CBT is conceptualized as a development approach in which local residents participate directly in the management, operation, and distribution of benefits, with the aim of balancing economic improvement, natural resource conservation, and the preservation of cultural identity (Akis et al., 1996; Giampiccoli and Saayman, 2018). Existing research shows that CBT can generate employment, enhance household income stability, reduce out-migration pressures, and promote more equitable benefit-sharing at the community level (Do and Duong, 2017; Ta, 2022). Moreover, in resource-dependent settings such as mangrove and coastal regions, CBT contributes to the maintenance of indigenous ecological knowledge and cultural identity, thereby reinforcing the socio-ecological integrity of local communities (Nightingale, 2006; Agarwal, 2002; Rivoal and Nguyen, 2022).

However, the sustainability of CBT is not determined solely by the presence of tourism activities. Instead, it depends on the substantive degree of community agency in decision-making and control over livelihood resources (Harwood, 2010). When local residents are reduced to service providers while market access and revenue flows are dominated by external actors, CBT risks losing its community-oriented character (Akis et al., 1996). Therefore, CBT must be understood not only as an economic sector but also as a system in which livelihoods, cultural knowledge, and human-environment relationships are simultaneously reshaped.

Within this system, women play a pivotal and often underrecognized role. Studies from Vietnam and other Southeast Asian coastal contexts show that women are central to producing and sustaining the "authenticity" of tourism experiences through homestay hospitality, food preparation, visitor interaction, cultural storytelling, local product production, and ecological interpretation (Do and Duong, 2017; Palang and Tippayawong, 2019; Nugroho and Numata, 2020; Tạ, 2022). In mangrove-based communities, women also accumulate and transmit ecological knowledge related to marine seasons, food sources, seafood preservation, and culturally embedded codes of environmental conduct, serving as "custodians of the community’s ecological ethos" (Nightingale, 2006; Agarwal, 2002; Rivoal and Nguyễn, 2022).

Field data from Thanh An indicate the presence of 77 CBT households, with 208 women directly involved, representing 68.92% of labor in core service domains such as accommodation, cuisine, local product processing, and environmental-cultural guiding (Authors’ survey, 2024–2025). This suggests that women are not merely "participants" in CBT but are central agents shaping service quality, social cohesion, and the transmission of ecological knowledge. Despite this, existing scholarly discussions often emphasize descriptive role identification rather than quantifying women’s contributions to livelihood resilience and ecosystem stewardship (Nightingale, 2006; Agarwal, 2002; Rivoal and Nguyễn, 2022). This study addresses this gap by assessing women’s participation using both qualitative and quantitative indicators.

To analyze women’s roles within CBT and their implications for socio-ecological sustainability, the study employs the SES framework, which conceptualizes humans and the environment as mutually constitutive, co-evolving systems linked through livelihood practices, knowledge sharing, and adaptive behaviors (Pretty, 1995). Applied to Thanh An, SES components can be understood as follows (Table 1).

Based on SES, the analytical model focuses on three main variable groups (Table 2).

Women’s participation levels are assessed using Pretty’s (1995) ladder of participation, ranging from passive involvement to active self-management, allowing for an evaluation of how deeply women engage in livelihood decision-making and socio-ecological stewardship.

Based on the SES framework and Pretty’s participation ladder, this study tests the following hypotheses:

Operationalization of Pretty’s participation levels was achieved through a structured assessment in the household survey. Each woman was classified based on responses to five key questions: (1) What CBT activities do you participate in? (2) Who decides what tasks you perform? (3) Do you have control over service delivery decisions? (4) Are you involved in income management? (5) Do you initiate new service ideas? Responses were scored using a 7-point scale corresponding to Pretty’s ladder. Table 3 summarizes the measurement indicators and corresponding participation levels used in this study.

The extent of women’s participation in CBT in Thanh An was assessed using Pretty’s (1995) seven-level participation ladder, which conceptualizes a progression from nominal or passive inclusion to autonomous and self-directed engagement. The decision to use households as the primary survey unit aligns with the organizational reality of local tourism practices, wherein women constitute the core labor force in essential service sectors, including homestay accommodation, food preparation, local product processing, and cultural and ecological interpretation.

The survey identified 208 women directly engaged in CBT-related activities across 77 households. The distribution across Pretty’s levels demonstrates a pronounced shift toward active and autonomous participation (Fig. 1).

As shown in Fig. 1, the interactive, self-assignment, and self-operation participation levels (Levels 5 to 7) together account for 59.6% of all women involved, with Level 7, indicating the capacity for autonomous organization and decision-making, representing the highest proportion at 22.1%. In contrast, women engaged only at passive or task-executing levels (Levels 1 and 2) make up just 14.9%, reflecting a clear shift away from dependent forms of participation.

A notable pattern is that the average number of participating women per household increases progressively with higher participation levels. Households at Level 1 involve an average of 1.5 women, whereas those at Level 7 involve an average of 4.6 women. This suggests that participation capacity is not merely an individual attribute but constitutes a shared household resource, formed through inter-Level 1 Level 3–4 Level 5–6 Level 7 generational collaboration and complementary role-sharing. Women routinely coordinate tasks such as material preparation, food processing, guest reception, cultural storytelling, and environmental sanitation as part of an integrated service network.

Field observations illustrate this process. As one homestay operator described: "At first, I was nervous about welcoming guests, afraid they might not be satisfied. But when they praised the cleanliness and the meals, I became confident and ready to handle more responsibilities." (Interview with Ms. M, age 52, Thiềng Liềng Homestay)

Higher participation levels also correspond to increased control over service decisions. Women at advanced levels do not simply perform tasks; they set hospitality standards, coordinate itineraries, negotiate service fees, and manage household income distribution. As one participant noted: "I used to cook only for my family, but cooking for guests requires presentation and storytelling. When they compliment the food, I realize our traditional work truly holds value." (Interview with woman, age 57, Thanh An Culinary Group)

Even tasks traditionally considered "backstage," such as net-mending, gain new meaning within the tourism context. An elderly woman reflected: "Now visitors pay to watch me mend nets; some even try it themselves. Something we once saw only as hard work is now appreciated." (Interview with woman, age 73, net-mending craft)

However, some households remain at intermediate levels (Levels 3 and 4), where women perform tourism tasks but lack sufficient skills, market access, or shared domestic support to manage services independently. As a local guide emphasized: "To sustain this, household members must share responsibilities. Managing guests and all housework alone is exhausting." (Interview with woman, age 42, Tour Guide)

Overall, CBT in Thanh An is cultivating a practice-based form of autonomy. Women’s participation not only contributes to income generation but also strengthens organizational capacity, shapes the authenticity of tourism experiences, and reinforces the community’s relationship with the mangrove ecosystem. This indicates that empowerment arises primarily through everyday labor practices and inter-household cooperation rather than external intervention. These dynamics form the basis for understanding livelihood transitions and the enhancement of socio-ecological resilience discussed in the following sections.

These findings align with Pretty’s (1995) conceptualization of participation as a continuum rather than a binary state, but extend it by revealing how participation depth directly correlates with material outcomes in coastal SES contexts. The predominance of Levels 5–7 (59.6%) suggests that Thanh An’s CBT model has transcended tokenistic involvement, achieving what Agarwal (2002) terms "transformative participation." However, the persistence of 40.4% at lower levels (Levels 1–4) warrants attention. Interviews revealed that these women face structural constraints, including childcare responsibilities, lack of English proficiency, and limited access to startup capital—barriers consistent with gender-and-tourism literature (Tucker and Boonabaana, 2012). This underscores that enabling environments, not just opportunities, determine participation depth. The statistical relationship between participation level and decision-making power provides quantitative evidence for what feminist political ecology theorizes: women’s engagement in natural resource management can reconfigure household power dynamics (Rocheleau et al., 1996). Yet this should not be romanticized: increased workload may accompany increased authority, requiring careful monitoring of women’s time poverty and the risk of over-burdening female labor.

In SES terms, these participation dynamics represent the activation of the Actors component (women as decision-makers) within the Resource System (mangrove-based tourism), mediated through evolving Governance arrangements (household-level service organization) that redistribute authority and economic benefits

The CBT service chain in Thanh An is anchored in a household-based economic model, structured around four core activity clusters: homestay accommodation, seafood preparation and meal services, production and sale of local specialty products, and guiding/interpretation for mangrove-based experiential activities. Quantitative data indicate that women hold dominant roles across all four segments (Fig. 2).

This pattern demonstrates that labor organization in CBT extends beyond task-based functional division. Instead, it is structured around women as the central coordinating axis, cultural interpreters, and custodians of indigenous ecological knowledge embedded within tourism experiences.

In homestay accommodation, women are primarily responsible for creating the affective atmosphere of hospitality, a factor strongly influencing visitor satisfaction and the likelihood of return. The sense of warmth and familiarity arises not from standardized service protocols, but from extending everyday household rhythms to encompass guests. As expressed by one homestay host: "When guests come to our home, they come to a way of life, not just to rent a room. We have to let them see the rhythm of life on this island." (Interview with Ms. H, age 48, homestay owner). This contributes to maintaining the "place-based" authenticity of homestays in Thanh An, differentiating them from commercial accommodation models.

In seafood cuisine, women apply intergenerational ecological knowledge to select seasonal ingredients, process brackish-water seafood, and utilize local preservation methods such as drying, fermenting, and marinating. Meals are often accompanied by narratives about tidal patterns, seasonal winds, or family fishing practices. Thus, cuisine functions as a medium for environmental storytelling. As one woman shared: "The same fish is cooked differently in the salty-water season versus the freshwater season. That knowledge was passed down from my mother." (Interview with Ms. T, age 56, community kitchen group). Here, culinary value lies not solely in sensory experience but in the transmission of ecological memory and situated knowledge.

In the production of local products (fish sauce, dried fish, lemongrass salt, dried seafood), women establish quality control and maintain traditional fermentation and sun-drying practices tied to natural rhythms. Visitors often purchase products directly from households due to trust in the maker’s embedded knowledge. As noted by an elder artisan: "For dried fish to be good, it must be dried under the right sun and the right wind. Not just any sunshine will do." (Interview with Ms. L, age 71, fish-drying craft). Local products thus become materialized ecological memories, carrying the sensory imprint of the island beyond its geographic boundaries.

In guiding and organizing mangrove experiences, women, particularly those in middle age, serve as narrative interpreters, framing the forest as a living entity intertwined with community history and identity. As one guide reflected: "Walking in the forest must be slow. To hear the wind, to hear the forest breathe. The forest lives with us too." (Interview with Ms. M, age 42, guide). Interpretation here is affective and ethical, not merely informational; it conveys ecological sensibilities that cannot be fully articulated through technical language alone.

In sum, the CBT service chain in Thanh An is not driven by extractive resource use but by women’s capacities for organization, interpretation, and cultural preservation. Women do not simply "participate in tourism"; they shape the cultural form and ecological meaning of tourism itself. They function as the connective pivot between livelihood, culture, and ecosystem, ensuring that mangrove-based knowledge is not only preserved but continuously reactivated through lived experience.

This service chain structure embodies SES interactions wherein Resource Units (mangrove products, indigenous knowledge) are mobilized by Actors (women) through governance practices that prioritize cultural transmission over extraction, creating positive feedback loops between ecosystem health and economic outcomes.

Before the emergence of CBT, livelihoods in Thanh An primarily depended on inshore fisheries and salt production, activities that were highly contingent on natural conditions, seasonal cycles, and fluctuations in the marine environment. The depletion of aquatic resources due to prolonged extraction, combined with the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events, increased livelihood risks and reduced the capacity for economic accumulation. As one fisherman explained: "Going to sea now is not like before. There are fewer fish, fuel is more expensive, and prices are controlled by traders. When we have a good catch, we get by; when not, we have to borrow." (Interview, male, 52 years old, inshore fishing household).

Reliance on middlemen placed households in a cycle of precarious income: a good fishing season led to higher earnings and expanded exploitation, which further depleted resources, resulting in poorer yields in subsequent seasons, income deficits, and increased pressure to intensify harvesting. This dynamic represents a typical negative feedback loop in resource-dependent livelihoods.

The development of CBT has opened an important pathway for livelihood transformation. Surveys of 77 participating households show a clear increase and greater stability in household income following participation (Table 5).

Statistical analysis confirmed these observed patterns. A paired t-test revealed a statistically significant increase in monthly household income after CBT participation (t = 8.47, df = 76, p < 0.001, 95% CI [2.9, 4.7] million VND). Further analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis test showed significant differences across participation levels (H = 24.32, df = 3, p < 0.001), with households at higher participation levels (Levels 5–7) demonstrating both greater income increases and higher income stability compared to those at lower levels. Ordinal logistic regression indicated that participation level significantly predicted income stability (β = 0.67, SE = 0.19, OR = 1.95, p < 0.01) and women’s decision-making power (β = 0.84, SE = 0.22, OR = 2.32, p < 0.01), controlling for household size and prior fishing dependence. These quantitative findings substantiate that women’s deeper engagement in CBT translates into measurable improvements in both the economic and social dimensions of household well-being.

Contextual data from PCTAC (2023) indicate that non-CBT fishing households in Thanh An have an average monthly income of 4–6 million VND with high seasonal variability (coefficient of variation ~0.45), compared to 8–15 million VND with lower variability (CV ~0.25) among CBT households at higher participation levels (Table 6). Interviews with non-participating households confirmed persistent income instability and continued dependence on middlemen. One non-CBT household head explained: "We still rely entirely on fishing. When the catch is poor, we have no other income source. Those doing tourism seem more stable." This contextual comparison underscores the relative advantage of CBT participation in achieving livelihood stability, though causal claims remain limited by the non-randomized design.

The key outcome is not only income growth, but more importantly, the stabilization of income. Whereas previous earnings fluctuated according to fish stocks and marine seasons, current income depends on visitor flows, which are more evenly distributed across the year. As a homestay operator described: "Now, even if the sea has a poor season, we still have guests. We no longer worry about 'gain or loss depending on the tide' like before." (Interview, Ms. H., 44, homestay owner).

Within this transformation, women serve as the central axis of the tourism service chain. They are responsible for high value-added segments such as accommodation management, food processing, local product production, and cultural-ecological guiding. Their roles extend beyond labor to encompass service coordination, quality assurance, and sustaining the daily rhythm of livelihood operations (Table 7).

As one woman producing local products explained: "I make fish sauce and dried fish not only to sell. It is how I keep my mother’s and grandmother’s craft. Selling makes me happy, but preserving the original flavor matters most." (Interview, Mrs. L., 67, fish-drying craft).

Because CBT relies on a healthy mangrove ecosystem, forest conservation becomes a direct economic interest. A healthy environment leads to higher-quality services, repeat visitors, stable income, and stronger incentives for environmental stewardship. This marks a foundational shift from resource extraction to ecological maintenance.

Thus, livelihood transformation in Thanh An is not merely a change in occupation, but a shift in the development foundation: from environmentally vulnerable, nature-dependent livelihoods to livelihoods rooted in indigenous knowledge, cultural identity, and care-based experiential services. In this transition, women are the central agents, maintaining household economic stability and ensuring that local values are transformed into resources for sustainable development.

In the coastal mangrove SES, indigenous knowledge is preserved not through formal documentation but through everyday practices, intergenerational memory, and embodied experience. In Thanh An, women, particularly those in middle and older age groups, serve as primary knowledge holders. Their understanding of seasonal wind patterns, tidal salinity, aquatic life cycles, and the ecological dynamics of the mangrove forest has been acquired through long-term observation and continuous engagement with the environment. As one woman described, knowledge related to tides, winds, and seasonal rhythms emerges "from living with them over time" rather than from explicit instruction (Interview with Ms. T., 68 years old, 35 years in salt production and mangrove planting).

When women assume leading roles in CBT, this embedded ecological knowledge becomes actively mobilized and translated into visitor experiences. Tourism thus shifts from being merely an income-generating activity to functioning as a mechanism for sustaining and regenerating living cultural-ecological heritage.

During mangrove tours, women recount stories of post-war forest restoration, severe storm seasons, or customary norms such as harvesting "just enough" rather than exploiting resources. These narratives operate not simply as recollections but as moral and ecological memories that shape contemporary behavior. As one guide explained, sharing such stories helps visitors understand why the community’s attachment to the forest is central to its survival (Interview with Ms. M., 42 years old, CBT guide).

Local cuisine likewise becomes a medium of transmission. Dishes such as dew-dried fish, mangrove-leaf soups, and lagoon fish sauce embody finely tuned knowledge of seasonal variations and environmental conditions. Through meal preparation and explanation, women communicate "environmental memory" expressed through taste, texture, and culinary timing. For example, ingredients and preparation methods are tied to specific seasonal winds and salinity levels, and deviation from these rhythms is believed to diminish the dish’s cultural integrity (Interview with Ms. H., 53 years old, community kitchen group).

Local products, including fish sauce, dried seafood, and fermented condiments, similarly embody collective memory. When visitors purchase and later consume these items, they bring elements of Thanh An’s cultural-ecological identity into new geographic contexts, enabling heritage to circulate beyond the island.

In guiding experiential interactions, women encourage visitors to touch mangrove roots, feel tidal mud, or listen to the soundscape of the forest. Such practices constitute a relational form of knowledge transmission in which the mangrove is perceived not as a landscape object but as a co-existing living entity. This fosters ecological empathy, a mode of understanding grounded in sensory perception and emotional resonance rather than abstract description.

Thus, women’s participation in CBT extends beyond service provision. They act as custodians who convert memory into experience, ecological knowledge into cultural value, and everyday life into heritage. Their role ensures that economic development remains aligned with cultural identity and that environmental conservation is sustained not only through regulation but also through affective attachment and community pride.

Women, therefore, function as cultural and ecological mediators, maintaining continuity between people, forest, sea, and place, and ensuring that these relationships continue to "live" in narratives, practices, meals, visitor experiences, and the evolving future of Thanh An.

Building on the empirical evidence presented above, the findings indicate that community-based tourism in Thanh An Island Commune functions not merely as a supplementary income source, but as a catalyst for integrated socio-economic and ecological transformation. Central to this process is the pivotal role of women, who act simultaneously as livelihood organizers, cultural knowledge transmitters, and mediators between household economies and mangrove ecosystems. Rather than operating as isolated service providers, women coordinate production rhythms, regulate service quality, and sustain inter-household cooperation networks that stabilize both income flows and social relations.

Analysis based on Pretty’s (1995) participation ladder demonstrates that the majority of women have moved toward interactive, decision-making, and self-mobilized forms of engagement. This shift reflects a cumulative and socially embedded learning process in which skills, confidence, and organizational capacity are transmitted through everyday household practices and intergenerational apprenticeship, rather than through formal external training alone. As a result, participation becomes a collective household asset rather than an individual attribute, reinforcing long-term livelihood resilience.

Across the four core segments of the CBT service chain, accommodation, cuisine, local product production, and ecological interpretation, women constitute the structural pivot through which cultural authenticity and ecological knowledge are transformed into economic value. Hospitality practices reproduce domestic rhythms in ways that foster affective attachment between hosts and visitors. Culinary production and artisanal processing embed seasonal and environmental knowledge into sensory experiences, while guiding activities translate mangrove ecosystems into moral and cultural landscapes. Through these interconnected practices, tourism in Thanh An operates as a system of cultural-ecological reproduction rather than a purely commercial enterprise.

From a livelihood perspective, the transition from resource-extractive activities to experience-based services has reconfigured both income structures and household power relations. Increased income stability, reduced dependence on middlemen, and lower exposure to environmental risks are closely associated with women’s growing control over service coordination and financial management. This redistribution of decision-making authority represents a substantive shift in household governance, linking gendered participation with broader patterns of socio-economic resilience.

At the socio-ecological level, the growing dependence of livelihoods on tourism performance transforms mangrove conservation from a regulatory obligation into a direct economic and moral imperative. Environmental stewardship is reproduced through narratives, culinary practices, and experiential engagement, fostering affective attachment to the ecosystem among both residents and visitors. In this sense, conservation is sustained less through formal enforcement than through everyday cultural practices mediated largely by women.

These dynamics suggest that women-led CBT in Thanh An constitutes a form of development grounded in relational ecology, indigenous knowledge, and community-based governance. Accordingly, strategies for sustainable tourism development should extend beyond infrastructure provision and market promotion to include institutional recognition of women’s roles as knowledge holders, coordinators, and cultural brokers. Specifically, government and private sector initiatives should focus on: (1) Infrastructure development: investing in climate-resilient homestay facilities, improved waterway transportation, waste management systems, and renewable energy sources to reduce environmental impact while enhancing service quality (as demonstrated by successful CBT infrastructure projects in Thailand and Indonesia; Palang and Tippayawong, 2019; Nugroho and Numata, 2020); (2) Knowledge documentation and capacity building: establishing community-based monitoring systems to document indigenous ecological knowledge, providing training in hospitality management, digital marketing, and financial literacy specifically designed for women-led enterprises (following models from Vietnam’s northern highland CBT initiatives; Do and Duong, 2017); (3) Market linkages and financial mechanisms: developing direct-to-consumer marketing platforms to reduce middleman dependence, creating cooperative savings and micro-insurance schemes to buffer income variability, and establishing fair pricing mechanisms that reflect women’s labor contributions; (4) Off-season product diversification: supporting development of agroecological tourism, mangrove restoration volunteering programs, and cultural heritage experiences during low-tourism periods to stabilize year-round income (as recommended by Ferguson, 2011; Giampiccoli and Saayman, 2018); (5) Institutional recognition: formalizing women’s roles in CBT governance structures, ensuring equitable representation in tourism planning committees, and integrating gender-responsive indicators into environmental management frameworks. These interventions should be designed not as top-down impositions but as supportive mechanisms that strengthen existing community-based organizational capacity while addressing structural barriers identified in this study, including childcare burdens, limited access to capital, and time poverty risks associated with intensified labor demands.

At the same time, several research gaps warrant further investigation. Future studies should examine how extreme climatic events reshape women’s participation patterns and intra-household power relations, how intergenerational knowledge transmission adapts under rapid socio-environmental change, and how community-based governance mechanisms can balance tourism expansion with ecosystem integrity. Comparative analyses across multiple mangrove socio-ecological systems in Southeast Asia and longitudinal household studies would enhance analytical generalizability and deepen understanding of long-term livelihood-environment interactions.

The empirical findings of this study carry substantive policy implications for the sustainable development of coastal community-based tourism in mangrove socio-ecological systems. Policymakers at national, provincial, and district levels should consider integrating the following recommendations into formal planning and governance frameworks.

First, women’s roles in CBT governance must receive formal institutional recognition. Current policy frameworks in Vietnam’s coastal zone management, including the National Action Plan on Gender Equality 2021–2030 and the National Strategy for Sustainable Tourism Development 2020–2030, tend to treat gender as an add-on consideration rather than a structural dimension of tourism governance. This study demonstrates that women in Thanh An are not merely labor providers but serve as coordinators, knowledge holders, and cultural brokers whose functions are central to the resilience of the entire CBT system. Accordingly, local tourism management committees and commune-level governance bodies should institutionalize gender-responsive quotas and decision-making protocols that formalize women’s leadership roles, particularly in service quality regulation, benefit-sharing mechanisms, and long-term tourism planning.

Second, public investment in climate-resilient infrastructure should be explicitly calibrated to women-led CBT operations. The geographic isolation of Thanh An Island Commune means that climate shocks, including tidal flooding, seasonal storms, and saline intrusion, disproportionately affect homestay and food-processing facilities managed primarily by women. Targeted infrastructure investments should include: (a) flood-resistant homestay renovation schemes funded through provincial climate adaptation budgets; (b) improved and reliable waterway transportation connecting the island to mainland markets, reducing women’s dependence on intermediaries for supply procurement and product distribution; and (c) renewable energy installations (solar panels, biogas systems) that reduce operational costs for food processing and accommodation services, directly benefiting household-scale enterprises managed by women.

Third, state and non-governmental agencies should prioritize the systematic documentation and preservation of women-held indigenous ecological knowledge. Women in Thanh An currently transmit knowledge of marine seasonality, traditional food processing, and mangrove ecology through informal apprenticeship and daily practice. This knowledge is irreplaceable but highly vulnerable to intergenerational erosion under conditions of rapid economic change and out-migration. Government cultural agencies, in partnership with universities and international conservation organizations, should co-develop community-based knowledge documentation programs, including oral history recording, culinary heritage archives, and ecological practice manuals produced in collaboration with women practitioners. These resources would serve dual functions: preserving living cultural heritage and strengthening the interpretive content of ecotourism products.

Fourth, financial mechanisms specifically designed for women-led micro-enterprises in coastal CBT settings should be developed and scaled up. The study identified that limited access to startup capital, the absence of collateral assets, and irregular income patterns constitute primary barriers preventing women at lower participation levels (Levels 1–4) from advancing to higher-autonomy roles. Policy responses should include: (a) gender-responsive microcredit schemes with flexible repayment schedules aligned with tourism seasonality; (b) community-based cooperative savings models (tổ hợp) that pool resources among CBT households, reducing individual financial risk; (c) income diversification grants to support the development of off-season products, including processed food items, artisanal crafts, and mangrove restoration activities that generate supplementary revenue during low-visitor periods. These mechanisms should be designed in consultation with women’s groups at the commune level to ensure contextual appropriateness and community ownership.

Fifth, mangrove conservation governance frameworks should be explicitly integrated with CBT development planning at the district and commune levels. The study demonstrates that women’s deepening engagement in tourism creates direct economic incentives for ecosystem protection, transforming conservation from a regulatory burden into a livelihood asset. However, this alignment remains fragile without institutional reinforcement. The Can Gio District government and the Management Board of the Can Gio Mangrove Biosphere Reserve should formalize participatory monitoring protocols in which CBT women’s groups play an active role in documenting and reporting ecological conditions, reporting illegal resource extraction, and contributing to seasonal management planning. Incorporating gender-disaggregated conservation indicators into the Reserve’s management reporting system would also improve accountability and provide evidence for resource allocation decisions. These policy actions collectively constitute a framework for gender-responsive coastal governance that treats women not as beneficiaries of development but as active architects of socio-ecological resilience.