Infrastructure construction, land acquisition and other types of development across the developing world
are increasingly displacing local residents, and in most cases affected people suffer at least short-term
impoverishment. Despite favorable legislation and safeguards to lesson risks, it is difficult for many
displaced residents to recover their previous livelihoods and living conditions due to loss of land, homes,
jobs, and access to natural resources; food insecurity; heightened morbidity; economic marginalization and
the loss of social ties.
In order to understand more about the process and challenges facing adaptation after resettlement and to
identify approaches that promise improved outcomes, the author conducted research during 10 field visits
from 2011 to 2014 to two adjacent ethnic minority communities in an upland region of Quang Nam
province in central Vietnam that were resettled due to construction of a hydropower dam. From household
surveys, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews it was learned that residents’ limited
participation in resettlement decision-making was a contributing factor in the construction of inappropriate
housing and in resettlement in sites that were vulnerable to disaster risks. It was also determined that the
major impediments to restoring livelihoods and food security were the lack of productive land and
constricted access to forests and fisheries.
A community capitals approach based on a sustainable livelihoods framework was applied to obtain a more
nuanced understanding of the impacts of displacement, yielding the following findings: The resettled
ethnic minority communities benefited from improved physical capital in terms of electricity, a school,
roads and other infrastructure, and they maintained robust social and cultural capital, as they
operationalized indigenous skills to improve their received housing and to collectively build and maintain
a traditional community house, which became a focal point of each village. However, due to weak human
and natural capital they could not respond successfully to displacement by diversifying crops, practicing
new skills and livelihoods, or migrating for employment. Furthermore, due to the lack of sufficient arable
land the residents burned protected forest land for conversion to swidden fields, leading to increased
deforestation. The hydropower authority provided insufficient compensation and poor quality housing and
livelihood training by the local government was inadequate in enabling residents to diversify income
sources.
These inherent limitations of the displaced communities and the local government underscored a
compelling need for the involvement and expertise of external stakeholders. The latter chapters of the
thesis explore the potential benefits that can be obtained by including a variety of stakeholders in
resettlement, including the hydropower authority; international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the
Asian Development Bank; domestic non-governmental organizations; lake basin management committees;
and university centers for development assistance.