The mangrove flora in the Mekong Delta has function is to prevent seas waves and winds to protect sea dykes, roads and to increase adaptive capacity to climate change impacts. Especially, mangrove forest in coastal areas play an important role in protecting coastal banks and rivers? mouth, limiting erosion and typhoon impacts as well as defending specific upland crop areas.

In recent years, mangrove forest has been degraded and impacted by climate change, erosion, sea level rise associated with many human activities such as deforestation for farming and aquaculture, wood exploitation, and deforestation due to soil worm hunting.

Today, many potential impacts continue to threaten the mangrove ecosystem because farmers? strategies and livelihood activities (forest protectors) are various and unsustainable. This paper analyses the sustainability and economic efficiency of the integrated shrimp-forest system, and then proposes some technical solutions to improve local inhabitants? livelihoods while sustaining coastal mangrove ecosystems in the study areas.

Research results hope to fill the current gap in knowledge relating to policies on forest land allocation and community based mangrove forest management. This helps forest managers adjust suitably policies on forest management to sustainably conserve and develop the mangrove forests in the Mekong Delta.