Vietnam Environment

The use of environmental pollutants by the U.S. during the Vietnam War has deeply damaged Vietnamese Nature. The US Air Force sprayed dioxin herbicides such as Agent Orange over the country, (about 40 million liters) which decomposed very slowly. Large land lines are still affected.

For example during the war, about half of the destroyed mangrove swamps can not regenerate themselves. The denuded hillsides in the interior can not be afforested, because it can only keep themselves resistant during the dry season and are very susceptible to wild fires. In the rainy season these regions suffer extremely severe erosion.

The toxin found its way into the food chain, caused by resulting genetic damage, including in significantly increased numbers of miscarriages, stillbirths and abortions. In addition to environmental toxins in the rural areas there are still a large number of unexploded bombs and land mines to be found.

Farmers are killed each year and scrap metal hunters are injured by exploding ammunition. A million hectares of tropical forests, which had previously been suffering under the herbicides, have been destroyed since the 1960s, by burning and deforestation.

While the government tried to put a stop to this, the pressure of the rapidly growing population and poverty in the mountain provinces meant the people again and again burned down the forest to obtain arable land.

Tropical hardwoods, such as teak are in Vietnam as in all of Southeast Asia and are gained illegally now, despite stringent legal provisions to produce furniture from European, American and Japanese markets.

There is some large foreign aid programs intended to enhance the environmental awareness of the Vietnamese. Government and environmental organizations have high hopes for the development of ecotourism. They have already established several national parks – the oldest of them back in 1962 – and some landscapes in the country are under special protection of UNESCO.