Dreaming the future

Phan Xuan Anh, a former lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, has spent the past 12 years planting hundreds of thousands of trees in central Vietnam Phan Xuan Anh sits beside a recently planted golden oak. Photo: Thai Ba Dung / Tuoi Tre The Nha Xanh Project – an initiative founded by Anh which aims to plant hundreds of thousands of trees across Vietnam – began in 2008 when the former lecturer shipped 2,000 golden oak and nacre trees to local officials across central Vietnam. One of these officials, Da Thanh Hieu, the youth union secretary of Dai An Commune, Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province, took the trees to his commune’s memorial temple where they’ve spent more than a decade thriving – an ode to nature’s beauty and endurance. Recently, after months of being grounded by COVID-19 and flooding in central Vietnam, Anh was able to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Quang Nam to check out the flourishing Golden Oak Forest in Dai Hoa. “Oh my God, you grew so fast. You’ve gone form small seedlings to tall trees already,” he shouted upon his arrival at the memorial temple. The 2,000 trees surrounding the temple are just the first of over 200,000 trees donated to various localities by Nha Xanh and, in their 12 years of life, their trunks have grown to nearly 80 centimeters in diameter. “The trees have grown so quickly that now they can be seen from quite far away. It’s really inspired the local community to keep planting more,” Hieu explained as he led Nha Xanh’s delegation through the newly planted forest behind the Dai An Commune People’s Committee headquarters. Golden oaks planted as part of the Nha Xanh project cover everywhere, from village roads, highways, pagodas, and schools throughout Central Vietnam. In My Tan village, Dai Phong Commune, Dai Loc District, the locals are particularly grateful to Anh for beautifying their town. “We met Anh in 2016 to ask for financial support in digging a well in our village. He …

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The nation's 4x400 m men's relay team is currently ranked 17th in the world with a best time of 3:19:50, nearly one second more than the 16th ranked team, Japan (3:18:77). The goal set for the team, with the July 5 deadline for Olympic qualification, is to improve their performance to reach the world’s top 16 and win a ticket to Tokyo. Another Olympic qualification for Vietnamese athletics is expected to come from an individual performance. Quach Thi Lan, a 400 m hurdles specialist, has a great opportunity to qualify for the Olympics. She is on top in Asia and ranked 19th in the world. At the 2020 National Athletics Championship, Lan beat Nguyen Thi Huyen to win the 400 m gold in 55.98 seconds. This result was very close to the Olympic standard. To reach it, she needs to shorten her time by 0.58 seconds. She has done it before at the Asian Games 2018, winning the gold in 55.30 seconds. Now would be a great time to repeat the feat. Apart from qualifying for the Olympics, Vietnamese athletes have set an ambitious goal of winning 17 to 19 gold medals in 47 categories at the SEA Games 31 that will be hosted by Vietnam. This is a tough, but not impossible goal, having done well in the previous two editions of the tournament. At the SEA Games 30, Vietnam won 16 gold medals in athletics alone. Top track and field athletes in the country have shown good form. At the athletics championship last year, SEA Games champion Nguyen Thi Oanh won four gold medals in medium distances, breaking the national record that had stood for 17 years in the women’s 10,000 m category. In the same championship, Le Tu Chinh achieved an impressive timing of 11.43 seconds in the 100 m race, bettering her SEA Games 30 gold medal time of 11.54 seconds. Younger athletes are also holding up promise for the future. Tran Van Dang surpassed his senior Duong Van Thai in the national championship to win gold in the men’s 800 m and 1,500 m races. Then there is Ngan Ngoc Nghia, who set a new national …

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The Vietnam Fisheries Journal had an interview with Ms Anne Brønsten Osland, Head of the Aquaculture Licensing Section, Norwegian Department of Fisheries to get some insights into what Norway has done from the governance perspectives. How challenging was it for Norway to develop policies for development of marine aquaculture on industrial scale? And what are the solutions to those challenges? It has taken Norway almost 50 years to develop a mature and profitable industry. For the first three decades there were challenges with diseases, sudden loss of fish, firms going through bankruptcy, market challenges etc. Also, there were a lot of complaints from neighbors and locale fishermen about marine farms being established. Some of the important solutions include a general decision to stop using antibiotics, following focus on development of vaccines and regulation of daily routines that ensured a healthier industry, systematic fallowing of cites, reporting duties regarding production, disease outbreaks, escapes, use of chemicals etc. In addition, a transparent bureaucracy around the industry with notification of applications securing that everyone in the community has a right to access and put forward protests is another good approach. A coordinated handling of applications including the need of approval from food safety and animal welfare authorities, the coastal authorities, the pollution and conservation authorities and the interests of local fishermen (fishing ground etc.) A systematic national Registry over all aquaculture licenses was established quite early.  Meanwhile, coastal zone planning by the small municipalities and extensive mapping of different interests has secured more knowledge-based placing of farms. Vietnam is planning to develop marine aquaculture industry; what do you think we can learn from Norway’s experiences? I think it is important to develop systems for competence building (level and capacity) that focus both on theoretical …

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