Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Dissertation of Minh Dao Nguyen

Agricultural Commercialization and Deforestation in Upland Areas. An Examination from Son La province, Vietnam

Start: 01/2010
End: 12/2013

Growing agricultural commercialization and deforestation are two emerging phenomena, popular not only in rural mountainous regions of Vietnam, but also in other developing countries’ in Southeast Asia. While many prior researches put focuses on separately single phenomenon, either on agricultural commercialization or on deforestation, however, the interrelationship, and the tendencies of influences between them seem to be unclear until now. Thus, finding sufficient explanations to fill that gap is an expected contribution of this research. We deal with research problems under the light of neoclassical economics and new institutional economics. Methodologically, an approach of interdisciplinary are helpful to make us understood the upland context where problems arising. Both quantitative and qualitative anlysis are applied in this research. Regression models (with analyses of time-series data, and cross-sectional data) are applied to explore the interrelationship among agricultural commercialization, deforestation, and other related variables. Time-series data analysis is undertaken upon the country data on agriculture and forestry over last twenty years. Three levels of comparative analyses with cross-sectional data are done in order to compare the differences among the related subjects upon natural, socio-economic conditions: A cross-province analysis of tropical deforestation among six ecological regions at the country level (based on statistical data of 64 provinces of the country; cities/provinces without forests are eliminated from the sample); A cross-commune analysis of tropical deforestation among districts at the province level (based on statistical data of all communes of Son La province); and a cross-household analysis among groups of households at the community level (based on empirical data collected from sites – questionnaire survey). Besides, qualitative analysis is necessary to deepen our understanding on the nature of given phenomena and their interrelations. It is as integral supplementary to quantitative analysis, for the success of this research. Moreover, using of satellite images for each three-/or five-year is the way of visual illustration for the changes in land use of Son La and sites. Expected findings of the study bear important policy relevance for agricultural commercialization, and forest conservation in Son La, and other upland areas of Vietnam.

Researcher: Nguyen, Minh Dao

Cooperation partners:

Advisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Konrad Hagedorn

Funding: Vietnamese Government and DAAD


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