Việt Nam News

Valuable ancient trees in northern mountainous Hà Giang Province, some of which are hundreds of years old, are at risk of disappearing because of continued illegal logging that responsible agencies have been unable to curb.

Việt Nam is working to develop its own earth observation satellite, which will help the country manage natural resources and mitigate the impacts of climate change and natural disasters, a conference heard yesterday.

Cambodia, Laos and Việt Nam must work closer together to make the shift to using more renewable energy.

A large area of sea grass on the Chàm Islands, off the coast of Hội An, have been damaged due to the rapid increase in speed boats over the past several decades—another sign that mass tourism and unsustainable development threaten the rich ecosystem on the islands, said Director of the Chàm Island-Hội An Marine Protected Area (MPA) Centre Trần Thị Hồng Thúy.

A fresh controversy has broken out as local authorities in the central province of Thừa Thiên-Huế plan to take almost 400 hectares from the core zone of local Bạch Mã National Park to develop a tourism complex.

Local authorities in the Mekong Delta are taking measures to mitigate the impact of flooding caused by high tides during the annual flood season in the delta.

Reports about three new species of the ginger family – Newmania cristata, Newmania gracilis and Newmania sontraensis (Zingiberaceae: Zingibereae) – found in central Việt Nam were officially published by Phytotaxa (a botany journal) in September, bringing the number of species in this endemic Vietnamese genus to six.

Deforestation continues to damage natural forests in southern Bình Phước Province in spite of the Government’s order to close natural forest gates, Vietnam News Agency reported.

An endangered hawksbill turtle, scientifically named Eretmochelys imbricate, was released back to the ocean yesterday by Bình Thuận Province’s Department of Fisheries.

The fact that waste is not classified at source was the biggest challenge to treating it in Việt Nam, experts said.

A programme to sort waste at source has been started at HCM City’s export processing zones and industrial parks by the HCM City EPZ Authority and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.

Over 4,900 scrap containers left unclaimed for 90 days are piling up at major seaports across the country, raising environmental concerns.

Nearly 10,500 hectares of natural forest in the Tây Nguyên (Central Highlands) province of Đắk Lắk have been illegally destroyed since 2015, according to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The Cửu Long (Mekong) Delta province of Bến Tre has received VNĐ140 billion (US$6.3 million) from the Government to repair two embankments to prevent landslides along rivers and upgrade another on the coast.

Plastic waste is a resource that needs to be collected, sorted and recycled. Plastic waste was a big problem and the country was working on a plan to handle it, said a representative from the Ministry of Construction. 

More breakthrough solutions are needed to help farmers in the Mekong Delta cope with unpredictable water levels, according to experts.

Minh Hằng, a resident of Hà Nội’s Cầu Giấy District, carries four to five plastic bags home from the market every day. Like Hằng, many Vietnamese people are accustomed to getting new single-use bags each time they shop.

The Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in the central province of Quảng Bình has released 11 rare animals back into the wild following attempts of rescuing and rehabilitating them.