Nature-Related Risk Perceptions Among Vietnamese Smallholder Tea Farmers and Implications for Environmental...

Smallholder farmers manage a significant share of the world's agricultural landscapes and are highly vulnerable to nature-related risks arising from climate variability, soil degradation, water scarcity, and pest and disease pressures. Sustainably managing the balance between the environment and production in such systems requires an understanding of how land managers perceive and prioritize these risks, as perceptions often influence adaptation responses. This study examines nature-related risk perceptions among Vietnamese smallholder tea farmers across 10 physical nature-related risk domains, adopting the threat appraisal component of Protection Motivation Theory. Through face-to-face structured interviews with 312 farmers in northern Vietnam, we applied multivariate regression analysis to examine the factors related to these perceptions. Farmers prioritize climate extremes and pest and disease pressures as the most immediate risks, while soil and water degradation represent an important longer-term concern. Heavy fertilizer use is associated with greater concern about soil degradation, whereas adopting irrigation is associated with lower perceived vulnerability to climate-related risks. Although subjective risk perceptions may differ from objectively assessed risks, they often play a critical role in shaping farmers' adaptation behavior. These findings highlight the importance of incorporating smallholder risk perceptions into environmental management and broader nature-related risk assessments. Engaging smallholders directly in these processes could better capture local risks and inform nature-related risk management in agricultural systems that depend on smallholders.