Vietnam's environment deteriorating
HANOI - The Vietnamese natural environment, which
supports one of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems,
has deteriorated rapidly over the past 10 years, the World Bank
said in a report released last week.
Vietnam is home to about 10 percent of the world's species, said
the report, titled Vietnam Environment Monitor 2002. Yet, of
Vietnam's endemic species, 28 percent of mammals, 10 percent of
birds and 21 percent of reptile and amphibian species are now
endangered, mainly because of habitat loss and hunting, the report
said.
"There has been a drastic decline in environmental quality, but the
government is beginning to take steps to counter the decline,"
World Bank environmental specialist Patchamuthu Illangovan said.
"This is a huge challenge."
The report was funded by the Danish International Development
Agency and designed to raise awareness of policy-makers as well
as donor countries and ordinary Vietnamese citizens, Illangovan
said.
The report said communist Vietnam's cultivated land area has
increased 38 percent over the past decade, with 50 percent of the
country's land now classified as having poor soils because of
human activity.
Forested land area has increased, but the quality of forests has
declined, it said.
About 96 percent of Vietnam's coral reefs are now severely
threatened, while more than 80 percent of its mangrove forests -- a
spawning ground for marine life -- have been lost, the report said.
Over the past decade, Vietnam's economy has doubled in size and
poverty has been reduced from 70 percent of the population to
about 35 percent -- one of the fastest declines in the world,
according to the World Bank.
But over the past five years, only 0.85 percent of the national
budget has gone to environmental protection, "so it gets very low
priority," Illangovan said.
The Associated Press - September 21, 2002.
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