BPP Partnership Impact Series: Scaling climate resilient mangrove shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta
Since its launch, the Business Partnerships Platform (BPP) has worked with ambitious partners to deliver meaningful, lasting change in communities across the world. The BPP Partnership Impact Series celebrates the outcomes and lessons from our partnerships, highlighting their contributions to inclusive economic growth, resilience and sustainable development.
Our Climate Adaptation partnerships in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta focused on practical, market-based approaches that help communities adapt to climate change while strengthening livelihoods and ecosystems. This partnership combined mangrove restoration with certified shrimp production to build climate resilience and higher-value market access for smallholders in the Mekong Delta.
Integrated mangrove–shrimp farming strengthening livelihoods and coastal resilience in Vietnam
Shrimp farming is a critical source of income for coastal communities in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, particularly in Ca Mau Province, which produces more than 30 percent of the country’s shrimp. Yet smallholder farmers are increasingly exposed to climate risks, disease outbreaks and price volatility. At the same time, unregulated expansion of shrimp ponds has driven widespread mangrove loss, weakening natural coastal defences and accelerating shoreline erosion.
This partnership set out to address these interconnected challenges by supporting smallholder farmers to adopt Integrated Mangrove Shrimp (IMS) farming. IMS is a climate-resilient aquaculture system that combines shrimp production with extensive mangrove cover, improving biodiversity, stabilising pond ecosystems and enhancing long-term productivity. When certified to organic standards, IMS also helps unlock access to premium international markets.
By pairing farmer training with certification, and market linkages, the partnership aimed to strengthen the organic and resilient shrimp supply chain while restoring mangrove landscapes and advancing gender and social inclusion. In doing so, it demonstrates how climate adaptation can deliver environmental protection, resilient livelihoods and commercially viable outcomes at scale.
About the partnership
The partnership brought together Symmetry, Southern Shrimp JSC, the Vietnam Sustainable Shrimp Alliance and the Australian Government to support climate-resilient shrimp farming and mangrove restoration in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Implemented across smallholder farming communities in the Ca Mau Peninsula, the project combined farmer training, organic certification, Payment for Environmental Services (PES), enhanced market access and targeted financial and sanitation support. Activities focused on enabling smallholder farmers to transition to certified IMS practices, strengthen productivity and resilience, and connect to higher-value markets. The project also placed a strong emphasis on women’s inclusion through tailored training, enterprise development and improved access to safe sanitation.
Through an integrated approach that linked nature-based solutions with practical capacity building and commercial supply chains, the partnership demonstrated a scalable model for sustainable shrimp production that strengthens livelihoods, protects critical coastal ecosystems and opens access to premium international markets.
Highlights
Highlights from the BPP partnership included:
- Scaling climate-resilient aquaculture: Established 3,009 hectares of organic IMS, with 2,181 hectares already officially certified.
- Protecting and restoring mangroves: Improved mangrove management and coverage, strengthening coastal protection, enhancing biodiversity and improving carbon sequestration.
- Strengthening livelihoods: Supported 800 households to collectively increase income by over VND 99 million through access to premium markets.
- Advancing gender inclusion: Enhanced climate resilience capacity for 748 women through training on organic certification, climate and micro-financing management training.
- Improving health and environmental outcomes: Upgraded nearly 300 sanitation facilities, improving water quality, facilitating certification, and improving community health and women’s safety.
- Building market access: Established certified supply chains and off-take agreements, enabling smallholders to access premium international markets.
- Mobilising future finance: Identified and engaged impact and commercial investors, laying the groundwork for scaling IMS models and attracting climate finance, including EUR1.6 million from the European Commission for VSSA to expand its sustainable shrimp and coffee projects.
As the BPP partnership concludes, the work continues, with partners carrying forward a proven model, with scaled investment, for sustainable shrimp production across Vietnam’s coastal regions.
View the full partnership impact story below or download here.
