Assessing the awareness of political decision makers, staff of government institutions and local population about climate change

Contents
1.2 Study Objectives ................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 1.4 2. Scope of the study ............................................................................................................ 6 Methodology .................................................................................................................... 7

Study Results ........................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Socio-economic characteristics of the sample population .................................................... 8 2.2 Perception on climate change knowledge ........................................................................... 13 2.2.1 Perception of the local residents on climate change knowledge.................................. 13

List of table
Table 1. Subsample of Local Authorities by Locality, N = Number of Respondents .................... 9 Table 2. Household Respondents, N=Number of Respondents .................................................... 10 Table 3. Sample Characteristics (Gender, Education, Age, and Ethnicity), Unit: % ................... 10 Table 4. Results of Chi square test on the relationship between weather events and socioeconomic characteristics ............................................................................................................... 15 Table 5. Chi square test on the term climate change ................................................................. 16 Table 6. Chi square test on the frequency of information access to climate change .................... 18 Table 7. Chi square results of the perception of the residents on the cause of climate change .... 21 Table 8. Chi square analysis of the perception of the residents on the specific causes leading to climate change .............................................................................................................................. 22 Table 9. Results of Chi square analysis result on perception on the impact of climate change in different areas and socio-economic characteristics....................................................................... 23 Table 10. Chi square test on the perception of the residents on impacts of climate change to income ........................................................................................................................................... 26 Table 11. Results of Chi square analysis on the perception of the local residents on the impacts of climate change to gender and age group. ...................................................................................... 27

List of figure
Figure 1. Sample Size by Type of Respondents, (Unit: Number of Respondents, %) ................... 8 Figure 2. Household's Assets ........................................................................................................ 11 Figure 3. Household Housing Condition ...................................................................................... 12 Figure 4. Household Poverty ........................................................................................................ 12 Figure 5. Household's Main Occupation....................................................................................... 13 Figure 6. Perception of residents on frequency level some weather events ................................. 13 Figure 7. Landslide in Phu Huu commune, An Phu, An Giang.................................................... 14 Figure 8. Perception of the residents on the term Climate change ................................... 16 Figure 9. Perception on the terms climate change among occupations..................................... 17 Figure 10. Frequency of information access to climate change.................................................... 17 Figure 11. The frequency of information access to climate change information of different educational groups ........................................................................................................................ 19 Figure 12. Accessed channels to climate change information ...................................................... 20 Figure 13. Preferred channels to access to climate change information ....................................... 20 Figure 14. Perception of the residents on the cause of climate change ........................................ 21 Figure 15. Perception of the residents on the specific cause of climate change ........................... 22 Figure 16. Perception of residents on the impacts of climate change at the local level ............... 23 Figure 17. Perception on the impacts of climate change in terms of gender ................................ 24 Figure 18. Perception on the impact of climate change in terms of level of education ................ 25 Figure 19. Perception of the residents on the impacts of climate change to their income ... 26 Figure 20. Perception of residents on venerable gender group to climate change ....................... 27 Figure 21. Perception of the residents on the vulnerable age group to climate change ................ 27 Figure 22. Perception of residents in five provinces on the impacts of climate change according to gender........................................................................................................................................ 28 3

Figure 23. Residents perception on the impact of climate change to gender .............................. 28 Figure 24. Residents perception on subject of adverse impact of climate change by ethnicity .. 29

Abbreviations
CCCEP DARD DOF DONRE DPI GIZ MARD MONRE MOF MPI NTP MOST : Climate Change and Coastal Ecosystems Program : Department of Agriculture and Rural Development : Department of Finance : Department of Natural Resources and Environment : Department of Planning and Investment : German Agency for Technical Cooperation : Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development : Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment : Ministry of Finance : Ministry of Planning and Investment : National Target program on climate change ` : Ministry of Science and Technology

1.2 Study Objectives

To access the awareness of key stakeholders in five provinces (Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Kien Giang and An Giang) including the government officials and the residents; and the government officials of the ministries about climate change.

1.3 Scope of the study

1.3.1 Study Site Selection The study site is based upon the coastal areas in the five provinces that are mentioned in the MOU between GIZ and the provincial authorities under the project Climate Change and Coastal Ecosystems Program. These locations are considered severely impacted by climate change due recent intension of sea water intrusion, storm and other natural disasters. Due to time constraints, this baseline conducts the survey of perception of key stakeholders about climate change in one district of each province. The communes in each district are determined by the local authority and the level of recent damage caused by natural disasters. 1.3.2 Target Groups There are three target groups, as follows: - Central officials: Government officials who are either decision makers or closely evolved in the implementation process in relation to climate change, typically in local implementation processes. The government officials of related ministries (MONRE, MOF, MPI, MARD, etc). About 40 officials were interviewed. The local officials: The survey identifies three type of local officials based on the authority level: provincial, district and commune level. At the provincial level, the officials of some key departments at five provinces (Soc Trang, Bac Lieu, Ca Mau, Kien Giang and An Giang) including DONRE, DOF, DPI, DARD, etc are considered as important respondents. At the district level, the officials in 8 districts in five province: Vinh Chau (Soc Trang), Hoa Binh (Bac Lieu), Nam Can (Ca Mau), Hon Dat (Kien Giang) and An Phu (An Giang) are interviewed (Annex A). In addition to the district level, the communes also identified as key groups since they are directly implementing the policies as well as playing the administrative role at the local. In each province, about 30 officials were interviewed (16 provincial officials, 8 district officials, 6 commune officials).

Local residents: Besides the government officials, it is crucial to access the awareness of the local residents who are living in the coastal areas and have suffered from the negative impacts of climate change. The local residents of the communes are randomly selected with an equal proportion of male and female. The residents of 8 communes (2 communes in each district) including Vinh Hai and Vinh Tan (Vinh Chau district, Soc Trang); Vinh Hau and Vinh Hau A (Hoa Binh district, Bac Lieu); Lam Hai and Dat Moi (Nam Can district, Ca Mau); Binh Son and Binh Giang (Hon Dat district, Kien Giang); and Phu Huu and Phu Hoi (An Phu district, An Giang) are interviewed (Annex A). In each commune, 30 local residents will be interviewed. Thus in total about 300 local residents in five provinces were interviewed.

1.4 Methodology
1.4.1 Data Collection Since there are some differences between the resident group and the officials group, three separate questionnaires are prepared to collect the data (Annex B, C and D). The information and awareness of the key stakeholders are collected and accessed by using the questionnaire comprising four parts: - Part 1: socio-economic characteristics of the respondent: the information like gender, age, level of education, occupation and household status are collected. - Part 2: The perception of the respondent about climate change. In this part, the perception of respondents on the impacts of climate change is accessed through measuring their understanding about the fluctuation of some weather events such as storm, flood, landslide, drought and high tide; the term climate change; communication channels that respondents have received information on climate change; cause of climate change; the level of impacts of climate change on various sectors (agriculture; fishery; health; the availability of fresh water) and impacts on household income and the highly vulnerable groups (woman, elderly and children). - Part 3: The perception of the respondents on the climate change policies (both local and national). - Part 4: Adaptive actions to climate change. 1.4.2 Data analysis Before analyzing, missing data and outliers are removed to avoid any analytical incorrectness. In order to explore the perception of resident regarding their age, this study divided age into three groups: group 1 (from 18-35 years old), group 2 (36-50 years old) and group 3 (above 50 years old). Due to the fact that most of respondents are Kinh and Khmer, the study categorizes ethnicity into three groups: Kinh, Khmer and Other. Statistical tools such as Chi square test analysis, frequency and percentage are applied to analyze the data collected from the questionnaire table. The perception of respondent will be analyzed towards the categorized group and the locations. For instance, the perception of the residents is analyzed based on their understanding about climate change, the policies on climate change and their actions to mitigate/adapt to climate change. In addition, the perception of the residents will 7

be compared based on their socio-economic characteristics such as gender, age, level of education and occupation in order to figure out the differences between each sub-group. In addition to the analysis of each specific group about their perception on climate change, the resident group is also compared with the official group in order to explore whether there is any correlation between these groups in regard to their perception. When comparing each group, 95% of significance is used. SPSS software version 19.0, STATA version 12.0 and Microsoft Excel are applied to analyze the data.

2. Study Results
2.1 Socio-economic characteristics of the sample population
2.1.1 Overall Sample Size The total sample size obtained in the field and through the email survey is 632 respondents (N=632). The respondents are rural households at commune level and officials at all levels ranging from commune, district, and province to the central level. As shown in Figure 1, the central officials completed the questionnaire are of 40 respondents represent 6% of the overall sample. In addition, a subsample of local authorities is of 206 respondents including 97 provincial officials (15% of the overall sample), 45 district officials (7%), and 64 commune officials (10%). The total household interviewed in the survey are 386, representing 61% of the overall sample. Figure 1. Sample Size by Type of Respondents, (Unit: Number of Respondents, %)

61%

386 Households

10% 64 Commune Officials

15% 7% 45 District Officials 97 Provincial Officials 6% 40 Central Officials

Central Officials At central level, there are a number of ministries, agencies, departments, and institutes in the survey. Specifically, respondents who have completed the questionnaire are officials of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam - Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Socio-economic Information and Forecast Centre, the Institute of State and Law, the Vietnam Environment Administration (of MONRE), the General Department of Land Administration (of MONRE), the Juridical Committee, the Standing Committee of National Assembly, the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, the Department of Legal Affairs (of Ministry of Police), and the Office of the Government. Local Officials The survey has been conducted in five provinces of the Mekong River Delta. For each province, one district/town has been selected from where the selections of two communes are chosen. Table 1 describes the number of respondents at provincial level (Soc Trang province, Bac Lieu province, Ca Mau province, Kien Giang province, An Giang province), at district level ( Vinh Chau town, Hoa Binh district, Nam Cam district, Hon Dat district, An Phu district) and at communal level (Vinh Hai commune, Vinh Tam commune, Vinh Hau commune, Vinh Hau A commune, Lam Hai commune, Dat Moi commune, Binh Son commune, Binh Giang commune, Phu Hoi commune, Phu Huu commune). As shown in Table 1, the number of respondents for each locality ranges from 5 as an minimum to 23 as a maximum. Table 1. Subsample of Local Authorities by Locality, N = Number of Respondents
Provi nce Distri ct /Town Com mune Soc Trang N=17 Vinh Chau N=10 Vin h Hai N=6 Vin h Tan N=6 Hau N=6 Bac Lieu N=9 Hoa Binh N=17 Vinh Vin h H.A N=8 Ca Mau N=7 Nam Cam N=9 La m Hai N=4 Da t Moi N=7 Kien Giang N=23 Hon Dat N=8 Bin h Son N=6 Binh Giang N=7 An Giang N=23 An Phu N=9 Ph u Hoi N=9 Phu Huu N=5

Local officials who answered the survey are those who are working in a wide range of departments, offices, committees, unions. The list includes: Department of Environment Protection; Department of Capture Fisheries and Resource Protection; Forest Protection 9

Department; Department of Irrigation; Statistics Office; Police Office; Peoples Council; Veterans Association; Womens Union; Farmers Union; Department of Invalids and Social Affairs; Business Registration Office; Department of Agriculture and Rural Development; Department of Internal Affairs; Finance and Planning Office; Department of Natural Resources and Environment; Department of Science and Technology; Department of Planning and Investment; Department of Finance; Communal Peoples Committee. Household Respondents The household survey has been conducted in the same 10 selected communes. As shown in the table 2, the number of household respondents per each commune is in a range of 30-44. Table 2. Household Respondents, N=Number of Respondents
Province Commune No. Respondents Soc Trang Bac Lieu Vinh Hau A N=34 Ca Mau La m Hai N =36 D at Moi N =34 Kien Giang Bin Binh h Son Giang N= N=4 41 4 An Giang P hu Hoi N =30 Ph u Huu N =33 Vi Vin Vin nh Hai h Tan h Hau N= N= N= 42 39 44

2.1.2 Sample Characteristics Gender: Even that the survey aims to access the perception of each respondent group equally in terms of the proportion of male and female. However, as shown in the table 3, the majority gender of respondents is male, accounting for almost 61% of the overall sample. Meanwhile, female respondents stand at roughly 39%. The level of education: In overall sample of 632 respondents, 12.4% of respondents are illiterate, 12.5% are those who completed primary school, 14.8% are those who finished secondary school. The percentage of people who finished high school is at 19.6%, slightly more than that of those who have a lower education. The percentage of graduate people is 35%, nearly twice as much as that of a lower education. Postgraduate people just represent only 3% of the overall sample and all of them are central officials. Almost all local officials are graduated. With regards to household respondents, it is worth mentioning that there is a high percentage of illiteracy in Soc Trang (44.9%) and An Giang (29%). Table 3. Sample Characteristics (Gender, Education, Age, and Ethnicity), Unit: %
Surveyed Site Gender Primary School Male Illiterate Female Education Secondary School Postgraduate 18-35 years old High School Graduate Age 36-50 years old above 50 years old Khmer Ethnicity Kinh
8 8.6% 4 7.5% 3 5.4% 5 1 2.9% 2 3 3.9% 3 6.3% 1 4.8% 9 1 1.3% 8 .3% 3 .1% 8 .5% 1 5 .3% 2

Respondent

Soc Resident Trang Bac Lieu Ca Mau Kien

3.3% 7.5% 8.5%

7 1.5% 6 2.5% 6 6.7% 5

2 4.9% 3 0.0% 3 3.0% 4

4 6.9% 1 7.5% 1 5.6% 7

2 5.4% 1 3.8% 1 5.1% 1

1 2.8% 3 8.8% 3 3.8% 2

1 .0% 2 0.0% 3 .6% 4

0 .0% 1 .0% 2 .0% 7

0 5.3% 0 7.5% 0 1.7% 0

2 6.6% 1 5.0% 3

2 8.1% 3

Others
6

10

Giang An Giang Total Soc Trang Local Official Bac Lieu Ca Mau Kien Giang An Giang Total Central Official N (Observations) Total

2.3% 4 0.3% 6 1.1% 7 4.4% 7 0.0% 4 8.7% 5 4.6% 5 6.5% 6 0.7% 5 8.8% 381 6 0.9%

7.7% 5 9.7% 3 8.9% 2 5.6% 3 0.0% 5 1.4% 4 5.5% 4 3.5% 3 9.3% 4 1.2% 245 3 9.1%

.0% 2 9.0% 2 0.1% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 77 1 2.4%

7.4% 5 3.2% 2 4.8% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 95 1 5.2%

2.1% 1 1.3% 2 4.0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 92 1 4.8%

6.5% 6 .5% 2 6.9% 2 .6% 1 7.5% 1 0.8% 1 1.4% 4 .4% 9 .2% 0 .0% 122 1 9.6%

.0% 0 .0% 4 .2% 9 7.4% 8 2.5% 8 9.2% 8 8.6% 9 5.7% 9 0.8% 4 4.1% 218 3 5.0%

.0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 0 .0% 5 5.9% 19 3 .0%

7.0% 1 9.4% 3 1.1% 3 5.9% 5 0.0% 5 9.5% 5 6.8% 8 0.4% 5 7.3% 5 1.4% 256 4 0.8%

6.3% 4 8.4% 3 1.4% 3 8.5% 3 0.0% 2 9.7% 2 7.3% 1 3.0% 2 7.2% 2 8.6% 187 2 9.8%

6.7% 3 2.3% 3 7.6% 2 5.6% 2 0.0% 1 0.8% 1 5.9% 6 .5% 1 5.5% 2 0.0% 184 2 9.3%

.5% 0 .0% 2 5.1% 5 .1% 2 .5% 0 .0% 4 .6% 0 .0% 2 .4% 0 .0% 102 1 6.1%

3.0% 1 00% 7 2.0% 9 4.9% 9 5.0% 1 00% 9 3.2% 1 00% 9 6.6% 1 00% 517 8 1.8%

.5% 0 .0% 2 .9% 0 .0% 2 .5% 0 .0% 2 .3% 0 .0% 1 .0% 0 .0% 13 2 .1%

Age: all respondents gave their age, ranging from 18 years old to 83 years old with the mean of 40.5 years old. The average age of household respondents is 43.8 years old, much older than the average age of local officials (35.2 years old) and central official (34.8 years old). As much as a little over 40% of the respondents are in the age range 18-35. The percentages of the respondents aged 36-50 and respondents who are older than 50 is almost 30%. Ethnicity: The respondents of the overall sample are mainly Kinh and Khmer people. As much as 81.8% of the respondents are Kinh, and slightly more than 16% respondents are Khmer and other ethnic minority groups are identified include Chinese and Cham.

2.1.3 Socio-economic characteristics of the Study Sites Assets: Television is the most popular asset that the surveyed households have. More than 80% of the respondents own television sets at their home. Many people live in the Mekong River Delta also have canoes or boats used for their living. A bit more than 20% of them have the one. The percentage of people has radio sets are a little bit less than people owing canoes/boats, at nearly 18%. On the other hand, a few people in the region have their own computers, constitute around 7% of the population. Figure 2. Household's Assets

11

80.8%

17.9% 7.3% Tivi Radio Computer

20.5%

Canoes/Boat

Housing: There is a quite low percentage that people have permanent houses. It is just 21% compared with 36% as having temporary house and as much as 43% as having semi-permanent house. Figure 3. Household Housing Condition
Permanent House, 21% Temporay House, 36% Semi-Permanent House, 43%

Household Poverty: Poor and nearly poor households are up to 40% of total surveyed respondents. Although 54% of the respondents are middle income households, well-off households are much less than that, just about 5%. Figure 4. Household Poverty
Well-off Household, 5% Poor Household, 29%

Middle Income Household, 54%

Near Poor Household, 11%

Main Occupation: The main occupation categories in the region are aquaculture and rice farming. More than 30% respondents are aquaculture farmers, and roughly 20% are rice farmers. Also, it is witnessed a high percentage that people are seasonal workers, is a bit more than 24%. 12

Nonetheless, other jobs as capture fisheries, forestry, service or people doing as permanent workers are much less than the above ones. Less than 8% of them have such kind of job in the region. Figure 5. Household's Main Occupation
31.3% 24.7% 20.0% 7.0% 7.7% 3.7% Forestry Service Seasonal Worker

5.0% 0.7% Permanent Worker Others

Rice Farmer Aquaculture Capture Farmer Fisheries

2.2 Perception on climate change knowledge

To access the perception of the respondents about climate change, several questions were prepared based on following criteria: perception about the frequency of some weather events occurred in recent years, awareness about the term climate change, frequency of access to climate change information, information channels, cause of climate change and the impacts of climate change to income, livelihood and health of the respondents. The following part describes the analyzed results on the perception of three key stakeholders including the residents, the local officials at the five provinces and the central officials of key ministries. 2.2.1 Perception of the local residents on climate change knowledge Frequency level of weather events When asked to give their opinion about the situation (more often, unchanged or less often) of weather events including storm, flood, temperature, landslide, drought, the flow of river and high tide in recent times, most residents claims that the weather is becoming more severe due to a higher level of frequency of these weather events. About 89.4%, of local residents in five provinces claim that air temperature has a higher amplitude in recent times. Meanwhile, 87.6% and 86% of the residents claims that storm and flood happen more often, respectively. Only few ratio of residents claims these weather/natural events occur less often compared to the past (Fig. 6). Figure 6. Perception of residents on frequency level some weather events

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High tide Water flow of the river Drought Tempertature fluctuation Landslide Flood Storm 0% 20% 56.1%

80.4% 35.9% 76.2% 89.4% 67.5% 86.0% 87.6% 40% 60%

14.9%

4.7%

8.1% More 15.9% 7.9% 8.1% 2.5% Unchanged Less

23.2%

9.3% 9.3% 4.7%

5.6% 6.8% 80% 100%

The Chi square analysis also indicates that there is a statistically significant relationship between the location of the resident and their perception on the frequency of storm, flood, landslide and erosion, drought and high tide happened in recent years. Amongst the five provinces, An Giang residents claim highest number of frequency of storm and flood than others with 96% and 97%, respectively (Table 4). An Giang residents claim highest number of frequency level of landslide Figure 7. Landslide in Phu Huu commune, An Phu, An (80.6%), meanwhile the lowest Giang number belongs to Soc Trang. This number reflects the geographical location of these provinces since An Giang is located in the upstream of Hau River (a main branch of Mekong River). This location Giang more prone to annual landslides. The other sample provinces are located in the downstream where they benefit from alluvia flowed from the upstream. The secondary data and field survey also prove this assumption (Fig 7). Gender influences on the perception of the residents on drought and high tide. On the other hand, there is a significant difference between male and female over their perception on drought and high tide. Females claim more droughts happened in their place than males doe with 85.5% of female compared to 70% of male. Women in the Mekong delta or in Vietnam in general are highly involved in agriculture activities while man highly participate in other sectors like construction and fishery. Therefore, it is likely those women are more aware than man because they directly and daily are impacted by such weather events.

14

Age has impacts on the perception of the residents on the land slide and erosion and high tide. The older people tend to claim higher frequency of landslides. 78.4% of residents above 50 years old and 86% of residents from above 50 years old. Ethnicity also has an impact on the residents perception on temperature fluctuation, landslide, drought and river flow amongst the three ethnic groups, Kinh people claim the highest frequency of landslide and erosion with 69.9%, followed by Khmer group with 60.9%. Kinh people also claim a higher fluctuation of temperature at the present compared to the past in which 93.3% of them report that the temperature in their region has abnormally changed in recent years. Table 4. Results of Chi square test on the relationship between weather events and socioeconomic characteristics
Location Storm Flood Landslide Temperature fluctuation Drought River flow High tide
2=18.698; Sig=.017 2=24.894; Sig=.002 2=32.595; Sig=0.00 2 =14.849 Sig=.062 2 = 22.946; Sig= .003 2 = 21.382 Sig=.006 2 = 38.309 Sig=.000

Gender
2= 740; Sig=.691 2=3.585; Sig=.167 2= 0.820; Sig=0.664 2 = 2.067; Sig=.356 2= 8.691; Sig=.013 2 = .870 Sig=.279 2 = 8.168 Sig=.017

Education
2=3.353; Sig=.910 2=7.272; Sig=.508 2 =11.561; Sig=.172 2 = 6.662; Sig=.574 2= 5.814 Sig= .668 2 = 13.171 Sig=.106 2 = 6.216 Sig=.623

Household economic
2=3.850; Sig=.697 2=2.662; Sig=.850 2= 3.573; Sig=.734 2 = 1.033; Sig=.984) 2= 8.164 Sig=.226 2 = 10.540 Sig=.104 2 =.708 Sig=.994

Occupation
2 = 14.555; Sig= .409 2=8.268; Sig=.875 2=17.519; Sig=.230 2 = 12.282; Sig=.584 2= 11.232 Sig=.668 2 = 12.754 Sig=.387 2 = 12.423 Sig=.412

Age
2=3.065; Sig=.547 2=3.690; Sig=.450 2 =17.130; Sig=.002 2 = 4.919; Sig=.296 2= 8.212 Sig= .084 2 = 6.428 Sig=.169 2 = 10.576 Sig=.032

Ethnicity
2=4.307; Sig=.366 2=4.658; Sig=.324 2 =18.598; Sig=.001 2 = 20.203; Sig=.000 2= 20.901 Sig=.000 2 = 11.298 Sig=.023 2 = 1.358 Sig=.851

The location does not relate to the perception of residents on the temperature fluctuation. In other word residents in the five provinces have the same perception whether they live in Soc Trang or Ca Mau or other province. This result indicates the fact that all five provinces are located in one region- the Mekong delta. Therefore, it would be no significant difference in terms of temperature fluctuation. There is no statistically significant relationship between gender and the perception on the frequency of storm, flood, landslide and erosion, temperature fluctuation and river flow happened in the five provinces or the perception of respondents are independent whether they are male or female. The level of education, household economic status and occupation do not influence the perception of residents on storm, landslide and erosion, temperature fluctuation, drought, change of river flow and high tide. Age does not impact on the perception of the residents on storm, flood, temperature fluctuation, drought and river flow. Ethnicity does not impact on the perception of resident on storm, flood and high tide. In other word, the opinion of the residents about the frequency level of storm, flood and high tide

15

happened in the five provinces are not statistically correlated with which ethnic group the residents belong to. Perception on the term Climate change The residents in all five provinces were asked whether they have ever heard about the term climate change in order to explore their knowledge on this issue. In recent years both the central and local government did intense awareness raising campaigns on climate change through various channels, typically via the television and radio. About 68% of interviewed residents report that they have ever heard about the term climate change (256/378 residents) (Fig.8). Accounting for this number is that many Khmer and other minor ethnic people do not really know exactly the Figure 8. Perception of the residents on term climate change in Vietnamese (official the term Climate change language) while they are still aware of climate change in their own language, and there are many residents do not have opportunity to access to information from the TV, radio or newspaper because they are often the poor or live in the remote areas. In order to figure out the relationship between socio-economic characteristics of residents and their answer, the crosstab analysis is used with the significance level of 0.05. The results from Chi square analysis indicate that the location, level of education, household economic status, occupation and ethnicity statistically significantly influence the answer of the respondents (Table 5). On the contrary, gender and age do not influence on the answer of respondents about the term climate change. Table 5. Chi square test on the term climate change
Chi square value and significance level Location 2 = 57.475 Sig=.000 Gender 2 = 1.974 Sig=.160 Education 2 = 73.356 Sig=.000 Household economic 2 = 48.140 Sig=.000 Occupation 2 = 62.631 Sig=.000 Age 2 = 2.646 Sig=.266 Ethnicity 2 = 14.172 Sig=.001

In terms of location, residents in Bac Lieu have heard about the terms climate change account for the highest percentage (86.3%). Meanwhile An Giang and Soc Trang have the lowest number of people who have ever heard about the terms with 40% and 48%, respectively. The respondents who have a higher level of education more often tend to know about the terms of climate change than the lower group. 88.3% of respondents who have continued their education after high school and have studied at the high school know about the term, accordingly. Only 36.5% of respondent who are illiterate have heard about the terms climate change. 16

In terms of occupation, there are differences amongst the residents in knowing about the terms climate change regarding their occupation. While 93% of permanent workers have heard about the terms, only 35% of fishermen have. In fact, the fishermen often go fishing for a long time either on the river or the sea. Thus they have less opportunity to access to information on the climate change than other groups. Amongst seasonal workers, only 34% of them have heard about climate change because this group is often poor who have little pieces of land or no land to do farming activities (Fig.9). While about 44.9% of poor households have ever heard about the terms climate change, the middle income households account for a highest ratio with 81.6%. The result could be understood that the poor households usually do not often access to in the information about climate change through various channels, typically through the television and radio. Figure 9. Perception on the terms climate change among occupations
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 35% 34% 71% 85% 73% 64% Ever heard about climte change 93%

Kinh people know better than other groups, about 72.8% of Kinh residents have heard about climate change, while only 51.6% of Khmer group have. As analyzed above, Khmer are considered as minor ethnic group in Vietnam and they often speak Khmer languages rather than Vietnamese. Therefore, many Khmer respondents do not know exactly the term as well as its meaning. Frequency of information assessment to climate change The respondents who have heard/know about the term climate change continue to be asked about the frequency they access to this information. The Figure 10 indicates that 41% of residents who have often access to the information related to climate change about four times per month. And the number of respondents reduces accordingly by the frequency of information
Figure 10. Frequency of information access to climate change

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assessment. Results from Chi square test indicates that occupation, age and ethnicity do not influence on the frequency of information access of the respondents. It means that whether the respondents are seasonal worker or famer, whether they are old or young, Kinh or Khmer, their frequency accessing to information related to climate change are independent with those characteristics (Table 6) Table 6. Chi square test on the frequency of information access to climate change
Location 2 = 27.499 Sig=.007 Gender 2 = 7.992 Sig=.046 Education 2 = 25.388 Sig=.013 Household economic 2 = 22.456 Sig=.008 Occupation 2 = 29.242 Sig=.108 Age 2 = 12.243 Sig=.057 Ethnicity = 6.952 Sig=.325
2

Chi square value and significance level

Location, gender, education and household economic influence on the frequency of information access of the residents. Bac Lieu has the highest ration of residents who have accessed to climate change information about four times per month, accounting for 53.6% of the total respondents, while this ratio is just 28.8% in Kien Giang. Regarding gender, while 46.5% of respondents have accessed information related to climate change four times or more per month belong to male, only 31% of female respondents do. This result could indicate that men often access to information in general than women do. In terms of level of education, there is a clear difference amongst the five groups. The highest numbers of residents who access information on climate change about four times or more per month belong to those have just graduated secondary school, while those who have studied at a higher levels such as the high school and the university or college just accounts for 37% and 47%, accordingly (Fig 11). The numbers of respondents who just access the information about one time per year mostly belong to those who are illiterate with 38%.

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Figure 11. The frequency of information access to climate change information of different educational groups
60% 50.7% 50% 41.1% 40% 31.3% 30% 20% 10% 0% Illiterate Primary School Secondary School High School Higher Education 16.1% 37.5% 36.6% 4 times/month 1 time/month 2 times/year 15.1% 4.2% .0% 1 time/year 46.7%

The result also points out that the well household more often access information than the poorer ones. About 50% of well-off households report that they access information to climate change four times or more per month, while only 31% of poor households report the same answer. Information channels When asked the respondents those have heard about the term climate change to report the information channels that they have accessed information from, the major respondents have accessed information via the central and local media such as the TV and radio, accounting for 68% and 62% of the total claims, respectively (Fig.12) Surprisingly, only 11% of respondents claim that they have known about climate change from the poster or brochure and it is still lower than the ratio of those who have accessed information via the internet (13%). The local authority plays important role in terms of raising awareness about climate change to the residents since 40% of respondents claim that they have heard about the terms of climate change at the meetings organized by the local authority (at the commune and village level).

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Figure 12. Accessed channels to climate change information

80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 68% 62% 40% 26% 11% 19% 21% 13% 1% Accessed

Preferred information channels After asked what kind of the information channels that the residents have heard about the term climate change, the residents are also asked about their preferred channels if they would like to know further about climate change, the local media are considered as the most favored channel accounting for 63% of total respondents. In fact, there is a high ratio of Khmer people live in all five provinces. Therefore, they are more interested in watching the local TV channel that broadcasts in Khmer rather than in the central medial. Figure 13. Preferred channels to access to climate change information
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 57% 63% 38% 26% 14% 18% 10% 16% 1% Prefered channel

Perception on the causes of climate change The residents those have heard about the term climate change are continued to be asked about the main causes of climate change. In fact the cause of climate change is still on the debate whether it is triggered by human activities or natural occurrence. So that this study provides four answers for this questions: caused by human, by nature, buy both human and nature and dont know. About 39% of residents claim that both human and natural occurrence is the main cause leading to the change of the climate, accounting for the highest ratio of four answers. About 13% 20

of the respondents claim that they dont really know what the cause of climate change is (Fig 14). Figure 14. Perception of the residents on the cause of climate change
45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0% 39% 29% 19% 13% Cause of climate change

By human

By both nature and human

By nature

Don't know

The Chi square analysis indicates that location, the level of education, household economic status, occupation, age and the ethnicity significantly influence on the perception of the residents on the cause of climate change with the significance level of 0.05 (Table 7). Table 7. Chi square results of the perception of the residents on the cause of climate change
Location 2 =82.694
Sig=.000

Chi square value and significance level

Gender 2 =3.347
Sig=.341

Education 2 = 83.144
Sig=.000

Household economic 2 =50.512

Sig=.000

Occupation 2 =69.348
Sig=.000

Age 2 =14.450
Sig=.025

Ethnicity 2 =28.237
Sig=.000

While the proportion of residents in Soc Trang and An Giang who dont know about the cause of climate change account for the highest numbers amongst the five provinces with 31% and 25% of the resident within the province, respectively, the residents in Cau Mau likely know better than others. Similarly, the higher educated residents know better than the lower educated ones. For example, 63% of the graduated residents claim that climate change is caused by both human and natural occurrence, while 40% of illiterate residents don know about the cause. Only gender does not influence on the perception of the resident on the cause of climate change. In other words, whether the residents are male or female, their perception on the factor leading to climate change as they have heard or witnessed is the same. Perception of residents on the specific cause leading to climate change To access deeper understanding of the residents who have claimed that climate change is caused by human activities, the study continuously asks the residents about some specific causes leading to climate change such as the combustion of fossil fuel, deforestation, chemical production and agriculture activities. The results reveal that a high numbers of respondents claim that the main causes leading to climate change as a result of combustion of fossil fuel and deforestation with 42% and 48%, accordingly. Only 6% of respondents who have heard about the term of climate 21

change and have claimed the factor caused to climate change, are not able to point out specific cause (Fig 15). Figure 15. Perception of the residents on the specific cause of climate change
60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 42% 48% 27% 13% 6% Chemical production Don't know Specific cause of climate change

Combusion of Fossil fuel

Deforestation

Agriculture activities

Chi square analysis figures out that the location, the level of education, household economic status and occupation influence on the answers of the respondents on the specific causes leading to climate change, namely fossil fuel, deforestation, agriculture activities and chemical production. On the contrary, these factors doe not influence those who do not know what the answer is (Table 8).While gender does not influence on the perception of the respondents on any specific causes, ethnicity factor does. Age just influences on only the answer of fossil fuel. Table 8. Chi square analysis of the perception of the residents on the specific causes leading to climate change
Chi square value and significance level Fossil fuel Deforestation Agriculture activities Chemical production Dont know Household economic 2 =54.845 Sig=.000 2 =63.117 Sig=.000 2 =10.425 Sig=.015 2 =15.502 Sig=.001 2 =4.185 Sig=.242

Location 2 =79.624 Sig=.000 2 =83.157 Sig=.000 2 =30.191 Sig=.000 2 =41.031 Sig=.000 2 =7.195 Sig=.126

Gender 2 =.949 Sig=.330 2 =3.620 Sig=.057 2 =2.202 Sig=.138 2 =.007 Sig=.931 2 =1.588 Sig=.208

Education 2 =85.771 Sig=.000 2 =102.371 Sig=.000 2 =12.381 Sig=.015 2 =47.694 Sig=.000 2 =4.523 Sig=.340

Occupation 2 =41.692 Sig=.000 2 =50.333 Sig=.000 2 =14.246 Sig=.047 2 =27.986 Sig=.000 2 =3.287 Sig=.857

Age 2 =15.662 Sig=.000 2 =4.350 Sig=.114 2 =6.711 Sig=.035 2 =5.116 Sig=.077 2 =2.446 Sig=.294

Ethnicity 2 =40.835 Sig=.000 2 =30.373 Sig=.000 2 =6.711 Sig=.035 2 =15.215 Sig=.000 2 =14.353 Sig=.001

Perception on the impact of climate change at the local level Besides exploring the perception of local residents on definition of climate change, its causing factors, etc., it is important to know how they realize impacts of climate change on different areas in life such as in agricultural production, fisheries, forest and coastal ecosystem or health. With such purpose in mind, researchers asked local residents to evaluate the impact of climate change events on four areas in a scale of five, ranging from extremely adverse impact to extremely positive impact. On average, 42.5% and 37.2% of people asked say that climate change has extremely adverse and adverse impact on those four areas, respectively. 12% of 22

respondents claim that climate change creates no effect on such areas, and the rest 8.3% confirm that it do good to these areas (see Annex E for more details). Figure 16. Perception of residents on the impacts of climate change at the local level
Health
41.9% 37.7% 12.1% 3.8% 4.5%

Forest Fisheries, aquaculture Agricultural production 0%

30.3%

38.9%

20.8%

6.3% 3.6%

49.5%

35.3%

7.6% 6.0% 1.6%

48.4%

36.7%

7.6% 5.4% 1.9%

20% Adverse

40% No impact

60% Positive

80%

100%

Extremely adverse

Extremely positive

According to residents responses, fisheries, aquaculture and agricultural production are the most extremely adverse affected by climate change, with 49.5% and 48.4% of the total responses. Health and forest and coastal ecosystem continue that ranking with 41.9% and 30.3%. The proportion of respondents claiming negative impacts of climate change is quite similar among the four areas, ranging from 35% to 39% of total people asked. The impact of climate change is perceived to do positive and even extremely positive to those listed areas, especially to peoples health and the forest and coastal ecosystem. In particular, more than 8% of people asked agree that climate change has good and extremely good impact on health. The number is even higher when people evaluate the impact on forest and coastal ecosystem, with approximately 10% of respondents. (Figure 16) As can be seen from the table of Chi-square test results (Table 9), age has no correlation with the perception of local residents on impacts of climate change for the reason that it has significance levels greater than 0.05. Table 9. Results of Chi square analysis result on perception on the impact of climate change in different areas and socio-economic characteristics
Chi square value and significance level Agricultural production Fisheries and Aquaculture

Location 42.021 Sig.=.000 21.528 Sig.=.159

Gender 3.816 Sig.= .431 2.181 Sig.= .703

Education 10.156 Sig.= .858 22.312 Sig.= .133

Household economic .747 Sig.= .030 16.875 Sig.= .154

Occupation 49.932 Sig.= .007

Age 4.868 Sig.= .772

Ethnicity 18.602 Sig.=.017 8.422 Sig.=.393

48.744 11.236 Sig.= .009 Sig.= .189

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Forest and coastal ecosystem Health

38.626 Sig.=.001 37.033 Sig.=.002

4.607 Sig.= .330 17.022 Sig.= .002

16.561 Sig.= .415 40.922 Sig.= .001

16.440 Sig.= .172 13.868 Sig.= .309

44.955 Sig.= .022 37.378 Sig.= .111

14.762 Sig.= .064 12.659 Sig.= .124

20.684 Sig.=.008 23.076 Sig.=.003

There is a statistically significant difference on the perception of residents among five provinces on the impacts of climate change in agricultural production forest and coastal ecosystem and health. The extremely adverse and adverse impact on agricultural production perceived by An Giang residents (93%) are higher than in other provinces, for example Soc Trang (71%), Bac Lieu (85%). The proportion of those who do not see any effect on agricultural production tends to be higher in Ca Mau and Soc Trang (15-17%) compared to in others (lower than 4%). The impact on forest and coastal ecosystem are perceived more severely by people in Ca Mau Province, with 84% of respondents, much higher than in Soc Trang (44%) or in An Giang (66.6%). An Giang inhabitants thus tend to have clearer senses of what is visible or closer to their life can explain for this phenomenon. The main economic activity of most An Giang residents is agriculture, then they can realize the impact of climate change more clearly. Meanwhile, in Ca Mau where distribution of forest is highest, people tend so see the adverse impact of climate change on forest more than other province. Gender has influence on the perception of people on climate changes impacts on health. In general, women tend to have negative responses on the impact of climate change on their health. Approximately 90% of women see negative impact of climate change on health, about 9% of them think that there is no impact and the rest 1% see positive impact from climate change. On the contrary, men tend to see more good impact of climate change on health than women. Roughly 12.5% of female respondents find climate change do good to health, 13.8% see no impact, and 73.6% see positive and extremely positive impact (Figure 17). Figure 17. Perception on the impacts of climate change in terms of gender

Female

53.8%

34.9%

9.4%

1.9%

Male

34.0%

39.6%

13.8%

5.0%

7.5%

0% 20% 40% 60% Extremely adverse Adverse No impact Positive

80% 100% Extremely positive

Similarly, education level has some correlation with the perception on the impacts on health by climate change. The illiterate and people having primary education tend to think that the climate change does not have any impact on health more than those with higher than primary education 24

level do, i.e. secondary, high school or college/university and above. In fact, 31.7% of the unschooled give such response, while just 7.1% of respondents who are graduates agree with them. In addition, the respondents with college/university degree and high school education also see more positive effects of climate change than the other group, with about 14.3% and 15.4%, respectively (Figure 18). Figure 18. Perception on the impact of climate change in terms of level of education
Graduate High School Secondary School Primary School Illiterate 0% Extremely adverse 33.8% 31.7% 20% Adverse 39.7% 53.0% 47.7% 36.6% 40% No impact 60% Positive 64.3% 37.2% 34.8% 14.3% 7.1% 14.3% 7.7% 7.7% 7.7% 6.1%1.5%4.5% 12.3% 1.5% 4.6% 31.7% 80% 100% Extremely positive

Difference in household economic condition of residents influences the perception on climate changes effect on agricultural production. The highest rate of respondents sees the extremely adverse impact of climate change come from poor households, with 56.1%. The group of welloff respondents tends to see more positive or no impact on agriculture in comparison with the group of the poor, 35.2% compared to 14.6%, respectively. The economic condition of households does not have influence on the opinion with regards to how climate change affects fisheries, aquaculture, forest and coastal ecosystem and coastal ecosystem or health. Ethnicity has influence on the opinion of local residents towards how climate change affects agricultural production (Sig. =.017), forest and coastal ecosystem (Sig. = .008), and health (Sig. =.003) while it has no influence on perception regarding fisheries and aquaculture. Kinh people who are normally more educated and exposed to knowledge than Khmer and other ethnic groups, their expectations about different aspects therefore are higher than others. They tend to complain more and see things more negatively than other ethnic groups. In addition, it is the language barrier that makes ethnic minority people difficult to understand thoroughly about the term climate change, consequently their opinions on its impact are different from those of Kinh. In particular, over 88.8% of Kinh respondents claim that climate change has bad and extremely bad impact on the production of agriculture, while corresponding number of Khmer people is 72.3%. Similarly, 34.8% of Khmer respondents say climate change does not have any influence on the forest and coastal ecosystem, even 19.6% of them see the good impact of climate change. On the other hand, just 16.8% of Kinh respondents agree that climate change does nothing to the forest and coastal ecosystem, and 7.2% of them feel good impact of it.

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Perception of the residents on the impacts of climate change on their income In addition to access the perception of the residents on the impacts of climate change to several sectors as mentioned above, the study also asked the residents about the impacts of climate change on their income. Fig 19 below shows that about 75% of residents claim that their income has been reduced due to climate change. Of these, about 45% of them consider that their income has been much reduced. Accounting for this, their crops have been often suffered by natural disasters such as flood, storm and drought in recent years. About 12% of the residents claim that their income has been increased due to climate change. This result is understandable because these residents are aware that the rainfall has increased in recent time, thus its good for their crops. The Chi square analysis indicates that those factors: location, the level of education, household economics and occupation influence on the perception of the residents on the impacts of climate change on their income (Table 10). For example, the numbers of residents in An Giang who claim their income is much reduced by climate change is much higher than those in Kien Giang, accounting for 55% of Figure 19. Perception of the residents on the impacts of total residents. In fact, the climate change to their income surveyed residents in An Giang are pure farmers whose income is highly dependent on agriculture activities, while the surveyed residents in Kien Giang are diverse in their income generation. Therefore, the residents in An Giang recognize clearer about the impacts of climate change to their income and livelihood than others. Table 10. Chi square test on the perception of the residents on impacts of climate change to income
Location Chi square value and significance level 2=43.716 Sig. =.000 Gender 2=4.004 Sig. =.405 Education 2=34.645 Sig. =.004 Household economic 2 =29.938 Sig. =.003 Occupation 2=54.928 Sig. =.002 Age 2=12.894 Sig. =.116 Ethnicity 2=13.036 Sig. =.111

On the contrary, gender and ethnicity do not influence on the perception of the residents. It means that whether the residents are male or female, Kinh or Khmer, their perception is not statistically significant different. Perception on subjects of climate changes adverse impacts by gender and age group

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Residents in five provinces are asked to give opinion on the subject most affected by climate change in their family, with the aim to have a deeper insight into their perception on adverse impacts of climate change concerning gender and age. People tend to think that female is the weaker sex. The proportion of respondents in favor of the statement that women suffer more severely almost triples the remaining one. More than 72% of respondents agree that women are more severely impacted by climate change than men (Figure 20, 21).
Figure 20. Perception of residents on venerable gender group to climate change Figure 21. Perception of the residents on the vulnerable age group to climate change 2.3% 27.6% 72.4% Male Female 97.7%

The elderly and children Adolescents and Middle Ages

Similarly, the elderly and children are normally considered the most vulnerable subjects to different factors in the society, and the effect of climate change is not an exception. Approximately 98% of people asked say that it is the elderly and children who are affected more adversely by climate change than the other group (Figure 21). Chi-square analysis with the significant level of 0.05 is also used to find out about the correlation between the perception of the local residents and socio-economic features. Concerning gender issue, location, gender, household economic condition and ethnicity have Chi-square values () of 12.761, 11.891, 8.847, and 14.748, respectively, which are equivalent to smaller-than-0.05 significance levels. That means the difference in such socio-economic factors do have some influence on the diversity of peoples opinion. Neither the level of education, occupation nor age has any influence (Table 11). Whereas, in terms of age, except for the ethnicity, there is no correlation found between the perception of local residents on the subject of adverse impact of climate change and the remaining six factors due to the significance levels of such factors are greater than the significance level of 0.05. Table 11. Results of Chi square analysis on the perception of the local residents on the impacts of climate change to gender and age group.
Location 12.764 Sig.=.012 Age 8.690 Sig.=.069

Gender

Gender 11.891 Sig.= .001 0.022 Sig.= .881

Education 8.349 Sig.= .080 3.304 Sig.= .208

Household economic 8.847 Sig.= .031 3.230 Sig.= .358

Occupation 7.118 Sig.= .417 3.964 Sig.= .784

Age 2.874 Sig.= .238 0.605 Sig.= .739

Ethnicity 14.748 Sig.=.001 1 2.129 Sig.=.002

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Specifically, the proportion of male respondents in Soc Trang and Bac Lieu claiming that they are themselves suffering more severely from the effect of climate change is of the highest among provinces, with 46.9% and 28.3%, respectively. Meanwhile, in Kien Giang more than 80% of people asked gave contrary responses, i.e. it is women who are more adversely affected by climate change (Fig. 22). Figure 22. Perception of residents in five provinces on the impacts of climate change according to gender
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Soc Trang Bac Lieu Ca Mau Kien Giang An Giang 46.9% 28.3% 22.9% 18.7% 26.0%

The difference in gender also create disparities in opinion concerning whether respondents themselves or the other gender are the most adversely affected by climate change. Less than 17% of female respondands claim that male suffer more from climate change impacts. This result is confirmed by males answers -more than 64% saying that female are (Fig. 23). Figure 23. Residents perception on the impact of climate change to gender
100% 83.3% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% Male Female 35.7% 16.7% 64.3% Male affected Female affected

Regarding the perception on the subject of adverse climate change impacts in terms of age, ethnicity is the only factor significant enough to explain the difference in opinion of respondents. As can be seen in Fig. 24 nearly 100% of Kinh people agree that the elderly and children are more adversely subject to impact of climate change while the corresponding number of Khmer ones is 93.2%.

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Figure 24. Residents perception on subject of adverse impact of climate change by ethnicity
Others Kinh Khmer 0% 20% 90.0% 99.2% 93.2% 40% 60% 80% 6.8% 100% 10.0% .8%

The elderly and children

Adolescents and Middle Ages

29