Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -Vietnam needs a national strategy to combine environmental protection withsocio-economic development policies, Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh, President of the VietnamAssociation for Conservation of Nature and Environment has said.

Sinh made the remark in a talk held by the Ministry of Natural Resources andEnvironment (MONRE) and the Vietnam Association for Conservationof Nature and Environment in Hanoi recently. 

According to environmental experts, environmental security is a component ofnational security and a prerequisite for sustainable development.Environmental and natural resource issues can be the root of societal conflicts,so resources must be well-managed and potential disasters forestalled.

The Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environmentpointed out that Vietnam faces many threats to its environmental security, ofwhich climate change is the most serious.

The country is one of the countries projected to suffer the most from climatechange, with serious damage predicted from storms, floods and droughts.

Water resources have been badly affected by the impacts of climate changes.More than 50 percent of the area of river basins is located outside of thecountry, so many Vietnamese people depend on water from foreign countries - abig challenge in the current context. 

Despite many bilateral and multilateral cooperation mechanisms on waterresources development and protection, Vietnam still lacks the ability tomaintain autonomy and satisfy its water needs.

Regarding the ocean environment, according to researchers, 80 percent of coralreef area in the East Sea is declining, leading to decreases in fishpopulations. In addition, 70 – 80 percent of marine waste comes from factories,industrial zones and residential areas that are discharging untreatedwastewater and solid waste into rivers or the sea.

Natural calamities, especially storms, floods and droughts, have increaseddramatically in terms of quantity and seriousness in recent years.

Economic losses resulting from environmental and natural resources issues havebeen rising year by year.

According to the MONRE statistics, the losses are estimated at about 3-5 percentof annual GDP.

Environmental security is considered as a strategic issue in many othercountries.

Assoc. Prof. Pham Danh Son, an expert from the Vietnam Academy of SocialSciences, said the Government should consider issuing a national strategy onenvironmental security with a vision to 2035, with a key target of sustainableenvironment development and preparedness for climate change.

“Environmental security should be involved in the state management of naturalresources, environment and sustainable development at all levels, ranging fromstrategy and planning to sustainable development policies,” Son said.

The environmental status reports at national and local levels should beincluded in assessments of environmental security, he said.

In the long run, Vietnam should also work to develop legal mechanisms toenhance national environmental security.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Sinh said that the issue of environmental security has not beenproperly considered for many years. He suggested that in the short term,it is necessary to develop suitable criteria and a set of environmentalsecurity indicators designed specifically for Vietnam.

This set of indicators would guide management and policy making by providinginformation to managers and policymakers. They could use the information toassess the level of environmental security, and then calibrate policies andsolutions to ensure environmental security increases over time.

MONRE Deputy Minister Vo Tuan Nha said that Vietnam would need to work hard tobegin developing measures and regulations to achieve environmental security inall aspects.

“Sectors, localities, enterprises and the media agencies should jointly makeefforts to protect the environment,” said Nha. “Step by step we can handleconflicts on environmental security issues related to natural resources,ecological services, recovery of disaster and environmental incidents andtrans-boundary pollution management.”-VNA