Towards a more sustainable use of natural resources and environment

The Government of Vietnam has, in the past years, made a lot of efforts in protecting and preserving the country’s natural resources and environment. Nevertheless, to date, Vietnamese people, most of them living in rural areas, are still under the threat of over exploitation and exploration of the natural resources and environment as well as pollution due to their backward habits and poor behaviours. Slowing down the pace of destruction and bringing about a change towards a more sustainable use of the resources are other areas within the sector of Natural Resources and Environment which have received support and assistance from Sweden.

The recent economic success of Vietnam is, to a large extent, because of the agricultural productivity. As a result, the most significant progress is Vietnam’s transformation from being a rice importer to becoming the world’s second largest exporter. However, this success has come at a price, which is being paid today by the environment. In addition, the country’s poorest areas are still found in the rural districts and they are not able to benefit from the country’s economic success.
 
Sweden, therefore, continues its support and assistance in the area of natural resources and environment in the period 2004-2008 with the two major programmes Chia Se and SEMLA (Strengthening Environmental Management and Land Administration), with total Swedish contributions of 310 and 200 million SEK respectively. In addition, a number of smaller projects are being implemented in the areas of environmentally sustainable development such as Agenda 21, the Sida Environmental Fund (SEF), Core support to IUCN Vietnam Country Office.

The Strengthening Environmental Management and Land Administration (SEMLA) programme
This programme aims to achieve improved capacity at national, provincial and local levels to prevent and control pollution as well as to provide efficient and equitable services in land registration, land information, land use planning and land valuation.

Why SEMLA is needed?

Vietnam has had a stable economic growth rate around 7 - 8 percent and a continuously growing population over the past couple of years. The rapid pace of growth and industrialisation puts enormous strains on the environment by exploiting natural resources and increasing the levels of waste and pollution. If this level of economic growth continues, then according to international estimates, environmental pollution in Vietnam will increase four or five folds by the year 2020. The consequences would be in not only economic terms but also public health and bio-diversity. Fully recognised the situation, the Government of Vietnam is, in fact, making every effort to address these problems through the National Agenda 21 and other policy documents.

With support and assistance from Sweden, SEMLA has been designed to support policy and capacity development within the natural resources and environment sector in Vietnam. The programme assists the materialisation of Vietnam’s Government’s development objectives, among them Agenda 21, by improving the public administration for natural resources and environment. It is coordinated by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Hanoi. One fundamental aspect of the programme is to support the active participation of citizens and authorities on all levels. An important part of SEMLA is integrating environmental- and land use issues, an area largely neglected in Vietnam.

The programme runs for five years between 2005 and 2009 and have a budget of 250 million SEK; the Swedish Government’s contribution is 200 million SEK.

The participating provinces are
• Ha Giang
• Nghe An
• Ba Ria – Vung Tau
• Binh Dinh
• Dong Nai
• And Phu Yen

The programme finalised its Inception Phase (June 2004-June 2006) and started the full Implementation Phase from 1 July 2006. 

The content of SEMLA

The SEMLA programme plays a significant part in this vast work of creating an environment for sustainable development. One of the major obstacles in implementing the government policies is the limited knowledge and legislation of environmental issues and land use. That is why a substantial part of the programme is capacity building on all levels, from the individual citizens all the way to the ministries.

The SEMLA programme is divided into two components. In the National Component, the objective is to strengthen the capacity of the sector to provide natural resources and environmental management. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Hanoi is responsible for the implementation of this component. Six Thematic Advisory Groups are organised under the National Component.

The Special Component has been created for bilateral cooperation with the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Chemical Inspectorate. This component is implemented by Vietnam Environmental Protection Agency of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and by the Ministry of Industry. The objective of the Provincial Component is to strengthen the implementation capacity for planning and management in the selected provinces. The Provincial Component has projects within the following eight fields:

• Pollution prevention, control and rehabilitation
• Cleaner production
• Chemical safety
• Environmental impact and strategic environmental assessment systems
• Environmental land information systems
• Land use planning
• Land registration and real estate market development
• Provincial human capacity building and awareness raising

Another important part of SEMLA is to promote an integrated approach to natural resources, including land and environmental management. The key SEMLA processes linking land and environment are land use planning and strategic and environmental impact assessments. 

Building and supporting an efficient public administration on environmental management and land administration through SEMLA will directly contribute to a sustainable economic growth.

The SEMLA Programme has been built upon Sweden’s experience in more than twenty years of working in these fields in Vietnam through theSweden-funded  SEMA programme (Strengthening of the Environmental Management Authority of Vietnam) and CPLAR (Vietnam-Sweden Cooperation Programme on Land Administration Reform).

Environmentally Sustainable Development Programme

This is a type of umbrella programme, consisting of different components supporting the sustainable development and promoting public environmental awareness.

The programme has three components, namely: 

a.  The Agenda 21 Project, in which Sweden co-finances with UNDP;
b. Core Support to the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Vietnam Office;
c.  And Minor Environment Support.
These three components are interlined but independent from each other.

The Agenda 21 Project aims to support the second phase of the Agenda 21 Vie/01/021: “Formulation and Implementation of Vietnam’s National  Strategy toward Sustainable Development” (commonly known as Vietnam Agenda 21), being executed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Vietnam Agenda 21 will constitute the framework from which future project interventions will be defined in partnership with the Government and other donors. Vietnam Agenda 21 will also raise the awareness of sustainable development, strengthen the capacity of Agenda 21 implementation for the key groups of partners, and policy analysis and establish database on sustainable development.

The first phase of Vietnam Agenda 21 focused on drafting National Agenda 21 and preparing a report to Johannesburg. The draft of National Agenda 21 is expected to be approved by the Government of Vietnam soon.

The implementing responsibilities of Agenda 21 Project is the Ministry of Planning and Investment in close co-operation with UNDP/DANIDA in which UNDP plays the co-ordination role. Sweden’s support will help the project implement planned activities at full scale.

Major activities of the project:
1. Completion and adoption of Agenda 21. 
2. Support to the development of instruction for the implementation of Vietnam Agenda 21 at the central level. 
3. Vietnam Agenda 21 implementation oversight
4. Pilot Sector Agenda 21
5. Pilot Local Agenda 21
6. Awareness raising for some key target groups, including policy - makers and decision - makers.
7. Development of training materials and providing training courses to some key target groups
8. Publication and dissemination of sustainable development and Agenda 21 implementation
9. Research projects on sustainable development policy
10. Develop databases on sustainable development

The Core Support to IUCN is to help IUCN Vietnam Office implement its development programme for Vietnam. It will help improve the Office’s capacity to respond more effective interactions in sustainable development with a broad spectrum of Government institutions, agencies, civil society, NGOs and local communities.

IUCN Vietnam Office  is responsible for the implementation of this component. The Office works with Vietnamese authorities at the central level for policy and strategy as well as at local level for implementation of activities.

Main areas of support to IUCN Office in Vietnam 1. Ecosystems and livelihoods
2. Enabling policy
3. Legal and regulatory frameworks
4. Multilateral Environmental Agreements
5. Strengthening IUCN impacts and its constituency

The Minor Environmental Support finances small policy strategic studies on sustainable development, information dissemination or networking activities as well as minor environmental projects.

This component is managed by the Embassy and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to create opportunities for strategic studies.

Environmental Fund

Set up in August 1997, the Fundis to respond to the local initiatives in the field of nature conservation and sustainable development. This an independent fund, commonly known as the Sida Environmental Fund (SEF) has been managed by a Vietnamese Advisory Group which has  cooperated closely with the Embassy and followed strictly the Regulations and Guiding Principles, adopted since the establishment of the Fund. Some 200 projects throughout the country have received support from the Fund.

The Fund’s objectives are:
- to promote public awareness of and contribution by people at the grassroots level to environmental protection and resource conservation;
- to strengthen the capacity of local organisations (mass organisations, science-technology and professional associations, which have been considered as Vietnamese NGOs) and local institutions working with environmental issues;
- to facilitate information exchange and experience sharing on the implementation of activities by local communities.

Projects with support from the Environmental Fund mainly focused on providing training courses on environmental protection; implementing different pilot project activities; and transferring technical skills for sustainable farming and environmental sanitation. The bottom-up approach and participatory method with openness and transparency that have been introduced by the Environment Fund  have contributed to the development of civil society in the project sites.