Vietnam energy development toward 2020

 Sea desertification is a problem that is becoming more severe around the globe, including in Vietnam.

Nearly 60 kilometres away from the centre of HCMC, Can Gio Mangrove has been recognised by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve with primeval forests and abundant floral cover. It was also the sight of a number of glorious battles in the past.

 The Tram Chim National Park, a half-year dry, another-half flooded land, spanning over 7,312 hectares in Tam Nong district, Dong Thap province is habitated by hundreds of species of flora and fauna.

 Reuse Everything Institute Inc of Finland has agreed to fund a biodiversity research project in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve that will contribute to protecting the endangered red-shanked douc langur (Pygathryx nemaeus).

 Only around 100 wild elephants, and an additional 60 in captivity, remain in Viet Nam, with most living in Dak Lak, Dong Nai and Nghe An provinces, a conference on elephant conservation heard on Wednesday.

 A meeting was held in Hanoi on January 12 to report on the implementation of the Vietnam National Green Growth Strategy in the 2012-2016 period.

 In the early 1960s, a young ornithologist successfully persuaded Vietnam’s top leaders, including its founding president, Ho Chi Minh, to designate a tract of land near the capital as the country’s first national park.

Projects which fail to meet waste treatment requirements would be rejected, and completed projects would only be put into operation when their treatment of waste water treatment met environmental standards.

 More than 100 volunteers, including students, representatives from businesses, NGOs, and government agencies, and in particular US Ambassador to Vietnam H.E. Ted Osius, took part in the second clean-up of Ha Long Bay on January 10.

 The Hanoi People’s Committee on January 9 launched an online service with information about weather conditions and environment indexes, including air quality index, rainfall and flooding.

 Sea water and wastewater samples related to mass clam deaths in central Thanh Hoa Province have failed to meet environment criteria, said Le Van Binh, head of the Environmental Protection Branch.

 Visitors have flocked to a 30-ha lake in Hai Phong City over the past month after the water suddenly changed colour.

 The issuance of a national plan to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change and the completion of maps of the Vietnam-Laos borderline are among outstanding events relating to natural resources and environment in 2016.

 Stepping up water resources planning is among the core tasks the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has set for 2017, aiming to complete a national water resources planning by 2020 and others for major river basins.

  Erosion is threatening residential areas and shrimp farming land in coastal areas of Go Cong and Tan Phu Dong districts in the southern Tien Giang Province.

 Limitations in treating large amounts of waste generated by thermal power plants are threatening their operations, experts say.

 Police in central Hà Tĩnh Province’s Kỳ Thọ Commune discovered 12 dead langurs wrapped in newspapers on a passenger bus that was pulled over for a regular check in Kỳ Anh District.

 Noise pollution in big cities and urban areas has become more severe, badly affecting residents’ quality of life, but punishment of polluters remains ineffective.

 The largest ever number of rare Java pangolin (Manis javanica), 54 individuals, have been released into the wild recently by the Save Vietnam’s Wildlife in coordination with Cuc Phuong National Park and Hanoi Wildlife Rescue Centre.