Sustainable participatory management and conservation requires an understanding of site-specific, rights structure, resource use and resource dependency patterns over time. This paper documents these issues by examining the resource use pattern overtime by the Katu people in Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province, central Vietnam, before and after allocation of natural forest to the households of the community. Household interview, key informant and group discussions were used for data collection and crosscheck. Descriptive analysis and pair-sample T-test are main tools used to explore those parameters. We found a weak performance of property rights and differences in the De facto to the De jure rights of forest recipients. On contrary to the increased rights, forest use and forest dependency of local people have been reduced due to the degradation of resources, and availability of alternative opportunities from emerging agriculture and animal grazing options. Considering dynamic nature of resource dependency overtime, it is necessary to consider in the post-allocation programme which embrace the local context to have better forest protection and management as well as the satisfaction of local people on the forest resources they manage.

Abstract: Abstract: The effects of climate change are becoming more and more apparent in Vietnam and are threatening the livelihood of people in both its coastal areas and mountainous regions. However, there is a dearth of knowledge of the adaptive capacity of the minority ethnic groups who depend on forest resources for their livelihood. We interviewed and held group discussions to investigate the climate change adaptability of the local Katu ethnic people in Huong Son commune, Nam Dong District of Thua Thien Hue Province of Vietnam. The data were analysed in descriptive and quantitative manner. Regression analysis was applied to figure out the factors affecting vulnerability of the local people. We found that climate change has negative impacts on the life of the local people and that degradation of natural resources worsens their life conditions and make the poor, low-income and forest-dependent households more vulnerable. We also found that the local people adopt autonomous adaptation, primarily through change in seasonal calendar, cultivation techniques, vaccination, pest and disease prevention, and application of new techniques in daily production activities. We suggest a number of measures for enhancing the adaptive capacity of ethnic groups in mountainous Vietnam.

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