ABSTRACT
The empirical data presented here comes from qualitative fieldwork undertaken in 2015 in a locality in the mountain areas of north-west Vietnam where four different ethnic groups live. The way irrigation is organised and operated directly influences the content of the rules regulating the allocation of resources. Therefore, to understand how the collective management of irrigation works, the principal characteristics of the system need to be presented. The initial opening and the flow are managed by the users, without formal consultation, according to their needs. The villagers take care of minor repairs: sometimes in a collective manner with or without the involvement of the village chief, sometimes individually. The creation of collective irrigation organisations is often explained in the literature by the rarity of the resource although this is not always the case. The difference in the treatment of these populations would determine the future land tenure and irrigation management issues.
