Integrated land-use planning for sustainable agriculture and natural resources management in the Vietnamese Mekong delta

The greatest concern confronting resources managers for years in the Vietnamese Mekong delta was mismanagement of land use and natural resources. This paper considers the integrated land-use planning approach developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) to assess the suitability of agricultural production systems and examine socioeconomic factors affecting household (HH) land-use decision making and natural resources management in agricultural landscapes. Various data were spatially and socioeconomically gathered through HH survey and qualitative methods. The findings indicated that a large proportion of the area under existing production systems didn't match its land requirement and the resources management was partially effective due to socioeconomic driving forces. Land-use options and management measures were thus made upon the land suitability and socioeconomic analyses to secure the rural livelihoods in respect to restoration of degraded native ecosystems. This could only be realized if having institutional instruments and an improved awareness of farmers on land mapping units (LMU) through agricultural extension and credit assess services.