The primary aims of the planning grant are to promote the participation of key stakeholders of the proposed project, including local authorities and relevant agencies and communities, and provide scientific assistance for the project development. Major activities of the project include conducting surveys on socio-economic conditions of the proposed project site, identifying proposed project objectives and activities and assessing their feasibility, and providing needed technical assistance in project design and writing project proposal which will be submitted to GEF/SGP for review and appraisal; and identifying possibilities for project synergies and resource mobilization.

An area of brackish water in An Hiep commune, Ba Tri District, Ben Tre province is chosen for the project. In the site, saltwater intrusion accounts for 13.2% at the end of dry season and the poverty percentage is high.
The project aims at:
- Contributing in sustainable use of land and water resources to adapt to the salt intrusion and improve the life quality of local people.
The project objectives:
- To improve awareness and understanding on salt intrusion in particular and environmental matters in general for local participating administrators and communities;
- To build demonstration models on community participation in managing the salt intrusion;
- To build demonstration models on science and technology in production to adapt to the salt intrusion;
- To report and document techniques and experiences in promoting the sustainability and duplicating the project models.
The main activities:
- Improving awareness and capacity of local administrators and community in managing, preventing and adapting to saltwater intrusion.
- Building models on community participation in the salt intrusion.
- Building an information network on salt intrusion and providing information for communities, governmental organizations, managing committee and farmers.
- Building demonstration models on science and technology in production in order to adapt to the salt intrusion, preventing the degradation of land resources in marine ecosystems.
- Drawing experiences and proposing policies to support the communities to adapt to the salt intrusion in Ben Tre.