Laws still cannot help protect the forests
Though Vietnam has a close legal framework on protecting forests and wildlife, the laws seem unhelpful. Green forests still have been devastated, while wild animals still have been killed.
Fresh water shortage threatens sustainable development
Vietnam could face a fresh water crisis because of poor resource management, a new report says. It says the problem could be exacerbated by the fact that most of its rivers originate in neighboring countries who could build upstream dams…
Industrial polluters get a pass
Farmers continue to bear the brunt of environmental damage, protected poorly by toothless regulations.
Energy companies pledge to measure impacts of large dam projects
Critics say new scorecard to evaluate social and environmental impacts of hydropower projects serves dam builders not local communities.
Crucial Meeting Tomorrow on Laos’s Xayaburi Dam
Wide-ranging coalition calls for the dam to be cancelled. A crucial meeting takes place tomorrow in Siem Reap, Cambodia, among the ministers of the Mekong River Commission on whether to proceed with the US$3.5 billion Xayaburi Dam, the first of…
Fuelled by Forests
The past 20 years in Vietnam have been remarkable. The economy has expanded by an average of 7 percent annually since the mid-1990s and according to the Vietnam Development Report 2011, “poverty has fallen drastically from 60 percent in 1993…
Government urged to take actions to prevent rivers from degrading
Experts have rung the alarm bell over the “health” of the river system in Vietnam, saying that a lot of rivers are perceptibly degrading.
“Community forest” the effective tool for sustainable forest management
With the success of the pilot project on allocating land and forests to the community for management, experts believe that the “community forest” is really the good mechanism for sustainable forest management.
The thirst for hydropower plants devastating living environment
People are trying to build more and more hydropower plants to satisfy their thirst for power. However, when power plants are set up, the environment gets degrading and the tourism industry cannot develop.
World Bank team observes wildlife trade first-hand
While the authorities, international and local wildlife protection organizations are making every effort to carry out campaigns, protect, and conserve rare wildlife species; across the country, many wild animals are killed every day and those stores trading in wildlife products…