By Thanh Duong and David Blake
An introduction to the Khmer community
The Vietnamese portion of the Mekong Delta (VMD) has a long history of settlement by people of Khmer ethnicity, that was concurrent with and post-dates the archaeologically rich culture of Óc-Eo [1]. This culture was centred on a cluster of prominent hills rising out of the marshy delta landscape just south of the present-day border of Cambodia and Vietnam, thought to have flourished between the 2nd century BC and 12th century CE. As the Angkor kingdom rose, Khmers likely settled across the higher ground and river banks of the largely untamed and geomorphologically young Delta, practicing a mix of farming, fishing, harvesting the rich wetlands resources and trading-based livelihoods, with strong links to both inland and overseas states. Ethnic Kinh peoples are comparative latecomers to the Delta, only settling from the late 18th century on, under the Nguyen dynasty expansion southwards (known as “nam tiến”) and continuing under French colonisation.
Today, the Khmer community comprises the fourth largest minority community in the VMD with a population of over 1.5 million people. Approximately 80% of the Khmer population lives in rural villages separate from Kinh communities, preserving their language, culture and traditions, while following Therevada Buddhism. While state-led policies have attempted to assimilate the Khmer and other ethnic minority groups into the dominant Kinh culture and polity, the Khmer in particular have remained somewhat resistant to these efforts. On one hand, this could be seen as limiting opportunities to improve their socio-economic standing within wider Vietnamese society, such as via adoption of the Vietnamese language, but on the other hand it points to a desire to maintain a distinct ethnic identity and cultural tradition. However, there is no doubt that the Khmer communities lag behind in terms of educational achievement, employment prospects and access to social welfare, resulting in the highest poverty rate in the VMD of any ethnic community.
Livelihoods of the Khmer community in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta wetland
The VMD wetlands hold a special cultural and economic significance for the Khmer community, that can be traced back to earlier times of close livelihood dependence. In the present time, intensive rice cultivation has become the mainstay crop of nearly all farmers in the Delta,but not so long ago a wide variety of other non-agricultural wetlands resources were harvested, including an impressive diversity of aquatic plants and animals, in particular fish. Whatever the season, people could harvest abundant species of cultivated and wild products reliant on local ecological knowledge handed down from generation to generation, finely tuned to local conditions. Floating rice cultivation was a mainstay of Khmer farmers several generations ago, using traditional varieties that were adapted to annual floods, but is rarely seen nowadays. In the past, paid employment in rural areas was rather scarce, so fishing and collecting decorative and edible aquatic plants such as water lily, lotus seeds, flowers of Sesbania sesban (see Image 2), and a variety of other species, formed the basis of household food and financial security for Khmer communities. Elements of these activities survive to the present, albeit in an ecologically less diverse landscape and isolated in specific locations.
Khmer traditional livelihoods increasingly stressed from multiple external threats
In the context of tremendous social, economic, environmental, and climatic changes both nationally and regionally, the Khmer minority are facing a range of challenges to their distinctive cultural identity. These include environmental changes such as altered hydrology and climate patterns, which affect the quality and quantity of crop yields. Because Khmer farmers have relatively smaller landholdings that the majority Kinh, the former tend to be more vulnerable to external economic or environmental shocks , such as rice price falls or severe floods or droughts. As a result, they tend to have fewer coping strategies and are more likely to fall into debt, be forced to sell landand migrate to undertake low-paid work in Vietnam’s growing cities.
Seeking alternative, off-farm employment opportunities is often more of a struggle for the Khmer, due to their less powerful status in Vietnamese society. Mechanization has led to lower demands for manual labor in agriculture, such as harvesting rice, and it is increasingly hard for landless Khmers to find on-farm hired work. Due to their relatively lower education and skill levels, Khmer migrants often find it harder to secure employment than their Kinh counterparts, and may be exploited. Additionally, living conditions for urban migrants can often be poor, unsanitary and unsafe , due to a lack of affordable social housing.
Incomplete solutions applied
In a bid to address the economic situation of some ethnic minority groups, the government has issued several supportive policies and programs, that may alleviate poverty and improve livelihoods. Practical measures have included the provision of loans, develop infrastructure projects including housing, improved sanitation, and health care services, and support for employment. Results have been rather mixed, with on the one hand, evidence of some reduction in the poverty rates and improvements in living conditions of Khmer households. But on the other hand, there are still a high number of Khmer people who are unemployed, have unstable jobs, and live in poor conditions. This raises questions about the relevance and effectiveness of current programs and policies in targeting those in most need of assistance.
The Khmer communities of the VMD have developed a distinctive culture and identity over many centuries of settlement that is evident in their approach to agriculture and natural resources management, especially water and wetlands. Well-meaning government programs that have encouraged the Khmer to adopt more intensive approaches to agricultural cultivation and natural resources exploitation have often been counter-productive. This has led to environmental decline and erosion of wetlands biodiversity, with negative consequences on livelihoods sustainability, making communities morevulnerable to external shocks, such as from climate disasters. Hence, it may be time to re-consider the specific needs of the Khmer minority withinwider Vietnamese society and more carefully tailor policy responses and development programmes based on their specific context. , involving the communities themselves in decision-making at every stage. This would imply promoting meaningful participation of local resource users, whatever their ethnicity,in all aspects of water and wetlands management.
References:
[1] Refer to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93c_Eo
[2] Photo source: https://khmerstream.info/tap-tuc-xuat-gia-bao-hieu-cua-nguoi-khmer/
[4] Photo source:https://dulichthaiduong.com/lich-trinh-kham-pha-song-nuoc-tien-giang-trong-2-ngay-tet.html
[5] Photo source: Photo taken by author
[6] Photo source: https://zingnews.vn/nguoi-mien-tay-len-sai-gon-gat-lua-thue-kiem-tien-tieu-tet-post506925.html
Read more at the official website of the BRIMOFOT project: https://brimofot.wixsite.com/offical
the BRIMOFOT: Bringing more than food to the table: precipitating meaningful change in gender and social equity-focused participation in trans-boundary Mekong Delta wetlands management.
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