Environment fund helps Vietnam save biodiversity

By Henrylito D. Tacio

HANOI: Vietnam's environment is becoming as scarce as its history. Only two million hectares of the country's natural forests remain. Every year, the total forest area is reduced by 100,000 to 200,000 hectares.

Massive deforestation has led to soil erosion, followed by floods and drought. Vast areas of barren land have resulted from a hungry population's attempts to expand agriculture to unsuitable and degraded forest lands.

Coastal ecosystems have not been spared. Vietnam's population is expected to grow from an estimated 67 million in 1990 to 82 million by the year 2000.

"This broad pressure (from the population) has helped erode the country's rich biological diversity, already damaged by years of war," a report released by the Kenya-based United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) revealed.

Vietnam has a remarkable diversity of animals and plants that are endemic to the country, or are found only there and in one or two of its neighbors in Southeast Asia.

To help Vietnam protect this biodiversity, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) has stepped in to provide financial and technical support.

GEF is a cooperative venture in a large number of developed and developing countries, and is jointly implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNEP and the World Bank.

GEF funds are intended to help the Vietnamese government build institutions and train personnel to reverse the loss of the country's forests and biodiversity during this US$3 million project that began in November 1992 and will end in 1997.

Operation

UNDP, which administers the GEF, has contracted two international organizations to implement the program. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which has a history of involvement in Vietnam, has been asked to formulate and carry out the training component in conjunction with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

The ongoing project, however, is not a narrow or self- contained operation.

"Based on funds from the GEF, we can work together with international organizations to protect the environment," said Nguyen Ngoc Sinh, chief of the national Environment Authority in the newly created Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

For its part, the Vietnamese government has made provisions for 87 nature reserves and parks, but only one national park (Cuc Phuong) has been set up and fully staffed, and that was in 1962.

According to John Mackinnon, an IUCN/WWF consultant, the project aims to conserve remaining natural forest land through a system of protected areas, community and buffer zones, reforestation and sustainable use of natural living resources outside protected areas.

Mackinnon's staff have already started generating computer maps of existing forests, reforestation needs and pollution- endangered wetlands.

One key element of the GEF project is the involvement in the planning stage of villages around the conservation areas to teach their residents to protect rather than exploit the threatened resources.

Minerals

Vietnam is richly endowed with iron chromite, copper, tin, lead, zinc, tungsten and rare minerals.

But mineral and energy development here faces a bleak future because of existing and potential health, safety, environmental and social problems, the EWC says.

EWC resource analyst Allen L. Clark noted that although Vietnam officials and scientists have undertaken measures to deal with most problems, present efforts must be increased and expanded substantially "in terms of standards, legislation and enforcement of remedial, mitigative and preventive measures for economic, environmental, social and cultural impacts."

Clark added that Vietnam's development policy emphasizes the continued and increasing use of natural resources, both locally and for export, without the requisite environmental safeguards in place.

He said metallic mining activities present major health and safety problems, contaminate streams and water supplies, and frequently require large amounts of lumber in infrastructure construction which leads to local deforestation.

As an example, he cited the Tra Linh-Cao Bang manganese mine tragedy in 1992, in which some 100 people were reported killed when tailings and waste piles collapsed in landslides.

Tin mining in West Nghe, on the other hand, has produced debris that causes widespread flooding of surrounding farmlands during the rainy season.

Meanwhile in Quang Ninh province, more than 1,700 people have contracted silicosis, a chronic lung condition among miners who have inhaled silicon dust over a long period, because of lack of health standards in mining operations.

The environmental impact of coal mining is even greater, Clark said. A 1992 analysis of three coal mining areas showed hundreds of hectares of forest land destroyed for mine support, debris contaminating nearby areas and towns, waste materials dumped into rivers and streams causing floods, toxic gas emission, acid waste waters discharged into the sea and dust pollution blanketing surrounding areas.

Conflicts

Clark also noted that conflicts between local and non-local Vietnamese gold and gemstone miners have displaced local residents. There is also growing concern about the increasing incidence of malaria associated with placer mining operations.

Other serious impacts cited by Clark include high levels of stream pollution and siltation, local and regional distribution of mercury and arsenic pollution, large-scale deforestation and soil stripping, as well as temporary and long-term loss of farmland.

Clark foresees many of the mining projects in Vietnam taking place in or near areas with high concentrations of ethnic minorities. This raises the possibility of disrupting societal organization and cultural values, inequitable revenue distribution, high inflation, conflicts over land access and compensation and loss of control by local people over major decisions.

Clark said a national working group, which would include foreign specialists, should be formed to prioritize the specific areas for government action, formulate a long-term strategy for dealing with consequences and develop a comprehensive implementation plan covering mineral and energy development.

-- Earth Wire