paddy soil more fertile, so rice farmers apply less fertilizer in the next crop. This system is more resilient to the water season. Farmers can gain double benefits from the system. However, the system is not suitable for the landless and poor. It requires land and capital for investment, which the poor cannot afford (in-depth interview on January 15th 2010). Another man, aged 40, with nine years of schooling, lives in Bo Dau hamlet, TMT commune and owns 0.7 ha of rice land. He grows two rice crops in the dry season and raises prawn in the paddy-flooded fields in the flood season. He has adopted new flood-based prawn farming since 2007. He uses bamboo fences and nets to keep the prawn inside the fences and uses floodwater for farming prawn. He said that the water season is good for prawn farmers like him. Although the system is very risky with the market as well as water