Disentangling the concepts of global climate change, adaptation, and human mobility: a political-ecological exploration in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta

ABSTRACT

The complex relationship between human mobility and global climate change remains contested. In this viewpoint, the themes of human mobility, adaptation and climate change are explored from a political ecology perspective. A framework of political ecology of human mobility in relation to climate change is applied to the context of Vietnam’s Mekong Delta (MKD). The Vietnamese government, popular media and academic studies often present the MKD in dystopian ways in which there is sometimes no more place for poor and landless farmers as a direct result of climate change. In 2019 and 2020, the MKD faced one of its most severe droughts in recent history largely tied to upstream hydropower development. In this viewpoint article, we contend that future studies can no longer establish a direct and causal relationship between climate change and human mobility, especially in light of these recent events. The underlying drivers as well as the broader context, which are shaped by political economy, market structures and forces, power relations, government policy, geopolitics, and transboundary water issues deserve a more prominent role in the analysis of human mobility patterns in the MKD and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Political ecology
• human mobility
• adaptation regimes
• Mekong Delta
• climate change
• environmental migration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 110-2636-H-003-007) and a seed grant from Utrecht University’s Water, Climate and Future Deltas Hub (entitled: ‘Human costs of shrinking deltas: Adaptation pathways of vulnerable groups to sea-level rise in three Asian deltas’).

Notes on contributors

Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak

Dr Mucahid Mustafa Bayrak is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geography of National Taiwan Normal University. For the past 10 years he has conducted research on development issues of Indigenous and local communities from a political ecology perspective in East and Southeast Asia. His research interests also include sustainable tourism management, climate resilience, and traditional ecological knowledge systems.

Danny Marks

Dr Danny Marks is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Politics and Policy in the School of Law and Government of Dublin City University. His research interests are political ecology, environmental justice, climate governance, and disaster risk reduction, with a focus on Southeast Asia.

Leon T. Hauser

Leon T. Hauser is a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Environmental Sciences of Leiden University in the Netherlands and previously assigned as an environmental research officer for Vietnam's Space Technology Institute (STI) working on capacity building for environmental monitoring through geospatial analysis. His research interests lie in monitoring and modelling of ecosystem services and natural capital with a regional focus on sustainable development in Vietnam.