Monday, April 15, 2013

Vietnamese Updates: Social mobilization- a solution to the environmental protection (9 Apr 2013)


Social mobilization- a solution to the environmental protection

Thứ ba, ngày 09 tháng 04 năm 2013 cập nhật lúc 05:05

Solving environmental problems during the industrialization and modernization of the country is one of the important measures that the Government has issued. It refers to promoting the social mobilization with such  main contents as identifying  the responsibility of the State, individuals, organizations, communities, manufacturers, business and service enterprises in the environmental protection, creating a legal basis and policy mechanism to encourage community  to participate in protecting the environment, developing mass movements to protect the environment, to detect advanced models of environmental protection for propagation.


Socializing the environmental protection means to turn it into social work in which all people, organizations and individuals must be involved.

Socializing the environmental protection also refers to a new mechanism of operation and management in the environmental protection on the basis of co-responsibility  in order to exploit and effectively use the social resources for the environmental protection to achieve sustainable development.

Socializing the environmental protection implies the mobilization of the participation of the whole society in the environmental protection.

In other words, socializing  the environmental protection is to make the policy of environmental protection to change into obligations and rights of all social classes from the policy makers, managers to  individuals.

Socializing the environmental protection is harmoniously combined with the roles of the people, the investment and management of the State, the interests of the economic sectors to share responsibility and to reduce burden with the state.

Socializing the environmental protection can be applied in urban communities and rural areas It covers a wide range of aspects including the responsibilities and powers of the people, education, energy supply, housing, transportation and communication, improved water supply services and sanitation, maintenance of the life support services, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, forestry and rural industries, improvement of environmental degradation, natural  disasters recovery, decision - making, land use planning, and local drafted strategies for sustainable conservation and development.

Socializing the environmental protection is likely to mobilize social resources in order to minimise costs from the state budget, which creates more jobs for employees, more opportunities for enterprises and contributes to  the stability and efficient growth.

In addition, socializing the environmental protection creates jobs for a part of local labors, contributing to income increase,  poverty reduction , reducing the need for migration into urban centers, minimizing  social evils and conflicts caused by the rapid urbanization. Socializing the environmental protection also enhances the awareness and responsibility of the people to protect the environment, which helps to establish a nice cultural habit in the social community.

The real situation of socializing the environmental protection in Vietnam
Socialization of environmental protection work in Vietnam has been concretized through orientations /regulations in a number of important documents as follows:

- Resolution 41/NQ - TW dated 15.11.2004 of the Political Bureau on Environmental Protection in the period of industrialization and modernization has defined the responsibility of the State, individuals, organizations and communities manufacturers, business and service enterprises in the environmental protection,   encouraging all economic sectors to participate in collection, recycling, transportation of waste  and  other services for  environmental protection. Establishing rules, conventions, and commitments to environmental protection is also included in the Resolution.

-  The Law on Environmental Protection 2005 confirmed that protecting the environment is the cause of the whole society, the rights and responsibility of all organizations and individuals. The State shall encourage and create favorable conditions for organizations and individuals to set up businesses for environmental protection services in the areas of collection, recycling and disposal of waste.

- The Law on Environmental Protection 2005 of Vietnam stipulates that such activities as waste recycling and disposal, clean energy production, renewable energy production are exempted from income tax , value added tax, environmental tax, and environmental fees. In addition, organizations and individuals that invest in environmental protection are given priority of loans from the Environmental Protection Fund, in the case of loans from other creditors for environmental protection shall be considered for interest subsidy.

1.  The real situation of socializing the environmental protection
So far, there have been various types of activities in which organizations and individuals are involved, especially investment in the field of environmental development from many sources, the non - public environmental services are initially formed.  Such fields as collection, transportation, disposal, collection and transportation of hazardous waste (including medical waste), and water treatment are rapidly developed.

2Some limitations of socializing the environmental protection
There remains some limitations of socializing the environmental protection as following:

-  The legal provision of encouraging private sectors to deeper participate in the environmental protection is not made up.
-  There lacks qualified manpower in the field of environmental protection, which hinders the effectiveness of disseminating activities and community awareness.
-  There lacks investment incentives in terms of capital and technology in the field of environmental protection.

 In short, socializing the environmental protection and resource management is neither  effective nor capable of  mobilizing the people to protect the environment. There is no specific assignment  or resource investment for an organization with the state management function to monitor comprehensive socialization of environmental protection activities.                                                                      
                                                               
Solutions to implementing the socialization of environmental protection

1.Disseminating and enhancing the awareness of environmental protection
Socializing the environmental protection refers to making it become  a common task of the whole society. Due to the centrally subsidized mechanism for a long time, the people get used to be dependent on the State. Therefore, disseminating and enhancing the people’s awareness of environmental protection plays an important part.
 It is necessary to state the purpose and significance of environmental protection so that everyone and organizations in the society should realize and be self-conscious to pay for environmental protection services/ fees. The contents of dissemination and education of environmental protection include:

- Conducting regularly the dissemination and education task, providing  the people in villages and wards with environmental information such as  policies, regulations and law on environmental protection; situation of pollution and polluters, some measures for environmental hygiene,  setting  good examples of environmental protection and criticizing the environmental violations, building a civilized lifestyle, maintaining good hygiene, saving energy in various forms, using loudspeakers  in communes, villages to broadcast daily.

- Training, organizing workshops on  environment with such  contents as fostering knowledge for local staff,  providing methods, techniques and experiences of  education for the community.

-  Teaching environmental issues at school of all levels, which helps to promote environmental protection at the grassroots (rural hamlets, communes, wards and towns).

- Education in the family: Family role is important, and family  perception  is the basic value ​​of the community especially  the role of women because they are responsible for  educating their  descendants to keep the environment clean.

2 Developing  an  appropriate model of  management
Depending on the socio-economic conditions, natural conditions and the local environmental conditions  to choose an  appropriate organizational  model to manage the implementation of environmental protection in the most effective way.

3. Launching movements  of  environmental protection
Plans and emulations should be promoted in conjunction with the overall emulations  on a national scale. It can be attached to the special celebrations, holidays,  hygiene Sundays, weeks of clean water and environmental sanitation.

It is necessary to  choose the type of emulations launched in accordance with qualifications and abilities of various participation objects, such as population groups, organizations, schools, manufacturers and the people.
Developing  pilot and  advanced models of the environmental  protection  in a sustainably ecological  way  such as villages, streets, wards,  cultured family, clean  and qualified product manafacturers . With the reality of the current socialization, the achievements are relatively modest,  pollution is not reduced yet but  tends to spread and become worse. In order to effectively prevent from this phenomenon, beside other factors such as technological research on  environmental protection, state efforts, innovative production technology, socializing environmental  protection   should be further promoted.
Le Mai
For more information: 
http://www.monre.gov.vn/v35/default.aspx?tabid=675&CateID=58&ID=126578&Code=4QWC126578

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