Environment

Hundreds of thousands of dead fish were left floating in a Chinese river after a chemical discharge, officials said Wednesday, the latest industrial accident to pollute the country's battered environment.

Local people in Hai Duong Province are calling on authorities to stop operation of a waste-recycling plant because it causes serious pollution.

In HCM City, a million trees have been planted on an area of 600ha in all 24 districts as part of a programme to increase the green cover.

The Marshall Islands symbolically disposed of confiscated shark fins at sea Tuesday in a ceremony witnessed by regional leaders attending the Pacific Islands Forum.

Several dozen people were injured when a tornado ripped through parts of eastern Japan on Monday, tearing off roofs and uprooting buildings.

Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai has told all localities to make sure their reservoirs were safe following reports that several hundred are already showing signs of degradation.

A long-term public awareness campaign aimed at reducing demand for rhinocerous horn among the community has just been launched.

A small hydro-power plant project is going through the final procedures before being built in the Chu Yang Sin National Park in Dak Lak Province.

Alang Thi Hoa once entered the forest every day to look for firewood to sell. Hoa, from central Quang Nam Province's Ma Cooih Commune, like many other locals, lives close to A Vuong forest.

Environmental experts have just outlined the potential climate change and sea level rise scenarios for Vietnam in 2015.

Municipal officials are calling for punishment for those running illegal wharves that have been operating along rivers and canals in the city for a long time despite orders to shut down.

An August 22 high resolution weather forecast conference in Hanoi has warned Vietnam is facing higher temperatures, lower summer rainfall totals, stronger storms, and rising sea levels from now until 2050.

The Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in the central province of Quang Binh has been expanded to 123,326 ha from the previous 85,754 ha under a recent decision of the Prime Minister.

Human activity is almost certainly the cause of climate change and global sea levels could rise by several feet by the end of the century, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report leaked to media.

China, the United States and Qatar were accused of environmental plunder on Tuesday as green activists marked "Earth Overshoot Day," the date at which mankind has exhausted a year's budget of natural resources.

Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Environment Bui Cach Tuyen has urged that environmental planning must be part of the country's plans for socio-economic development.

The four-month-old Mao Khe Thermal Power Plant in northern Quang Ninh Province's Dong Trieu District is said to be polluting the environment.

The annual flooding of rice fields by the Mekong River is expected to occur earlier than normal this year, according to the delta's main disaster prevention agencies.

An August 15 seminar in Hanoi has warned the 80% reduction in Vietnamese mangrove forest area and 96% of coral reefs seriously damaged over the past five decades pose significant threats to the country’s biodiversity.