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Purpose: Mekong Delta's shrimp farming contributes to socio-economic development but tends to reduce the mangrove area. On the one hand, NGOs advocate balancing ecology and economy, while on the other hand, the Vietnamese government supports intensifying shrimp production. The latter strategy increases shrimp diseases and marginalises smallholders. To influence the opinions, knowledge and behaviour of shrimp farmers, we developed and tested a serious board game. Approach: Through several iterations, we designed a realistic board game mimicking local shrimp farming. Then, after conducting three sessions of gameplay with farmers in three sites, we assessed how this gameplay influenced players. We used a semi-experimental set-up by collecting data on the day of the gameplay, and on two further time-points. Findings: After the gameplays, farmers reported to have learned about the risks of monoculture-intensive-shrimp system and the advantages of hybrid systems. Likert ratings showed that players adopted innovations faster and, in case of shrimp diseases, consulted commercial service-providers less, but with other farmers more. They confirmed to have learned that the best strategy for them would be to adopt hybrid systems, i.e. intensify part of the area of mixed-mangrove or improved-extensive shrimp farms. Theoretical implications: Realistic board games can create opportunities for social learning and training of groups which are not always easy to reach. Practical implications: Board games can support transfer of knowledge and skills to farmers, and can develop their critical thinking. Creation: The findings that board games are effective in the context of a top-down extension systems offer value opportunities.

In Vietnam, little is elucidated in scientific literatures about the mental health of caregivers of people with cancer. We conducted a cross-sectional study to report the situation and correlates of self-reported psychological distress among caregivers of cancer patients in Vietnam in 2019. Multiple logistic and linear regression analyses were performed. A total of 16.5% of the study participants had psychological distress. Respondent’s mean score of negative emotion was 7.6 ± 2. Educational level and type of support were significantly associated with having psychological distress among caregivers. Gender, occupation, financial difficulty, treatment belief and social support significantly correlated to psychological distress level of caregivers.

Shrimp farming is a major livelihood activity in the Mekong Delta in the southernmost part of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has promoted shrimp farming as a way to reduce poverty, provide employment opportunities and increase exports to support economic development. The shrimp farming system, however, is economically and ecologically risky and may negatively influence the environment and the sustainability of local people's livelihoods. Because very little is known about the diversity of strategies people employ to deal with these risks, a study was performed in the Mekong Delta across four shrimp farming systems: (1) improved extensive non-forest, (2) mixed mangrove-shrimp, (3) intensive and (4) clustered intensive. The risks and livelihood strategies that were encountered differed systematically across the four farming systems. It was found that the uncertainties that the shrimp farmers faced include limited access rights to the mangrove forest, crop failure due to regular occurrence of shrimp disease, high investment costs and volatile markets for shrimp. Shrimp farmers have created several strategies for coping with these uncertainties, including redesigning farms, producing salt, changing the species farmed from Penaeus monodon to Penaeus vannamei, becoming involved in a cooperative cluster, integrating aquaculture and agriculture, and farming shrimp by organic standards.

Fishery in Ca Mau, Viet Nam’s most southern province in the Mekong Delta, plays locally an important role for human nutrition and has great potentials for export earnings. The overexploitation of inshore fishing resources is a major problem in Viet Nam’s coastal areas along the Mekong Delta. As a result, the Catch per Unit of Effort of small-scale fishing enterprises has decreased, undermining the sustainability of livelihoods of fishing families. The paper focuses on livelihoods’ strategies and diversification in the context of overexploitation and exhaustion of near-shore resources in relation to fishery policies. The results show that overexploitation is unavoidable in near-shore waters because of the lack of enforcement of fishery regulations for offshore vessels and the limitation of alternative sources of income and opportunities for livelihood diversification for small-scale fishers. The present policies to prevent overexploitation need to be reconciled with livelihood sustainability and fishery management, resource conservation and socio-economic goals

In the Mekong Delta coastal zone, decision makers must weigh trade-offs between sustaining the shrimp sector and thus ensuring economic development, while also promoting sustainable, environmentally friendly practices and planning for climate change adaptation. This study investigates future scenarios for development of shrimp aquaculture using a spatially explicit, agent-based model (ABM) simulating farmers' production system choices. A role playing game (RPG) with farmers was used to calibrate and validate the model. Four scenarios, representing different visions of aquaculture in the next 15 years, were elaborated with decision makers before discussing the different outputs of the model. Iterative consultation with farmers helped to fine-tune the model and identify key parameters and drivers in farmers' decision-making. The recursive process allowed us to construct a model that validly represents reality. Participants stated that use of the RPG improved their insight for planning. Results of the scenarios indicate that (i) intensification of production is unsustainable, (ii) market-based incentives are too limited to stimulate development of an integrated mangrove–shrimp production system and (iii) climate change will cause rapid decline of production in the absence of adaptation measures. RPG appeared to be a valuable method for formalizing local farmers' knowledge and integrating it into the planning approaches used by decision makers. The ABM, thus, can also be considered a medium or communication tool facilitating knowledge-sharing between farmers and decision makers.

Shrimp aquaculture and fishery, the two important economic sectors in Vietnam, have been promoted by the government to reduce poverty, provide job opportunities, and to increase exports to support economic development. However, this expansion of fishery and aquaculture has also had negative effects. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of mangrove forest have been replaced by shrimp ponds and, as a result, have brought ecological risks like water pollution, causing shrimp disease outbreaks. These consequences have negatively affected the sustainability of the livelihoods of millions of coastal people who are dependent on shrimp aquaculture, mangrove forests and fishing. As a part of the RESCOPAR program of “Rebuilding resilience in coastal populations and aquatic resources” of Wageningen University (INREF), this study was conducted across four shrimp farming systems and one fishery system in two provinces of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam with a focus the different livelihoods.. The study investigates the pathways and decision-making of shrimp farmers and fishers to cope with risks and uncertainties to sustain livelihoods and enhance socio-ecological resilience. Results show that farmers in these systems exhibit remarkable social and economic resilience at household level under declining ecological conditions, particularly mangrove decline, shrimp diseases, market price fluctuations, and misguided government policies and programs. They cope with these vulnerabilities through a wide range of livelihood pathways and strategies including intensification, diversification, migration, specification, and collaboration. The pathways they decide upon at one stage do not only influence the livelihood activities in a particular environment, but they also nurture the process of learning to adapt to the changes, to self-organize and manage their lives for long-term resilience building. This study used four indicators as proxies of social resilience: economic stability, resource protection, knowledge building and the creation of relationships.. Between the two improved extensive shrimp farming systems, the extensive mangrove-shrimp system showed more social resilience and was less risky. Moreover, the system was more resilient ecologically, as it did not put environmental pressure on the mangrove forest It needed to conserve part of the mangrove forest that would serve as a nursery ground for marine shrimp and fish species. Between the two intensive farming systems, the intensive farming system where farmers chose to cluster their ponds appeared to have greater social resilience. Farmers in this system were better off, experienced a higher net return/cost ratio, and fewer farms failed due to shrimp diseases. They could also apply to advanced bio-farming technology for shrimp farming. They would build relationships with external agencies for support and they were more active, flexible, and professional in their adaptation. They were able to direct and shape the changes in order to acquire a stronger legal and equity position, thus increasing their social resilience. Small-scale fishery was less socially and ecologically resilient, so fishers diversified their gear and boats to fish more intensively to secure livelihoods and reduce vulnerability. However, this caused near- shore resource decline and ecological disturbance, and violated fishery regulations. The Vietnamese Government has established a political and institutional system to support aquaculture and fishery. However, the implementation of the current policies and institutions in the field of aquaculture and fisheries is still weak and inadequate. The institutional interventions, firstly, need to focus on balancing between household economic improvement and natural resources conservation. It is not enough to emphasize only the government’s capacities of control and enforcement to make farmers and fishers comply with the regulations for the conservation of the resources without also emphasizing the need to promote socio- economic improvement at household level. The solution could be to enhance non-farm or non- fishing livelihood diversification, improve pond farming and fishing technologies and to promote farmers collaboration and shrimp certification. Finally, the most important is to devolve the responsibilities and rights for the management of the mangrove forests and the coastal inshore resources to local individual farmers and communities.