Reflections

Dear All,

We have applied the dialogical approach to carry out our project and here are some reflections on this approach.

Firstly, community development using dialogical approach requires the loving practice of hearing local people’s stories, articulating with them an understanding of the key issues that they are struggling with, and exploring with them the possibility of sharing their story and trying to do something public about it.

Secondly, for community development work, listening, observing, learning, questioning, and reflecting skills are essential. We must pay attention to key words in order to understand the existing situation.

Thirdly, since this process is the dialogue it is therefore not only a technical process, but also requires flexibility and creativity in the way that you-a community development worker responds to local people, questions them and explores issues.

Finally, this process depends heavily on individual experience, opinion, behaviour and attitude toward the local people, willingness to engage in the conservation and the way a community development worker interpret the information.

Hung

We are going to establish environmental action groups

Dear All,

We are organizing and running informal meetings at cafe shops at the moment. They are going well now and we are intending to establish three groups in two next weeks. This is the first stage of our project.

Actually, we organized and ran these meeting some weeks ago following our project implementation plan, but then we had to delay some days because of some reasons. The main reason is that we faced some difficulties while connecting and establishing relationship with people. Some people came this meeting, but then they did not come to the next meetings. This lead to different people in different meetings. So we could not group people into specific groups. However, we had a discussion on this issue and found the solution. The solution is that we record contact details of intended people at meetings. And, before running the next meetings, we inform those people and invite them intending the meetings. As a result, they come along us.

At present, we have relationship with concerned people and intend to group them into specific groups in next some days. Hope that there will not be other difficulties happen in next days.

Below are some pictures showing our activities.

Hung

Vietnam and the environment: problems and solutions

Dear All,

A review of environmental issues arising from the recent post war development of Vietnam has been published. This paper provides a review of Vietnam environmental issues and suggest new directions for future research on environmental protection issues in Vietnam.

Full paper can be reach at: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a910258059&db=all

Cheers
Hung

Environmental targets in Thua Thien Hue Province

Environmental targets

- Increasing the forest coverage rate to 55% in 2010 and over 60% in 2020;

- Protecting the environment of ecologic areas, preventing surface and underground water from being polluted, protecting coastal inundated forests and the lagoon ecosystems; 

- Urban areas, industrial areas, clusters of industrial areas and handicraft villages must do waste water treatment, collect and do solid waste treatment according to the required standards before discharging them to the environment.

- Preventing and minimizing the exhaustion and pollution of natural resources and damage caused by natural disasters.

More info. http://english.thuathienhue.gov.vn/Main.asp?pid=6&cid=13&fid=81&ln=en

Hung

Environmental Management and Policy-Making in Vietnam

Dear All,

I have found a valuable paper in environmental management and policy-making in Vietnam. This paper aims to describe how environmental management is being implemented and how the policy-making process has been made. Existing investment policies emphasise that environmental protection and sustainable use of natural resources should be cornerstones of development in Vietnam. These policies should promote the economic transition, as well as environmental management for sustainable development.

With these policies in place, there is a need to identify the most important environmental issues, including problems to be tackled and measures to be taken. The problems are to find appropriate and effective preventive and treatment measures for pollution, loss of biodiversity, degradation of marine environment, and of environmental quality in urban, rural and industrial areas. To solve these problems, the Government has plans to implement a number of measures. They can be grouped into regulatory (development of institutional and legislative frameworks, capacity-building, strengthening international cooperation and implication of international treaties), economic (market-based instruments to be applied in parallel with "command-and-control" ones), and communicative (awareness raising, training and education, information management).

The paper can be reached at http://coombs.anu.edu.au/~vern/env_dev/papers/pap03.html

Hung

Dialogue on Environmental Issues

Hi,

Environmental protection is a huge issue and require  an significant number of participation, collaboration and cooperation between people living on the earth. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has launched a forum in order to discuss on this issue. The purpose of this program is of providing a venue where the Global 500 laureates and younger generations who will lead the societies in the 21st century could exchange views, share experiences, and discuss new approaches to the creation of a sustainable future with innovative ideas. More information on this issue can be reached via http://www.global500.org/news_77.html

Reflections

Hi,

I am posting what I has learnt so far. Firstly, I have learnt much good experiences from other classmates who are doing the same course with me. Their comments and well as advice are very useful for me to produce the project plan as well as put the project plan into practice. Thanks!!!
Secondly, reading widely and discussing with others who are involving this project make me having more understanding about the project although we had many discussion before. I think, discussion and sharing are good ways of exploration and progress. Thank my colleagues.

Hung