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Despite the Payment for Forest Environmental Services (PFES) program being recognized for its achievements in promoting environmental conservation and empowering forest-dependent communities, its vertical impacts require a more nuanced investigation, given the constantly changing policy landscape in Vietnam. In 2023, we employed the Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) approach to examine gender disparities in PFES participation, resource accessibility, decision-making power, and knowledge of PFES across 66 households in A Luoi district, Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. Our findings reveal striking gender gaps in PFES participation, resource accessibility, decision-making power, and knowledge, with men dominating meetings and training programs, and having their names predominantly listed in forest land certificates, while women's perspectives are often overlooked. These inequities are deeply entrenched in patriarchal ideologies and traditional social prejudices, which have systematically excluded women from development programs. Moreover, our research uncovered a significant lack of knowledge about PFES among both men and women in the study community, partly attributable to institutional factors and command-and-control structures. We argue that achieving gender-equitable governance requires a multifaceted and nuanced approach that recognizes the complexity and diversity of institutions at the household and community level. Gender equality is a constantly evolving process with a wide range of issues and debates at various levels. Therefore, a long-term, gender-sensitive approach that empowers women and recognizes their critical role in forest governance is imperative for promoting equitable and sustainable development.

The widespread development of hydropower dams has led to involuntary displacement, which has become a significant global issue. In Vietnam, around 70,000 households were displaced in 2020, causing uncertainty and social disruption. The aim of this study is to analyze the effects of resettlement on the livelihood and food security of displaced households, explore the underlying challenges and causes of these effects, and recommend policy implications for sustainable livelihood development and poverty alleviation. This study conducted a decade-long sociological examination of three displaced communities in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam. Our research reveals that resettled households are unable to regain their former standard of living due to the loss of cultivated land and restricted access to public property, which exacerbates food insecurity. Unemployment, illiteracy, and low income further perpetuate poverty. These findings highlight the deficiencies in current policies and planning approaches and call for implementing socially responsible resettlement processes guided by principles of equity. Addressing the inequalities arising from displacement and enabling affected communities to participate in growth is economically justified and morally imperative.

Under Vietnam’s State land ownership regime, the Government holds supreme authority over compulsory land acquisition. The results show that many improvements in land acquisition policies have been made, but poor implementation measures largely cannot prevent or even mitigate the adverse impacts on displaced persons. In particular, ineffective compensation measures and a lack of production land and livelihood alternatives accelerate the resistance of communities displaced as a result of hydropower development. The close alliance between the local government and the investor, which is considered as an “interest group”, is the main factor that leads to the ignorance of benefits of displaced people within the compulsory land acquisition process.

This study explores the factors influencing residents' decisions to participate in community-based tourism (CBT) in the coastal lagoon region of central Vietnam. Using a mixed-methods approach, including a survey of 315 residents and regression analysis, the results indicate that community awareness of tourism resources and supportive policies significantly influence participation intentions. Factors such as household characteristics, livelihood benefits, tourism resources, local CBT development planning, and community organization positively impact participation. Conversely, adverse events and operational barriers negatively affect participation. The study highlights the importance of enhancing community awareness, developing tourism resources, and providing supportive policy frameworks to promote sustainable CBT and improve local livelihoods. Additionally, it emphasizes the need for resilience-building measures to mitigate the negative impacts of adverse events such as the COVID-19 pandemic on community tourism activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimation of carbon stock in seagrass meadows is in challenges of paucity of assessment and low accuracy of the estimates. In this study, we used a fusion of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Sentinel-1 (S-1), the multi-spectral Sentinel-2 (S-2), and coupled this with advanced machine learning (ML) models and meta-heuristic optimization to improve the estimation of total organic carbon (TOC) stock in the Zostera muelleri meadows in Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand. Five scenarios containing combinations of data, ML models (Random Forest, Extreme Gradient Boost, Rotation Forest, CatBoost) and optimization were developed and evaluated for TOC retrieval. Results indicate a fusion of S1, S2 images, a novel ML model CatBoost and the grey wolf optimization algorithm (the CB-GWO model) yielded the best prediction of seagrass TOC (R2, RMSE were 0.738 and 10.64 Mg C ha−1). Our results provide novel ideas of deriving a low-cost, scalable and reliable estimates of seagrass TOC globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sự thay đổi về diện tích đất có công trình xây dựng tại thành phố Huế từ năm 2013 đến 2017 được tính toán dựa trên ảnh vệ tinh Landsat 8 được cung cấp từ địa chỉ website: earthexplore.usgs.gov do cơ quan Hàng không và Vũ trụ Hoa Kỳ quản lý. Để trả lời được câu hỏi về mối quan hệ giữa diện tích đất có công trình xây dựng và mật độ dân số, ba phương pháp chính bao gồm phương pháp thu thập số liệu, phương pháp điều tra thực địa, lấy mẫu điểm GPS, phương pháp phân loại và đánh giá độ chính xác phân loại được sử dụng để nghiên cứu. Trong giai đoạn từ năm 2013 đến năm 2017, diện tích đất có công trình xây dựng trên địa bàn thành phố Huế được mở rộng 382,82 ha cùng với đó là sự tăng trưởng của mật độ dân số từ 242 người/km2 lên 247 người/km2. Mối quan hệ giữa diện tích đất có công trình xây dựng và mật độ dân số, thể hiện thông qua phương trình Y = 65,294X – 11415 có hệ số tương quan r = 0,808 và hệ số xác định R2 = 0,6531. Kết quả cho thấy rằng sự gia tăng của mật độ dân số có mối tương quan nhất định đối với diện tích đất có công trình xây dựng.

The article reports on the establishment of a local water-sharing mechanism in Quang Nam, Vietnam.