Environment

Unnatural and harmful fishing methods are depleting fish stocks in unsustainable ways across the country, but localities lack the means to stop them, a Tin Tuc report says.

Thousands of people in the central Quang Ngai Province's Hoa Binh Village earn money by recycling used tyres, regardless of the environment pollution and health risks.

New species of plants and creatures discovered in Vietnam -- 70 last year -- are already endangered.

Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh told participants at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) yesterday that "it is time for us to take action" on the sustainable management of water resources and climate-change agreements.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has recommended that the Government should not lift the ban on the construction of an urban area in Dong Nai Province that involves massive encroachment into a major river.

The Prime Minister has approved a project to develop LED (lighting-emitting diode) lighting technology in Vietnam partly funded by the United Nations Development Programme via the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Many localities in Vietnam continue to be blighted by illegal sand mining, which is damaging the environment and affecting local residents, with authorities seemily powerless to stop them.

All regions in Vietnam are likely to experience higher temperatures and less rain falls between June and August this year compared to the yearly average level, an agency has said.

The northeastern province of Quang Ninh promised to transfer all bears in residential areas to the Tam Dao Bear Rescue Centre in the northern province of Vinh Phuc in June.

The natural forests in Huong Lam and Huong Xuan Communes of Huong Khe District in the central province of Ha Tinh have been seriously devastated, turned into bare hills just within one month.

The province's seafood resource protection department released 24kg of juvenile lobsters into the ocean yesterday afternoon, in an attempt to save the crustaceans from illegal traders.

More than 1,000 people on Saturday participated in a biking activity in HCM City's District 7 to mark the annual World Environment Day (June 5).

Livestock is dying and the lives of many people in Gio Quang Commune, Quang Tri Province, are at risk because of pollution from a fish meal processing factory in Quang Ngang Industrial Park.

The National Hydro-meteorological Forecasting Centre yesterday said the country's northern and central regions would continue to experience dry and hot weather through Sunday at least.

Deputy Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said 13 households involved in the recycling of lead should be shifted out of the northern Hung Yen Province's Dong Mai craft village immediately.

More than 1,600 people were dispatched to control a fire that broke out yesterday and destroyed some 20 hectares of pine forest in the Hau Loc and Hoang Hoa districts.

The Prime Minister has issued a decision on the collection and treatment of waste products.

The Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MoNRE) will ask the Government to postpone a controversial urban development project on the Dong Nai riverbank.

The HCM City People's Committee has submitted a plan to State officials to address the city's flooding problems.