Socio-economic and environmental impacts of land acquisition for tourism development in Vietnam

Abstract

AbstractLike in many countries around the world, Vietnam’s tourism development has been a driver for land acquisitions. In the process of land acquisition, according to the introduction of the 2013 Land Law, affected people in Vietnam have gained more negotiation power and better compensation deals. Nevertheless, the impacts of land acquisition on local socio-economic and environmental conditions remain controversial. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the following research questions: (1) Has there been a difference in the practice of land acquisition before and after the introduction of the new law? (2) Has there been a difference in local socio-economic conditions following land acquisitions before and after the introduction of the new law? and (3) How does the land acquisition process impact local people from the perspective of sustainable development? Two cases of tourism development were used in this study to illustrate the differences. The findings showed that, although there were differences in land acquisition between the two case studies due to the reform of the 2013 Land Law, the changes in the living conditions of affected communities in the two cases were not significant. Secondly, the study found that participation and compensation are the two factors that lead to socio-economic and environmental effects concerning issues of land price, local safety, and pollution in the land acquisition process. Although this study is centred on the Vietnamese context, the results could well be useful for a broader context, especially because the negative impact of land acquisition processes for tourism development on local people has become a serious issue in many countries.

Keywords

• Vietnam
• land acquisition
• tourism
• land law
• sustainable development