Public involvement in enviromental impact assessment in vietnam

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW -*** -MANAGING BOARD OF SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAMS HOÀNG THỊ HOÀI THU PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM THESIS in partial fulfillment of the requirements for BACHELOR OF LAWS Faculty: Commercial Law Course: 2013 – 2017 HO CHI MINH CITY, 2017 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF LAW -*** -MANAGING BOARD OF SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAMS HOÀNG THỊ HOÀI THU PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM THESIS in partial fulfillment of the requirements for BACHELOR OF LAWS Faculty: Commercial Law Course: 2013 – 2017 Supervisor: LLM Nguyễn Phúc Thủy Hiền Student: Hoàng Thị Hoài Thu Student code: 1353801011231 Class: 44-CLC38B HO CHI MINH CITY, 2017 DECLARATION I declare that: This thesis is conducted under the guidance of LLM Nguyen Phuc Thuy Hien and is wholly my own work, truthful and in compliance with the rules on citations, annotations of references I am fully responsible for this declaration Hoang Thi Hoai Thu ABBREVIATION EIA Environmental impact assessment NGO Non-governmental organization UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNEP United Nations Environmental Programme TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER GENERAL THEORY OF PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT 10 1.1 Overview of environmental impact assessment 10 1.1.1 History of environmental impact assessment .10 1.1.2 Roles and importance of environmental impact assessment 11 1.2 Theoretical matters of public involvement in environmental impact assessment 13 1.2.1 Definition 13 1.2.2 Purposes and objectives of public involvement in environmental impact assessment 16 1.2.3 Principles of public involvement in environmental impact assessment 18 1.2.4 Importance of public involvement in environmental impact assessment 20 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM FROM LEGAL PERSPECTIVE 22 2.1 Overview of Vietnamese regulations on public involvement in environmental impact assessment 22 2.1.1 Before the effective date of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 22 2.1.2 After the effective date of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 23 2.2 Form of public involvement 25 2.2.1 Public consultation 25 2.2.2 Means of consultation 26 2.2.3 Correspondence and comparison 26 2.3 Subjects of public involvement 28 2.3.1 Subjects to be consulted under related Vietnamese regulations 28 2.3.2 Highlights of prevailing Vietnamese regulations on the subjects of public involvement .30 2.4 Procedures for public involvement 34 2.4.1 Consultation with the Commune People’s Committee of the area where the project is implemented and organizations that are directly affected by the project .35 2.4.2 Consultation with the community that is directly affected by the project .36 2.4.3 Miscellaneous provisions 38 2.5 Comments on Vietnamese regulations on public involvement in environmental impact assessment 39 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 40 CHAPTER PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM FROM PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE AND PROPOSALS FOR VIETNAM 41 3.1 Practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam 41 3.1.1 Public involvement in environmental impact assessment in several typical cases 41 3.1.2 Constraints on implementation of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam 43 3.1.3 Highlights on practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam .46 3.2 Proposals for enhancing public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam 47 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 49 CONCLUSION 50 LIST OF REFERENCES INTRODUCTION Rationale of the topic Industrialization and modernization are necessary for every nation, including Vietnam, on its way to attain a higher development However, the term of development should be interpreted in the light of the relation among economy and other aspects on the basis that “which implies meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”, which is referred to as a sustainable development recognized by the United States.1 Thus, it is obvious that a multidisciplinary approach is needed to handle the analysis of social, economic and environment dimensions and their interactions It is also clear that coordination is required amongst the various authorities concerned with different sectors.2 This can help balance the interests of different groups who focus on different fields and foster the sustainable development For this goal to be achieved, those groups, who are the public in general, should be involved in the development process Regarding environmental aspect, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has become a widely used policy instrument for promoting environment sustainability.3 In Vietnam, EIA was first recognized in the Law No 29-L/CTN dated 27 December 1993 and then in Law No 52/2005/QH11 dated 29 November 2005 and Law No 55/2014/QH13 dated 23 June 2014 on Environmental Protection (“LEP 1993”, “LEP 2005” and “LEP 2014” respectively) Nevertheless, Vietnamese practice of EIA has shown many problems A number of competent officers and investors have not been aware of the important role of this process They usually see the requirement of making EIA report as a mandatory step in procedures for a project’s preparation Some of them even blame EIA for constraining the investment Therefore, EIA has been done only as a procedural step regardless of the existent environmental impacts and risks.4 In the period from 2011 to the first six months of 2016, environmental incidents caused by improper waste management of projects and industrial units The General Assembly of the United States (1987), Report No 42/187 on the World Commission on Environment and Development, 96th plenary meeting, New York Stephen B., Barry D and Jules P (1995), Participation in strategies for sustainable development, Environmental Planning Issues, No 7, Chapter one Charles H., Virginia M and Geoffrey M (2010), “The role of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam: towards a more culturally sensitive approach”, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Vol 53:3, p 405 People and Nature Reconciliation (2009), Environmental impact assessment in Vietnam: From regulations to practice (in Vietnamese: Đánh giá tác động môi trường Việt Nam: Từ pháp luật đến thực tiễn), pp 5-6 increased in both quantity and severity.5 Among those incidents, the one that cannot be ignored is the environmental pollution caused by Formosa (Ha Tinh) This has been an evidence for such a formalistic implementation of EIA in Vietnam.6 Theoretically, the content of EIA report shall include result of public involvement during its proceedings The reason is that the inclusion of the views of affected and interested public helps to ensure the decision making process is equitable and fair and leads to more informed choices and better environmental outcomes.7 In Vietnam, involvement of public in EIA was officially prescribed only from the adoption of LEP 2005 but its appearance was quite meager Since LEP 2014 was promulgated, public involvement in EIA has been upgraded to a higher level as compulsory public consultation (save for some exceptions8) It seems a positive signal for the future of environmental protection in Vietnam However, in practice, public consultation in EIA has done much less than expectation to enhance sustainable environmental development due to many reasons Furthermore, the activity of public consultation is basically a part of public involvement This is also a notable shortcoming in Vietnamese environmental regulations, which may limit the public’s ability to actively participate in EIA of projects affecting their own life Despite a great number of scholars working on EIA in Vietnam, public involvement in this field has not been an attractive topic For those reasons, the author chooses the topic “Public Involvement in Environmental Impact Assessment in Vietnam” for this Bachelor thesis with the purpose of enhancing public involvement and its effectiveness in the Vietnamese EIA system Literature review To complete this thesis, the author has searched for as many relevant documents for references as possible The documents found belong to a variety of paper types such as bachelor thesis, journal article, master thesis, report, training Ministry of Resources and Environment (2016), Report on the status of national environmental situation in the period 2011-2015 (in Vietnamese: Báo cáo trạng môi trường quốc gia giai đoạn 2011-2015), p 235 Thu Trang (2016), “Inadequacy of environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Bất cập đánh giá tác động môi trường), http://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/bat-cap-trong-danh-gia-tac-dong-moi-truong20160731223502268.htm, accessed on 04 July 2017 UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (2002), EIA Training Resource Manual: Issues, Trends, and Practice (Second edition), p 159 According to Paragraph 3, Article 21 of the LEP 2014, the projects which are not required to conduct public consultation include (i) those are in conformity with the planning of concentrated manufacturing, trading and servicing areas of which the EIA report approved for the infrastructural construction stage; (ii) those are in the list of state secrets material, etc A number of those have provided the author with a wide range of information regarding the topic and more than one way to effectively the research The author has been through the literature review as follows: References in Vietnamese: Vo Trung Tin (2006), Regulations on environmental impact assessment in Vietnam – practice and proposal for improvement (in Vietnamese: Pháp luật đánh giác tác động môi trường Việt Nam – Thực trạng hướng hoàn thiện), Master thesis, HCMC University of Law, in which he provides general knowledge of EIA in Vietnam from legal as well as practice perspectives Moreover, he submits several proposals to help perfect Vietnamese regulations on EIA Tran Thi Quang Hong, Truong Hong Quang (2011), “To improve regulations on environmental impact assessment in Vietnam” (in Vietnamese: Hoàn thiện pháp luật đánh giá tác động môi trường Việt Nam nay), Jurisprudence Journal, Hanoi Law University, Vol and Chu The Huyen (2014), “Regulations on environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Pháp luật đánh giá tác động môi trường - Thực trạng giải pháp), Journal of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vol 5(187) which supply general information on Vietnamese regulations on EIA and then assess the effectiveness of those in relation to Vietnamese practice, focusing on the content of making EIA report Khac Doan (2011), “Environmental impact assessment in Vietnam: from awareness to action” (in Vietnamese: Đánh giá tác động môi trường Việt Nam từ nhận thức đến hành động), Journal of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vol 9(119) which gives out existent examples from practice of EIA in Vietnam and has assessment on EIA process in the nation In this paper, weakness of the right on appraisal and monitoring of authority is recognized, while the right of public to participate in EIA process is not mentioned However, it is important to note that the above papers are based on the expired LEP 2005 Vu Mai (2015), “Community: Factor of marine environmental protection” (in Vietnamese: Cộng đồng – Nhân tố nghiệp bảo vệ môi trường biển), Journal of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vol 11(217) emphasizes the importance of community involvement in environmental protection activity in general and in marine environmental protection activity in particular Nguyen Ngoc Minh Vy (2016), Vietnamese regulations on environmental impact assessment (Pháp luật Việt Nam đánh giá tác động môi trường), Bachelor thesis, HCMC University of Law synthetizes general and basic knowledge relating to Vietnamese regulations on EIA including the issue on public consultation Nguyen Trung Thanh (2015), Regulations on environmental impact assessment of investment projects (in Vietnamese: Pháp luật đánh giác tác động môi trường dự án đầu tư), Master thesis, HCMC University of Law which provides analysis of prevailing Vietnamese regulations on EIA of investment project Specifically, the author clarifies almost relevant issues including public consultation during EIA process Since that, he makes his own recommendation to improve the effectiveness of EIA in Vietnam These works are carried out basing on the prevailing LEP 2014 As a result, they are updated source of information which is usefully applied to this thesis In general, the Vietnamese research papers have done much on EIA, but little on the right of public to participate in this process References in English: J William Futrell (1988), “Public participation in Soviet environmental policy”, Pace environmental law review, Vol makes comparison between Soviet citizen participation theory and American participation theory which is mainly explained by the differences between politic systems of the two countries This may be an experience applied to Vietnam of which many similarities with Soviet in political and legal system Chu H V (1998), Public participation in the environmental impact assessment system of Hong Kong, Thesis, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong which focuses on the explication on the extent of public participation within the current EIA system of Hong Kong and recommendation for improvements there needed Leroy Paddock (2004), “Environmental accountability and public involvement”, Pace environmental law review, Volume 21, Number discusses the matter of public involvement as a critical element of environmental accountability in the US from legal and practical perspectives He then makes recommendations to enhance the environmental accountability through public participation in relevant activities Yuhuan Z., Xiaowen L., YunjunY., Guojian B., Yu L., Yingxian L (2012), “Challenge of Public Participation in China’s EIA Practice”, in “Proceedings of IAIA12, Energy Future, the Role of Impact assessment, Porto, Portugal, 25 May – and write was still at 21%88 which was a quite high rate The goal of eliminating the illiteracy, particularly of ethnic minority community has been found challenging Illiteracy of the local community is a significant barrier to their access to environmental information, especially those concerning EIA of the projects 3.4.2.2 Linguistic and cultural diversity Vietnam is a multi-ethnic country with existence of 54 ethnic groups and a foreign group89 living throughout the nation Actually, this is closely connected to the rationale of illiteracy rate mentioned above as mostly illiterate population belong to the ethnic minorities Theoretically, it is good that Vietnamese people have different cultures and constitutional right to freedom of belief and religion Nonetheless, the complexity of this variety sometimes may be an obstacle to civil administration and management The World Bank found that “in some situations, affected groups may have difficulty voicing their concerns For example, ethnic, religious, gender and racial boundaries may make it difficult for some groups to come forward”.90 In Vietnamese EIA context, diversity without appropriate and effective encouragement may lead to poor involvement of the public 3.4.2.3 The public’s lack of knowledge about certain types of projects The first reason to be addressed is that the public mostly gain information concerning consultation by being provided instead of actively asking for information Accordingly, they only have a passive and limited environmental information access, which cannot provide them optimal knowledge of the project and its EIA process Another reason is that there are various information regarding certain complicated types of projects, for example infrastructure, that are not easy for the general public to digest In connection with other constraints, the possibility of improving their understandings, especially in specialized and professional fields, is merely a hope 3.4.2.4 Unequal access to consultative and participatory processes Despite the fact that Vietnamese people are entitled to fairness regardless of gender, religion, etc., they not actually have equal access to all sectors, especially susceptible ethnic minorities and women 88 Ha Cuong and Minh Duc (2016), “Eliminating ethnic minorities’ illiteracy is challenging” (in Vietnamese: Xóa mù chữ vùng đồng bào dân tộc gặp khó) , http://www.cema.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tuc-su-kien/y-te-giaoduc/xoa-mu-chu-vung-dong-bao-dan-toc-van-gap-kho.htm, accessed on 03 July 2017 89 General Statistics Office of Vietnam (1979), “List of Vietnamese ethnics” (in Vietnamese: Danh mục dân tộc Việt Nam), promulgated with Decision No 121/TCTK/PPCD dated 02 March 2979 90 World Bank, supra (20), p 44 The susceptible ethnic minorities are found having difficulties in almost all aspects to involve in EIA, therefore improving their role in the process is a real challenge Regarding the women, it is found that during consultation with the affected community, they usually had specific concentration on livelihood and 91 environment They play an important role in environmental protection not only in their family but also in society However, in Vietnam, it is not clear whether women in rural ethnic minorities have the same voice as those in urban 92 and access to information, language barrier, prejudice of women’s position and knowledge also make them unable to express their opinions and concerns93 3.4.2.5 Remoteness of some stakeholders This constraint has directly led to the others Generally, those living in remote areas, such as indigenous people, may lack their necessary language skills, information, or knowledge of how to “work the system”.94 In Vietnam, public consultation in big cities such as Ha Noi or Ho Chi Minh are well conducted, while those in remote, poor, backward and low educational areas are almost ignored, or done in a formalistic manner.95 Additionally, it takes them more time and costs them more money to participate in community meetings, which thus affects their willing to an active and effective involvement in EIA process Meanwhile, there are more and more development projects seeking for rural and remote areas for implementation Therefore, arrangement and balance of interest and convenience of those living in remote areas should be paid more attention 3.4.2.6 Financial costs and time constraints Finance and time requirements for an EIA process are subject to complexity level of the project and greatness degree of its impacts Currently, in Vietnam, the time and money budget for conducting EIA in general, for carrying out consultations in the process of EIA in particular, is too short, too little 96 This challenges the ability to make actual and effective EIA outcomes 3.4.2.7 Other constraints Aside from the aforementioned significant constraints, there are a number of 91 Thu Trang, supra (74) Charles H., Virginia M and Geoffrey M., supra (3), pp 408 – 409 93 Thu Trang, supra (74) 94 World Bank, supra (20), p 95 People and Nature Reconciliation, supra (46) 96 Nguyen Khac Kinh, supra (56) 92 45 different ones which may constrain meaningful public involvement For instance, dominance of interest groups which may bring conflicting and divergent views and vested interests Other barriers to citizen involvement included poorly conducted EIA, a lack of qualified EIA consultants, and limited alternatives to the selected projects, etc.97 3.4.3 Highlights on practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam Practice of public consultation in EIA in Vietnam has not been as good as expectation This partly comes from the shortcomings of Vietnamese regulations on public involvement in EIA and also from the constraints on the implementation Firstly, regarding subjects of public consultation, it is challenging to identify the community that is directly affected by a project In practice, this has been loosely interpreted For example, they may be the local citizens living in the commune where the project is implemented, or those affected by land retrieval, or those whose crops, house, resettlement affected, etc Accordingly, a few households are asked for opinions on resettlement or compensation, but nothing on the project’s impacts.98 Another inadequacy concerning the subjects of public consultation is that the investors normally ignore all groups of stakeholders, save for Commune People’s Committee and Committee of Commune Fatherland Front According to Associate Prof Dr Le Anh Tuan, in most EIA processes, community consultation step was carelessly conducted He also indicated that many people hired to EIA did only contact Commune People’s Committee and Committee of Commune Fatherland Front, and invite a few representatives of the citizens to the meetings, at which they generally talked about the project’s objectives, mainly emphasizing its advantages for easier approval.99 Meanwhile, the local authority and community have none or a little specific understanding of scientific matters such as the project’s operation and pollution treatment In respect of consultation with local authorities, it is found that there are projects of which consultation results have been preparatory printed for Commune People’s Committee to sign and stamp after a short meeting.100 In most cases, the commune authorities approve the project, and only show their care on appropriate compensation The reason is that these agencies would not like to non97 Charles H., Virginia M and Geoffrey M., supra (3), p 421 Hong Hieu, supra (76) 99 Hong Hieu, supra (76) 100 Thanh Thao (2013), “Consultation in the EIA process should be carefully considered”, Vietnam Forum of Environmental Journalists, available online at http://vfej.vn/vn/4206n/can-xem-xet-ky-tham-van-dtm-cua-duan-phat-trien.html, accessed on 25 June 2017 98 46 comply with the higher authorities and their policy on investment attraction.101 Moreover, there has not been any project of which participation of scientists, related enterprises or social organizations102 or third party for prevention of subjective discussion are paid attention.103 Secondly is a problem relating to procedures of public consultation in EIA That relevant information is not sufficiently provided to the public challenges them in making actual and comprehensive feedbacks Furthermore, the communities’ opinions have not been actually reflected in EIA reports, which cannot express their real expectation.104 In a survey done by Charles and his colleges, they found that public participants were paid a small stipend to attend public meetings and this was the only purpose for their participation since they had other priorities, specifically spending doing other things, earning, etc.105 Another thing is that, in such a short meeting, the citizens usually pay the only attention to compensation and land retrieval In general, there are rarely EIA reports which include meaningful, complete and truthful consultation results Many EIA reports even have the same feedbacks of Commune People’s Committees and Committee of Commune Fatherland Front and the same spelling mistakes.106 For these reasons , public consultation in EIA in Vietnam is still concluded to mainly remain its formalistic meaning 3.5 Proposals for enhancing public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam Public involvement as well planned and organized will less likely to result in delays and excessive costs For enhancing public involvement’s degree as well as its effectiveness in the EIA process in Vietnam, the following proposals should be taken into consideration (i) More subjects should be involved Currently, the subjects that are to be consulted cannot ensure optimal EIA outcomes In order to have more valuable information, enhance objective manner and ensure the effectiveness, there are more subjects that should be involved in Vietnamese EIA system Specifically, involvement of the NGOs, mass organizations, and also the ones who are interested in enhancing the EIA reports such as scientists, professionals or specialists should be all recognized Moreover, 101 Hong Hieu, supra (76) Le Anh Tuan, supra (78) 103 Hong Hieu, supra (76) 104 Lam Nhi, supra (79) 105 Charles H., Virginia M and Geoffrey M., supra (3), p 419 106 Nguyen Khac Kinh, supra (56) 102 47 the involvement of People’s Committee at district level is also needed, especially in case of large scale projects (ii) Comprehensive information dissemination and early involvement The present mechanism for information disclosure is insufficient, together with late involvement of the public in the EIA process may prevent the public from having comprehensive and actual feedbacks Accordingly, all relevant information must be disclosed to the public by various methods, particularly by mass media which is the fastest and the most convenient way for the public to access the necessary information A channel for the public to actively require the relevant information should be built In addition, national as well as local environmental data bases should be soon finished to foster access to relevant information.107 Furthermore, the public should be involved earlier in the EIA process, ideally from the step of scoping at which the key issues and impacts are identified This help to foster a thorough involvement and contribute to more effective EIA outcomes (iii) Improve mechanisms for communication and public defense The consultation with the Commune People’s Committee and the affected organizations is conducted by written correspondence, which lacks of direct interactive communication Although public meeting held for consultation with the affected community is found more interactive, its effectiveness is still limited due to many constraints Moreover, there has not been any mechanism for public defense to EIA making process conducted by the investor As a result, mechanism for actual and comprehensive communication and public defense among the stakeholders should be set up by applying more methods, especially holding actual public meetings instead of public hearings and using mass media to foster the communication (iv) Administrative sanctions for violation regarding conducting public consultation The regulations on administrative sanctions for violations regarding environmental sector has been much focused on making EIA report but totally silent on conducting public consultation Although the result of consultation must be included in the report, it only reflects a formalistic content Therefore, it is necessary to supplement appropriate administrative sanctions for violations of the investors regarding conducting public consultation in the EIA process to create 107 Nguyen Van Cuong (2015), “Improving the effectiveness of environmental information access” (in Vietnamese: Nâng cao hiệu lực thực thi tiếp cận thông tin môi trường), http://www.thiennhien.net/2015/06/03/nang-cao-hieu-luc-thuc-thi-tiep-can-thong-tin-moi-truong/, accessed on 28 May 2017 48 actual outcomes CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER Despite the fact that the prevailing Vietnamese regulations on public consultation in the process of EIA have been significantly developed in comparison with the old ones, its practice has not improved much By doing research on the regulations on and the practice of public involvement in Vietnamese EIA system, some highlights regarding the shortcomings are clarified Accordingly, several proposals are made to enhance public involvement’s degree as well as its effectiveness in the EIA process in Vietnam 49 CONCLUSION This thesis has a three-chapter structure, in which the first chapter provides theoretical information on EIA and particularly public involvement in the process, the second chapter analyzes Vietnamese regulations and the last chapter focuses on Vietnamese practice of public involvement in the EIA process and makes some proposals for enhancing its effectiveness On a whole, public involvement in the EIA process in Vietnam does not play an actual important role as expected The implementation of related regulations in practice reflects a number of shortcomings regarding the form, subjects and procedures of public involvement in the EIA process, specifically is as follows: Firstly, public involvement in Vietnam is conducted in the form of public consultation which only provides a limited and passive mechanism for the public to engage in the EIA process Secondly, the scope of the subjects of public consultation does not cover all the stakeholders who should be involved in the process, particularly the NGOs, the scientists, specialists or professionals, etc Meanwhile, they are the ones standing at a more objective position that can help a lot in giving valuable and objective opinions Thirdly, in regard to the procedures of public consultation, there are problems with poor information dissemination, late consultation, lack of public defense and appropriate sanctions for the violations regarding conducting actual public consultation in the process of EIA For these above shortcomings to be eliminated, the proposals are made by the thesis to help foster public involvement in Vietnamese EIA system, i.e expanding the scope of the subjects, improving information dissemination as well as allowing earlier involvement, setting a mechanism for comprehensive communication and public defense and applying administrative sanctions to the violations in respect of public involvement in the EIA process 50 LIST OF REFERENCES A LEGAL DOCUMENTS Law No 29-L/CTN on Environmental Protection dated 27 December 1993 Law No 52/2005/QH11 on Environmental Protection dated 29 November 2005 Law No 55/2014/QH13 on Environmental Protection dated 23 June 2016 Decree No 80/2006/ND-CP dated August 2006 detailing and guiding the Law on Environmental Protection 2005 Decree No 21/2008/ND-CP dated 28 February 2008 amending and supplementing Decree No 80/2006/ND-CP Decree No 29/2011/ND-CP dated 18 April 2011 on strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment, environmental protection commitment Decree No 35/2014/ND-CP dated 29 April 2014 amending and supplementing Decree No 29/2011/ND-CP Decree No 19/2015/ND-CP dated 14 February 2015 guiding several provisions of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 Decree No 18/2015/ND-CP dated 14 February 2015 on environmental protection planning, strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment, environmental protection plan 10 Decree No 155/2016/ND-CP dated 18 November 2016 on administrative sanctions for violations in environmental protection 11 Circular No 08/2006/TT-BTNMT dated 08 September 2006 on strategic environmental impact assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental protection commitment 12 Circular No 05/2008/TT-BTMT dated 08 December 2008 on strategic environmental impact assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental protection commitment 13 Circular No 26/2011/TT-BTNMT dated 18 July 2011 detailing several articles of Decree No 29/2011/ND-CP 14 Circular No 27/2015/TT-BTNMT dated 29 May 2015 on strategic environmental assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental protection plan B REFERENCES I VIETNAMESE REFERENCES General Statistics Office of Vietnam (1979), List of Vietnamese ethnics (in Vietnamese: Danh mục dân tộc Việt Nam), promulgated with Decision No 121/TCTK/PPCD dated 02 March 2979 Ha Cuong and Minh Duc (2016), “Eliminating ethnic minorities’ illiteracy is challenging” (in Vietnamese: Xóa mù chữ vùng đồng bào dân tộc gặp khó), http://www.cema.gov.vn/tin-tuc/tin-tuc-su-kien/y-te-giao-duc/xoa-muchu-vung-dong-bao-dan-toc-van-gap-kho.htm, accessed on 03 July 2017 Hong Hieu (2016), “Lack of community consultation in environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Thiếu tham vấn cộng đồng đánh giá tác động môi trường), http://www.qdnd.vn/xa-hoi/cac-van-de/thieu-su-tham-vancong-dong-trong-danh-gia-tac-dong-moi-truong-488523, accessed on 03 July 2017 Huyen Ngyen (2016), “97.3% of population are literate” (in Vietnamese: 97,3% dân số biết chữ), http://laodong.com.vn/xa-hoi/973-dan-so-toan-quocbiet-chu-415416.bld, accessed on 03 July 2017 Institute of Linguistics (2003), Vietnamese dictionary, Da Nang Publishing House Khac Doan (2011), “Environmental impact assessment in Vietnam: from awareness to actions” (in Vietnamese: Đánh giá tác động môi trường Việt Nam từ nhận thức đến hành động), Journal of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vol 9(119), pp 8-9 Kim Tran (2014), “Non-governmental organizations play an important role in environmental protection” (in Vietnamese: Các tổ chức phi phủ đóng vai trị quan trọng bảo vệ mơi trường), http://www.vusta.vn/vi/news/Thongtin-Su-kien-Thanh-tuu-KH-CN/Cac-to-chuc-phi-chinh-phu-dong-vai-tro-quantrong-trong-bao-ve-moi-truong-55353.html, accessed on 17 June 2017 Lam Nhi (2016), “Community consultation in environmental impact assessment: Uneffectiveness” (in Vietnamese: Tham vấn cộng đồng đánh giá tác động môi trường: Chưa hiệu quả), http://www.daidoanket.vn/tin-tuc/xahoi/tham-van-cong-dong-danh-gia-tac-dong-moi-truong-chua-hieu-qua135013, accessed on 03 July 2017 Le Anh Tuan (2016), “Re-assessment of environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Đánh giá lại đánh giá tác động môi trường), http://www.thesaigontimes.vn/149333/Danh-gia-lai-danh-gia-tac-dong-moitruong.html, accessed on 20 June 2017 10 Le Thac Can (2012), Regulations on public consultation in environmental impact assessment of development projects need improved (in Vietnamese: Quy định tham vấn cộng đồng đánh giá tác động môi trường dự án phát triển cần tiếp tục cải tiến), Report in Feedback Workshop for amendments on the Law on Environmental Protection, Ha Noi, 26 November 2012 11 Minh Thai (2017), “Hurry deforestation for beauty pageant” (in Vietnamese: Phá rừng kịp thi hoa hậu), http://baodatviet.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/tin-tuc-thoisu/pha-rung-kip-thi-hoa-hau-so-nn-ptnt-nhieu-lan-phan-doi-3333947/, accessed on 17 July 2017 12 Ministry of Resources and Environment (2016), Report on the status of national environmental situation in the period 2011-2015 (in Vietnamese: Báo cáo trạng môi trường quốc gia giai đoạn 2011-2015) 13 Nguyen Duc Lam (2015), Public consultation: Assessment on practice and proposals for regulations (in Vietnamese: Tham vấn công chúng: Đánh giá thực trạng đề xuất phương án quy định), in National legislative development project 14 Nguyen Khac Kinh (2015), “Consultation on environmental assessment has not been actual” (in Vietnamese: Tham vấn đánh giá môi trường thiếu thực chất), http://www.thiennhien.net/2015/06/04/tham-van-trong-danh-giamoi-truong-con-thieu-thuc-chat/, accessed on 28 May 2017 15 Nguyen Nam (2017), “The citizens have their vehicles block the Highway No.1 to show their objection to the power plant polluting the environment” (in Vietnamese: Dân chặn xe QL1 phản đối nhà máy điện gây ô nhiễm), http://tuoitre.vn/tin/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/20150414/dan-chan-xe-tren-ql1-phan-doinha-may-dien-gay-o-nhiem/733994.html, accessed on 17 July 2017 16 Nguyen Trung Thanh (2015), Regulations on environmental impact assessment of investment projects (in Vietnamese: Pháp luật đánh giác tác động môi trường dự án đầu tư), Master thesis, HCMC University of Law 17 Nguyen Van Cuong (2015), “Improving the effectiveness of environmental information access” (in Vietnamese: Nâng cao hiệu lực thực thi tiếp cận thông tin môi trường), 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professionalism in impact assessment”, in James C Peterson (ed.), Citizen Participation in Science Policy, University of Chicago Press, pp 62-74 Irene Nørlund (2007), Civil society in Vietnam – Social Organizations and Approaches to New Concepts, The German Journal on Contemporary Asia, Vol 105 10 János Fülöp (2000), “Introduction to Decision Making Methods”, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, http://academic.evergreen.edu/projects/bdei/documents/decisionmakingmethod s.pdf, accessed on 21 May 2017 11 Jeffrey P O., Yoke C L & Clive B (2002), “Environmental assessment in Vietnam: theory and practice”, Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management, Volume 04, Issue 03 12 John E B (1987), “Environmental Impact Assessment: Principles developed”, Environmental Policy and Law, Vol 17/1, pp 5-9 13 Kathryn S.Q., John M B (2016), Public Participation, forthcoming in Handbook in Theories of Governance, Edward Elgar Press 14 Leroy Paddock (2004), “Environmental accountability and involvement”, Pace environmental law review, Volume 21, Number public 15 Lux S J and Straussman J D (2004), “Searching for balance: Vietnamese NGOs operating in a state-led civil society, Public administration and development, Vol 24 16 Obaidullah N., Rizwan H., Sajjad H (2014), “Public Consultation and Participation in EIA in Pakistan and Lessons Learnt from International Practices”, Pakistan Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Vol 14, pp 73-84 17 Robert Harris (2012), “Introduction to Decision Making”, VirtualSalt, http://www.virtualsalt.com/crebook5.htm, accessed on 21 May 2017 18 Stephen B., Barry D and Jules P (1995), “Participation in strategies for sustainable development”, Environmental Planning Issues, Vol 19 The General Assembly of the United States (1987), Report No 42/187 on the World Commission on Environment and Development, 96th plenary meeting, New York 20 UNECE (1998), Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in International Environmental Matters 21 UNEP (2015), An introduction to environmental assessment 22 UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (2002), EIA Training Resource Manual: Issues, Trends, and Practice (Second edition) 23 World Bank (1993), “Public involvement in environmental assessment: requirements, opportunities and issues”, Environmental assessment sourcebook update, Number 24 Yuhuan Z et al (2012), Challenge of Public Participation in China’s EIA Practice, 32nd Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Association for Impact Assessment, Porto – Portugal, 27 May – June 2012 ANNEX – GENERALIZED EIA PROCESS Proposal Identification Screening Initial environmental EIA Required examination No EIA *Public Involvement Scoping Impact analysis Mitigation and impact management *Public involvement typically occurs at these points It may also occur at any other stage of the EIA Process EIA Report *Public Involvement Review Resubmit Redesign Decisionmaking Not approved Information from this process contributes to effective future EIA Approved Implementation and follow up Source: UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (2002), EIA Training Resource Manual: Issues, Trends, and Practice (Second edition) ... on practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam .46 3.2 Proposals for enhancing public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam ... environmental impact assessment; Chapter 2: Public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam from legal perspective; and Chapter 3: Public involvement in environmental impact assessment in. .. public involvement in environmental impact assessment 16 1.2.3 Principles of public involvement in environmental impact assessment 18 1.2.4 Importance of public involvement