{"id":2052,"date":"2016-07-15T14:28:00","date_gmt":"2016-07-15T07:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/?p=2052"},"modified":"2016-08-15T09:32:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-15T02:32:40","slug":"pannature-discusses-public-participation-and-environmental-impact-assessments-with-u-s-environmental-protection-agency-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/pannature-discusses-public-participation-and-environmental-impact-assessments-with-u-s-environmental-protection-agency-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"PanNature Discusses Public Participation and Environmental Impact Assessments with U.S.\u00a0Environmental Protection Agency Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the morning of Friday, June 10, PanNature<\/a> staff met with three government officials\u00a0from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA<\/a>), including U.S. EPA General Counsel, Avi\u00a0Garbow; Senior Attorney in the Office of General Counsel, Steve Wolfson; as well as Director of\u00a0the Office of Regional and Bilateral Affairs, Mark Kasman. The U.S. EPA is the lead government\u00a0agency in protecting public health and the environment in the United States.<\/p>\n

The meeting was\u00a0an opportunity for the U.S. EPA officials to gain the perspectives and insights of a local\u00a0environmental non-governmental organization in Vietnam. Trinh Le Nguyen, Executive Director\u00a0of PanNature, provided information about PanNature, its various projects around the country,\u00a0its funding, as well as relationships with PanNature\u2019s partners, including the Ministry of Natural\u00a0Resources and Environment.<\/p>\n

The main topic of discussion was existing challenges related to public participation in the\u00a0environmental impact assessment process. PanNature\u2019s policy team\u00a0described the number of challenges that\u00a0exist in Vietnam in terms of meaningful public participation. Public participation<\/a> continues to\u00a0lack a proper and comprehensive definition within Vietnam\u2019s legal framework, and many\u00a0continue to belief that public engagement slows down the investment process and therefore\u00a0harms Vietnam\u2019s ability to develop economically.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Vietnam continues to struggle\u00a0with weak enforcement and implementation of laws, lack of an independent review in the\u00a0environmental impact assessment and strategic environmental assessment processes, lack of\u00a0good, reliable data, as well as no meaningful nor effective minimum standard of technology\u00a0used in factories and manufacturing. As part of a larger U.S. government initiative, the U.S. EPA\u00a0is preparing environmental cooperation as part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which includes\u00a0the United States, Vietnam, and ten other member countries. This is the first of a more\u00a0sustained effort by the U.S. EPA to work and cooperate with the government of Vietnam on\u00a0various environmental issues.<\/p>\n

While in Hanoi, General Counsel Avi Garbow gave a speech at the American Center as well as\u00a0presentations at a Center for Environment and Community Research event and policy seminar\u00a0hosted by the Department of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Environment and Natural\u00a0Resources. PanNature was excited and grateful for the opportunity to host meaningful\u00a0discussions in its Hanoi office. PanNature will continue to advocate\u00a0for meaningful public participation and for the establishment of an independent review and\u00a0monitoring mechanism in environmental matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the morning of Friday, June 10, PanNature staff met with three government officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including U.S. EPA General Counsel, Avi Garbow; Senior Attorney in the Office of General Counsel, Steve Wolfson; as well as Director of the Office of Regional and Bilateral Affairs, Mark Kasman. The U.S. EPA is the lead government agency in protecting public health and the environment in the United States. The meeting was an opportunity for the U.S. EPA officials to gain the perspectives and insights of a local environmental non-governmental organization in Vietnam. Trinh Le Nguyen, Executive Director of PanNature, provided information about PanNature, its various projects around the country, its funding, as well as relationships with PanNature\u2019s partners, including the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[84,83,82],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-2052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-projects","tag-eia","tag-environmental-law","tag-pollution","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2072,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2052\/revisions\/2072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2052"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=2052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}