Commercial breeding and trading of wild animals should be banned in Vietnam as it will decimate numbers in endangered species and drive them to the verge of extinction.

 Nearly 80 households set up tents to prevent the operations of Giang Sơn Manufacture, Trade and Services Joint-Stock Company’s asphalt mixing station on Monday night.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment yesterday afternoon put into operation an environmental surveillance station to supervise all waste discharge sources from Taiwanese Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company (FHS).

Vo Kim Cu, former Party Secretary and Chairman of Ha Tinh on Sunday talked with the press about the 70-year license granted for Formosa Ha Tinh steel after NA chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan said she would meet and urge him to talk to the press.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has been stepping up the inspection at of environmental pollution “hot spots” in the northern provinces of Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang, and the central city of Da Nang.

A special taskforce has been established to supervise the implementation of commitments to deal with consequences of the environmental disaster in central Vietnam, caused by Ha Tinh Formosa Steel in April, over a period ofthree years.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade is asking for the government’s proposal to stop the development of Hong Kong-based Lee&Man Paper Group’s $348 million pulp mill due to concerns over environmental pollution.

VietNamNet Bridge – The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is expected to continue the shift of investment flows into industries of high pollution risk in Vietnam like textile-dying, paper, iron and steel.

 Ha Tinh Province’s authority violated regulations by granting the Taiwanese-owned Formosa company a 70-year land lease, Deputy Government Inspector General Ngo Van Khanh said at a regular press conference yesterday.

 Intensifying the protection of forests in the Central Highlands from encroachment by hydro power plants, illegal deforestation and unplanned agricultural development would be the key to preserving water in this drought hit region, experts have said.

Quang Nam’s authorities are expanding an investigation into the illegal logging of a large amount of Fujian cypress in the border area adjacent to Laos.

A HCMC deputy said that the establishment of an interim committee to monitor Taiwanese-invested Hung Nghiep Formosa Steel, after it caused the recent environmental disaster to four coastal provinces in central Vietnam, is necessary.

The people in Ky Long ward in Ky Anh town of Ha Tinh province have unexpectedly found an additional hundreds of tons of waste originating from Taiwanese Formosa group’s steel plant at a private farm about 3 km from the plant.

 VietNamNet Bridge – Taiwanese-invested Viet Phuoc Agricultural Produce Co., Ltd. in Binh Phuoc province has been detected to throw hundreds of rotten pigs in the area adjacent to upper Saigon River.

VietNamNet Bridge – In Binh Chuong commune of Binh Son district in the central province of Quang Ngai, locals have thrown hundreds of dead chickens into the Thach Nham canal.

 An 1.3 kg hawksbill turtle, a rare species listed in the Red Book of Vietnam and the world, was released in the Mekong Delta province of Bac Lieu on July 19.

VietNamNet Bridge – In the last couples of days, caged fish in the lake of Mat Son in Thanh Hoa province died en masse, giving out a terrible smell. Local residents had to wear masks all day and night.

VietNamNet Bridge - Gaps in the law on environmental protection need to be addressed to curb pollution caused by investment projects, said experts and officials at a conference reviewing the environmental situation in the first half of the year.

Local people living along Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province are trying to adapt to the scant numbers of fish since the river was heavily polluted by Vedan Company eight years ago.

Over 80,000 labourers in the fishing industry and other marine businesses in Ha Tinh have received assistance in various forms from local authorities following the serious environmental incident that affected four provinces.