On February 8th 2017, People Resources and Conservation Foundation (PRCF) and People and Nature Reconcilliation (PanNature) signed an agreement to jointly undertaking work on biodiversity conservation and forest governance in Vietnam. The geographical scope of this agreement shall be Vietnam, with particular focus on sites such as Tuyen Quang province and the Central Highlands.
Whether it is for power generation or irrigation, all upstream developments on the Mekong River put Vi?t Nam at risk as the last downstream country, experts said yesterday. Hence all countries in the Mekong River basin should rethink their approaches and adopt measures to minimise impacts on communities and the ecosystem, said Tr?nh Lê Nguyên, director of People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature), a Vietnamese non-governmental organisation.
Under President Xi Jinping, China has been aggressively asserting claims to most of the South China Sea, angering neighbors by turning specks of rock into artificial islands. Another water fight could be just as explosive: this one involving fresh water.
Implementing the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) will help Vi?t Nam fight corruption in the resources extraction sector, participants were told at a workshop held yesterday in Hà N?i. EITI is a global standard for governance when it comes to a country’s oil, gas and mineral resources, and is implemented by governments in collaboration with companies and civil society. Countries implementing EITI disclose information on tax payments, licenses, contracts, production and other key elements around resource extraction.
Trinh Le Nguyen, director of PanNature, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting natural diversity and improving human well-being, said significant shortcomings remain prevalent in the evaluation of the environmental impact of business operations in Vietnam. Several steps in the assessment process were conducted with subpar methods while opinions from local residents were ignored, Nguyen continued. He noted that the two mandatory phases in evaluating a facility’s impact on the environment include a general and a more detailed assessment.
Intensifying the protection of forests in the Central Highlands from encroachment by hydro power plants, illegal deforestation and unplanned agricultural development would be the key to preserving water in this drought hit region, experts have said.
Along with the El Nino, projects in the Mekong River’s upstream, including hydropower plants, water-diverting and water-use works, are likely to pose serious impacts to the Mekong Delta, heard a conference held by the People and Nature Reconciliation in Hanoi on July 20.
No legal document specifying which technologies can or cannot not be imported to Vietnam exists. This ambiguity has hindered Vietnam from ‘filtering’ projects that could cause pollution.
The short film which was produced by PanNature, talked about system of rice intensification (SRI) model in Pu Tuu Commune, Dien Bien District, Dien Bien Province.
2016 marks 30 years since Doi Moi, the government policy that opened up Vietnam to the international community and spurred Vietnam’s integration into the global economy. As Vietnam continues to integrate economically, Vietnam is currently embarking on a new wave of integration through robust and comprehensive free trade agreements (FTAs). Vietnam has signed 14 FTAs, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the largest regional trade agreement in over 20 years, and the European Union-Vietnam FTA.