HOUSEHOLD LIVELIHOODS OF LOCAL ETHNIC PEOPLE IN VIETNAM - LAO BORDER AREA: CURRENT SITUATION AND PROBLEMS IN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

After more than 30 years of Reform, the border area of Vietnam - Lao gained great achievements in economics and poverty alleviation, but facing with the degradation of natural resources and traditional livelihood space, and posing persistent challenges to sustainable development. Based on perspectives of human ecology and sustainable livelihoods, using the case study results in Bờ Y commune, Ngọc Hồi district, Kon Tum province, the paper argued that under impacts of the previous migration policies and “in-place production and settlement” policies and the rural industrialization and modernization process, the livelihood space - forest and village, community cohesion, and traditional culture of the Brâu - a local ethnic people in the Central Highlands has profoundly changed, leading to a radical shift in the mode of livelihoods. However, the quality of human resources, occupational structure, and income has not yet met the goal of sustainable livelihoods. This requires an adjustment of viewpoints and approaches in policy making and implementation, emphasizing the active and full participation of this disadvantageous and vulnerable community in related development issues.

Keywords: sustainable livelihood, local ethnic people, the Central Highlands, Brâu people, traditional livelihood space