Last week, the ICEM team travelled to An Giang and Dong Thap as part of a series of risk assessment missions across the VN-ADAPT project’s six provinces: An Giang, Dong Thap, Vinh Long and Ca Mau in the Mekong Delta, and Dak Lak and Lam Dong in the Central Highlands. The mission combined technical consultations, participatory mapping, and field visits to bring together scientific analysis and the firsthand knowledge of people experiencing climate hazards.
The team met with provincial leaders and technical divisions of the Departments of Agriculture and Environment to discuss the climate challenges facing the two provinces and review the data and information available at provincial and local levels. The discussions assessed the availability, coverage and level of detail of existing data, helping identify key information sources and gaps that would need to be addressed in the climate vulnerability and risk assessment.
In the consultation workshops, experts from provincial agencies and institutions, including stakeholders from crop production, irrigation, fisheries, forest protection, the Women’s Union, the Farmers’ Union, and universities gathered around large A0 maps for a participatory assessment and group discussion. Working in Rice, Shrimp and Biodiversity groups, participants helped refine the project’s climate vulnerability and risk assessment methodology. They screened the key climate hazards affecting these systems, described their past impacts on production and ecosystems, and identified factors influencing sensitivity and adaptive capacity, along with potential indicators for assessing vulnerability. Participants also engaged in participatory mapping to mark areas most affected by drought, salinity intrusion, flooding, out-of-season rainfall, heavy precipitation, and coastal erosion. This local knowledge is essential for grounding technical assessments in on-the-ground realities.
The team then visited Van Khanh and Vinh Gia communes in An Giang and Go Cong Dong and Phu Tho communes in Dong Thap to meet with local authorities and farming communities. Through focus group discussions and key informant interviews, the team explored how climate change affects agricultural production in the communes and different groups, including women and men, ethnic minority households, and families seeking to change production systems but facing financial and technical constraints. The team also visited several models in these communes, including rice–shrimp, rice–fish, and eco-friendly rice, to learn firsthand how these farming systems are implemented in practice, the challenges farmers face, and their potential to support adaptation to changing climate conditions.
The field mission was made possible by the valuable cooperation of provincial and commune authorities, technical agencies, local institutions and farming communities. Their time, expertise, local knowledge and active participation were essential to understanding the challenges on the ground and ensuring that the assessment reflects the realities and priorities of the people directly affected by climate change.
One key takeaway from the mission was clear: farmers and local experts already have a detailed understanding of where climate pressures are greatest, from sudden heat stress in shrimp ponds to changing salinity conditions in rice systems. By combining this knowledge with GIS, remote sensing, modelling and available climate and socioeconomic data, VN-ADAPT aims to deliver a more robust, inclusive and locally relevant climate risk and vulnerability assessment. The findings will help identify practical, nature-based adaptation options that strengthen the resilience of agricultural production and biodiversity across the six project provinces.
VN-ADAPT is funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Government and implemented by SNV, ICEM, IUCN, and UNEP, with the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment as the government project owner.
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