Lessons from a Community Development Expert

A conversation with Dr. Chu Manh Trinh

Dr. Chu Manh Trinh is a leader in natural resource management and community-led development in Vietnam. He received his Ph.D. as a Fulbright scholar at the University of South Carolina and has been a researcher at Cu Lao Cham Marine Protected Areas and faculty at various universities in central Vietnam since. His passion is teaching and working alongside communities. Mr. Trinh has been an inspiration to many and we are lucky to have him co-teach portions of both our SE Asia and Vietnam programs.

Below is an interview conducted by Phạm Phương Thảo, a member of the InPlace LEAD Board and alumni of the Vietnam program. 

1.People usually call you “thầy Trinh” (teacher), how do you define yourself to be a teacher or an expert in community engagement and the conservation of natural resources?

Oh people sometimes call me Landcrab teacher or Tourism teacher or even Waste teacher...It doesn’t matter to me to have any title, I don’t think it is important!

2. What qualifications do you think a community leader should have?

First, leaders need to build trust in the community. Then they should connect all stakeholders/resources to a movement/initiative inside the community. Taking action helps build trust and should be directed by the local community. Second, they have to get a certain knowledge of the field that they are working in with the community. Third, they should put the benefit of the community first and empower the community in decision-making. A community leader also needs to have good teamwork skills and know-how to motivate their team to give ideas or make contributions. I call all of these “skills-knowledge-attitude” of a community leader. Also, I think they should put a conservation perspective into community work, as environmental protection is one of the factors to assess the development of a community and necessary for peoples’ livelihoods. 

3. What's your background in community development?

I studied biology, nature, environment, and human ecology which makes my work much easier as I can see the reciprocal relationships and shared benefits between nature and human beings. I think this is an important factor for sustainable community development. I also think whoever works in community or natural resource management needs to study conservation, biology, ecology, or the promotion of cultural values.

4. How did you end up leading this course?

I learned about conservation and preserving resources to serve human beings, but then I found that it’s the behavior of humans that decides the values of nature. When I learned about asset-based community development (ABCD) or took courses about community work as a tool to motivate people to find out their values, I knew it would be a tool in conservation and community development. Conservation serves a higher human benefit and makes the economy more sustainable. My main focus is still conservation and using ABCD to approach the community to understand the relationship between conservation and development. The green economy can serve the long-term demands of the community, through the harmony between nature and humans. 

5. What keeps you doing the work?

The relationship between conservation and human development. When humans find and keep that harmony, they can meet and keep their basic livelihoods and are happy. When humans are happy enough, they can share benefits with nature. If people do not see the shared benefit of conservation, it is difficult to protect the environment. Prioritizing individual benefits can cause people to destroy nature dreadfully.

6. Any favorite memories or accomplishments?

A lot! The memories come from Cham island, Cam Thanh, and other fishing villages in Vietnam. It is the story of development.

At first, I didn’t thoroughly understand conservation, and knowledge from books is different from reality working alongside communities. I was impatient and didn’t fully understand why people behaved that way to the environment (e.g. overish, litter, etc.). It was a lesson for me. I just knew theories in books but people did not believe me when I told them if they protected the environment they would also protect their livelihoods and make more money. When I first went to Cham Island no one wanted to work with me because they did not trust what I was doing. Today fishermen joke that they wanted to throw me in the ocean when I first came. At first, I did not get close to the community and I believed I was the expert and imposed my views on other people. When I think back it is clear that I did not clearly understand conservation work, and now that I am stronger, every decision in my work is made by the community. My work is orienting, guiding, and facilitating people to have a chance to raise their voices and decide for themselves. I know that when it is based on the expertise only from books, we will surely fail.

It is just about talking to people. You have to work to understand people and meet them where they are because each member of the community has ideas and their own creativity. The point is if that creativity is shared. Only by sharing and cooperating can those individual ideas be realized. If we are negligent in discussing with people, the idea can be creative in terms of individuals, but to the community, their ideas are not recognized so the project will fail. So individualism is important in creativity but collectivism is also needed so that creativity is developed and promoted.  It is the nature of ABCD (asset-based community development), the core is individual creativity but it also has to be expanded to a bigger scale, so it can be sustainable. If an idea can not be shared and co-developed with the community, it will die. If an individual takes anything from the community as their own possession, or is imposing their monopoly on the community, their idea will die. But if you just focus on collectivism and forget about individualism, the community will blossom, take action to develop. 

7. Your advice to young people who are preparing themselves to work in community development or conservation?

 Young people tend to have many individual ambitions and ideas. Young people need to go out more and talk with the community. That way they are practicing being more open to understanding what they may need (or not need) from you in this work. Learning is never done. The community can teach you. Always remember to put community first and never ask for any benefit. Someday they will recognize your effort, appreciate it, and never forget you. When the community is successful, they give me a lot (laugh). That is also my motivation and why I still keep doing this work.

8. What is your advice for young people when they face challenges or failure in community development or conservation work?

You will fail. This work is hard because it requires people to follow you. People will not follow you if you think you know everything from the book and don’t listen to their ideas and make them feel heard. Learn from your mistakes and talk with people and co-create ideas and continue to adapt to the current reality. Being open to learning is key and don’t get discouraged when things go differently than you planned. Learn together with the community from your mistakes to improve. 

Follow through with your promises, while thinking about local behavior changes the system that people operate within. For example, if you are trying to reduce garbage and teach people how to separate waste, but forget that they may not have a system to collect garbage. Your project won’t work and people will not follow you, and it will be difficult to be successful in the future because they will not believe your promises. 

Don’t just talk but lead by example and let the community share their stories. Sometimes environmental advocates can be so boring because they just talk about the law or what should happen and do not relate to the people they are trying to help. The community can be the best advocates and sometimes we must follow their lead. 

For those interested by Dr. Trinh’s work, take a look at our Vietnam program, or our new offering: Community, Enviroment, and Development in Southeast Asia, running Spring 2022.

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