VietNamNet Bridge – The revision of the Environmental Protection Law should put more emphasis on environmental planning and monitoring, says Viet Nam Environment Agency deputy director Le Ke Son at a recent workshop in Ha Noi.

International and domestic experts at the workshop discussed ways to revise the EP Law, seven years after the last revision in 2005.

The law should take a forward-looking approach to address emerging issues such as climate change, green growth and sustainable environment while filling the gaps of the current law with present-day realities, Son said.

The law was introduced for the first time in 1993, not long after Viet Nam opened up its economy. Son said the current EP law touched very lightly on environmental planning, which resulted in virtually very little being done.

He cited the project to build a hydro-electric power station near Cat Tien Park as an example of the consequences of a planning failure. The project had been put on hold until there was a final evaluation of its environmental impact assessment report.

"It turned out that there had been no environmental planning in the area at all. Had it had such planning, it was unlikely that the province would have approved the project. Now that investors have already poured a lot of money into it you ask for an environmental impact report. It doesn't work that way," he said.

Chairman of the Viet Nam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment Nguyen Ngoc Sinh said he was very concerned about the delegation of power in terms of evaluating environmental impact assessment reports.

Under current law, the authority to approve a report has been delegated to other ministries and local authorities, depending on the projects.

"Many experts believe this is a backward step in the Environmental Protection Law 2005," he said.

He said delegation of power was inevitable but there were just too many loopholes in the current law that needed fixing this time. Otherwise, it would continue to hinder the efficiency of environmental impact assessment reports as a fundamental management instrument in environmental protection.

Wanhua Yang, a senior legal officer of the United Nations Environment Programme, spoke of experiences of other countries in which the approval of impact reports stayed with environmental agencies at all levels.

She said in these countries it was believed that environmental agencies should exercise independent supervisory powers, separate from the government.

"If local governments or other ministries have both the authority to give permission to develop a project and approve a project's environmental impact assessment report at the same time, there may be no real checks and balances and it may constitute a conflict of interest," Yang said.

Monitoring

Son said more resources would go into strengthening the environmental monitoring system which was currently very fragmented and incomplete.

"Many a time we haven't been able to get monitoring data from localities, so how can we have an accurate picture about the environmental situation of the whole country?"

Yang agreed, saying sound monitoring was crucial because the efficiency of enforcement relied on it.

Sinh suggested that in the upcoming version of the law, there should be provisions to empower the community to play its role in environmental protection.

Sinh said that to empower the community in protecting the environment, the law had to make sure to cover all rights.

The community should be thoroughly informed about the environmental situation, should be allowed to take an initiative role in environmental protection activities, and be protected under the law when conducting such activities.

Yang said that in mobilising public action, some countries had moved beyond the traditional approach. Their environmental laws allowed environmental "public interest" litigation, which meant an individual or a group of individuals had the legal standing to sue in court on behalf of the public interest (people's environmental rights).

"It does not necessarily only involve civil society," she said. "If a country like China or Viet Nam allowed this mechanism, it would also mean the environmental agencies or prosecuting officials could sue on behalf of pollution victims."

While sharing many international lessons, Yang emphasised there was no one-size-fits-all formula. "An effective legislation depends on a country's economy reality and legal system," she said.

VietNamNet/VNS