Women as Agents of Climate Adaptation: Gendered Nature-Based Solutions in Mekong Riverside Communities, Thailand

วณิชชา ณรงค์ชัย; อภิรดี วงศ์ศิริ; Thanh Thanh Phan

Authors

วณิชชา ณรงค์ชัย Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
อภิรดี วงศ์ศิริ Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Khon Kaen University, Thailand
Thanh Thanh Phan Institute for Human, Family and Gender Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam.

Keywords:

gendered climate adaptation, nature-based solutions, traditional ecological knowledge, Mekong River Basin

Abstract

This study explores women's roles as agents of climate adaptation in riparian communities along the Mekong River in Rattanawapi District, Nong Khai Province, Thailand. Using a qualitative research design grounded in Feminist Political Ecology, data were generated through semi-structured in-depth interviews with 14 key informants and focus group discussions with 86 community members (total n = 100), and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The study focuses on how women develop, negotiate, and enact adaptive strategies in response to intensifying hydro climatic disruption, including extreme heat, erratic precipitation, and growing uncertainty in Mekong River flow regimes driven by both climatic variability and upstream and tributary hydropower development. The findings identify four interrelated domains of women's adaptive agency: household-level resource and risk management; stewardship and intergenerational transmission of Traditional Ecological Knowledge; coordination and governance of social networks; and leadership in applied adaptive innovation. Across these domains, women's practices, including local seed conservation, integrated rice–fish cultivation, the use of compost, manure, and mixed cropping, and community-based fisheries governance, align with the core principles of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and may be understood as grassroots NbS that sustain both livelihoods and ecosystem functions. Yet this adaptation labor remains institutionally unrecognized and structurally undervalued, and women disproportionately absorb the costs of household resilience during climate shocks. The study concludes that climate adaptation policy in transboundary river context should formally recognize, resource, and support women’s adaptive roles, moving beyond deficit-oriented vulnerability framings towards gender-responsive governance that treats women’s agency as foundation for equitable and sustainable adaptation.

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