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. GENERAL THEORY OF PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT. Overview of environmental impact assessment. History of environmental impact assessment.
Roles and importance of environmental impact assessment. Theoretical matters of public involvement in environmental impact assessment. Purposes and objectives of public involvement in environmental impact assessment. Principles of public involvement in environmental impact assessment.
Importance of public involvement in environmental impact assessment .20 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1. PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM FROM LEGAL PERSPECTIVE. Overview of Vietnamese regulations on public involvement in environmental impact assessment. Before the effective date of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014.
After the effective date of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014. Form of public involvement. Means of consultation. Correspondence and comparison.
Subjects of public involvement. Subjects to be consulted under related Vietnamese regulations. Highlights of prevailing Vietnamese regulations on the subjects of public involvement. Procedures for public involvement.
Consultation with the Commune People’s Committee of the area where the project is implemented and organizations that are directly affected by the project. Consultation with the community that is directly affected by the project. Comments on Vietnamese regulations on public involvement in environmental impact assessment.39 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2. PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN VIETNAM FROM PRACTICAL PERSPECTIVE AND PROPOSALS FOR VIETNAM.
Practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam. Public involvement in environmental impact assessment in several typical cases. Constraints on implementation of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam. Highlights on practice of public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam.
Proposals for enhancing public involvement in environmental impact assessment in Vietnam .47 CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 3. 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 1 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. (1995), Participation in strategies for sustainable development, Environmental Planning Issues, No.
(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. 4 People and Nature Reconciliation (2009), Environmental impact assessment in Vietnam: From regulations to practice (in Vietnamese: Đánh giá tác động môi trường ở Việt Nam: Từ pháp luật đến thực tiễn), pp. 1 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 5 Ministry of Resources and Environment (2016), Report on the status of national environmental situation in the period 2011-2015 (in Vietnamese: Báo cáo hiện trạng môi trường quốc gia giai đoạn 2011-2015), p. 6 Thu Trang (2016), “Inadequacy of environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Bất cập trong đánh giá tác động môi trường), http://baotintuc.vn/xa-hoi/bat-cap-trong-danh-gia-tac-dong-moi-truong- htm, accessed on 04 July 2017. 7 UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics (2002), EIA Training Resource Manual: Issues, Trends, and Practice (Second edition), p.
8 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. A number of those have provided the author with a wide range of information regarding the topic and more than one way to effectively do 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 về đánh giác tác động môi trường ở Việt Nam – Thực trạng và 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 ở Việt Nam hiện nay), Jurisprudence Journal, Hanoi Law University, Vol. 6 and Chu The Huyen (2014), “Regulations on environmental impact assessment” (in Vietnamese: Pháp luật về đánh giá tác động môi trường - Thực trạng và 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 ở 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 của sự 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. 3 Nguyen Ngoc Minh Vy (2016), Vietnamese regulations on environmental impact assessment (Pháp luật Việt Nam về 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 về đánh giác tác động môi trường đối với 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. 5 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.