The Tam Giang-Cau Hai Lagoon system in Thua Thien Hue Province, Vietnam, with its 70 km length along the coast and its 22,000 ha of water surface is one of the largest systems of its kind in the world. The lagoon is considered to be very important for the development of the province as a whole. Moreover, the lagoon resources provide food security opportunities to the generally very poor people living in small boats (approximately 1,800 households) on and near the shores of this basin. Most of the hundreds of thousands of people living in the area are largely dependent of the activities they can carry out on the lagoon as aquaculture (shrimp, seaweed, carp), fisheries, transport and tourism.

However, all these activities put a high pressure on the aquatic environment and the natural resources it offers. The uncontrolled construction of shrimp ponds and the establishment of fixed gears make it more and more difficult to reach all areas of the lagoon; neighbouring agriculture land is affected by the salinity which increased as a result of the removal of primary dykes to create shrimp ponds. Farmers and fisherfolk are competing for the access of land and water resources because both want to diversify their activities and be less vulnerable in case of floods or bad harvests.

Government Decree 64/CP allows the local authorities to allocate land with "aquaculture potential" to individuals, however the resulting property rights are distributed very unequally. Another key problem in the lagoon is electric fishing, practiced extensively by many fisherfolk over the whole lagoon. Although there exists a ban on this type of activity by the local government the enforcement has proven to be ineffective so far.

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