A participatory land use planning approach (PLUP) was carried out in two villages
of the Mekong Delta coastal area. The PLUP was done twice (2002 and 2003). A
geographic information system (GIS) was used for analyzing the land use change,
the realization of the farmers’ preference, the preference change and the preference
conflicts between groups of aquaculture and agriculture farmers. Results show that
land use in the study area is very dynamic, farmers are flexible and there are
difference in preference of the agriculture farmers and the aquaculture farmers due
to differences in biophysical and economic considerations. The study results not
only valuable information about farmers’ perspective on land use to researchers and
local planners, but also experience in applying PLUP in the Mekong Delta