In the 1980s, mangroves were seriously threatened by shrimp farming development in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. The main challenges is how to protect mangrove forests and develop the shrimp industry. At this time, integrated mangrove-shrimp farming is considered as the best way to address this issue as well as to promote sustainable developemnt of the shrimp industry. In this paper. using the case from Ca Mau province, we investigate the current development of mangrove shrimp farming system in this region. After group discussions and in-depth interviewa, we interviewed 82 households in two communites using structure questionnaires. Results show that although this system is very suitable for small scale farmers including resources and natural conditions, it has not brought economic efficiency as expected. Then, the discussion continues to point out which factors hinder the development of this system with the aim to assist farm households to balance benefits of both mangrove conservation and livelihood improvement.

Keywords: integrated mangrove-shrimp farming systems, sustainable development, livelihood, the Mekong Delta, Vietnam.