To publish and widely circulate these Guidelines among business sector, on Jan 10th, 2019, PanNture, VCCI and Oxfam Vietnam jointly organized a seminar on Vietnam Cross-border Investment: Risks and Challenges on Legal Compliance.
Speaking at the event, head of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Department of Legal Affairs Dau Anh Tuan said Vietnam’s newly-registered overseas capital increased by 357.5 million USD during 11 months last year. Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar ranked first, second, and eighth among Vietnam’s top business destinations.
PanNature organized this meeting on December 10th, 2018 to connect our business partners in piloting program with NGOs in Laos to strengthen the exchange dialogue between NGOs and Vietnamese private sectors and open an opportunity for further collaboration.
Save the Mekong, a coalition of non-government organizations, community-based groups and concerned citizens within the Mekong region, announces our intention to boycott the Mekong River Commission’s Prior Consultation process for the proposed Pak Lay hydropower project in Laos. Pak Lay is the fourth dam on the lower Mekong mainstream.
In Vietnam natural forests belong to the state, the condition which restrains local people access to special-use and forest protection. At the same time, overlaps in land use rights occur in many protected areas, stimulating illegal logging and affecting land uses by local communities, a panellist from Vietnam’s PanNature said. Giving people tenure to the land is seen as a way to help secure people’s rights to the forests, and Pan has been working in Vietnam to influence the government’s policies by offering recommendations and new models such as co forest management for community forests.
Last Saturday, the 1st international workshop on biodiversity conservation and sustainable tourism development in the central region and highlands took place in Da Nang.. It was jointly organised by the municipal Union of Science and Technology Associations, the Nuoc Viet Xanh (GreenViet) Biodiversity Conservation Centre, the Centre for Humans and Nature (PanNature), and the Environment and Biological Resource Teaching Research Team of the Da Nang University (DN-EBR).
On 13 June, the Government of Laos formally notified the Mekong River Commission (MRC) of its intention to construct the Pak Lay dam on the mainstream of the Mekong River. The notification triggers the Prior Consultation procedure under the Procedures for Notification, Prior Consultation and Agreement (PNPCA) of the 1995 Mekong Agreement. Pak Lay is the fourth Mekong mainstream dam to be submitted for the procedure.
On July 21th, 2018, in Danang, People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) in collaboration with Da Nang Union of Science & Technology Associations, GreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Centre (GreenViet) and Environment & Biological Resource Teaching Research Team (DN-EBR) organized the first international workshop on "Biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Central and Highlands", with the 2018 topic is “Lesson learnt on tourism development in National Parks and Nature Reserves”.
This report has been consolidated based on the studies conducted in 2 years, 2012 and 2016, with the purpose to review and analyze the constraints that hinder the ability of credit organizations in Viet Nam to develop green credit and encourage adoption of social and environmental risk management practices. Based on the assessments, the report also recommends policy measures to support credit institutions in growing green credit and managing environmental and social risks for the loans granted to development projects.
Forum on "Promoting cooperation for sustainable and responsible investment in agricultural and trade" was co-organized by People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) and the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia Association for Economic Cooperation Development (VILACAED) in Vientiane, Laos on October 20, 2017. At the invitation of the Organizing Committee, CIRUM sent a representative to participate and contribute ideas at the forum.