National responses for environmental protection in sumary
Developing and promulgating legislation on environment
protection
Formulating and implementing environmental protection
policies and action plans
Environmental pollution control
Environmental monitoring
Development of institutional system of environmental
management
Developing and promulgating legislation on
environment protection
The Vietnam Law on Environmental
Protection was passed by the National Assembly on 27/12/1993.
Together with this, the Government has also promulgated many laws and
regulations concerning environment protection, as follows:
Forest
Protection and Development Law (1991); the People Health Protection Law
(1989); Land Use Law (1993); Law of Oil and Petrol (1993); Mineral
Resources Law (1996), Water Resources Law (1998); Dykes Protection
Ordinance (1989); Criminal Affair Law (reform, 1999); Ordinance of
Resources Taxes (1989); Ordinance of Aquatic Resource Protection (1989),
Ordinance of Radiation Safety and Control (1996), Ordinance of Vegetation
Protection and Quarantine (1993).
Hundreds of legal documents to
elaborately instruct the implementation of the above laws and ordinances
have been issued by the Government, the MOSTE and other line
ministries.
[Top]
Formulating and implementing environmental protection policies and action plans
The government has promulgated a series of policies in order
to protect the environment and ensure sustainable development. These
include the policy of prohibition in production, transport and use of
fire-crackers, policy of land and forest entrustment for people, policy of
reforestation in bare hills, policy of stimulation in using cleaner
technologies, policy of biodiversity protection, policy of closing natural
forest, policy of potable water supply and environmental sanitation in
rural areas and the programs of decreasing demographic growth rate etc.
Very recently the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment has
formulated the "National Strategy for Environmental Protection:
2001-2010".
[Top]
Environmental pollution control
Since 1994, after the promulgation of the Law on
Environmental Protection, a number of significant efforts have actively
been made by responsible institutions to control pollution, to deal with
the enterprises considered as serious polluters, and to timely respond to
environmental disasters/occurrences such as oil spillage in the sea.
Environmental impact assessment has been carefully carried out for all the
socio-economic development projects. Environmental inspection has been
undertaken both at provincial and national levels. By the end of 1999, the
nation-wide number of inspected facilities/establishments reached
15,993.
[Top]
Vietnam National Environmental Monitoring Network has been
established since the end of 1994. By 1999, the national network comprised
19 stations responsible for environmental monitoring at 63 locations in a
frequency of once every 3 months (4 times/year, since 1995). Monitoring
data has provided basic information for the annual national reports on the
state of the
environment.
[Top]
Development of institutional system of environmental management
In 1993, the National Environment Agency (NEA) was
established under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment
(MOSTE) in order to exercise nation-wide the state management of
environmental protection activities. The Environment Management Division
attached to the Provincial Departments of Science, Technology and
Environment (DOSTE) was also established in every province/city. Some
districts and towns also have a small cadre for environmental management.
In addition, functional units for environmental management have been
established in some line ministries and economic sectors.
Generally,
however, the capacity of environmental management institutions in Vietnam
remains weak and disproportionate to the tasks.