A group of children in Danang City are collecting scrap metal as a way to protect the environment. Children group helps keep Danang clean The children in the environment club often gather together on Sundays. Their leader is Pham Cong Luong, born in 1956, party secretary of Binh Phuoc 1 Residential Area. According to Luong, he has always been concerned about environmental problems where he was living and tried to set an example by collecting rubbish on the street when he did morning exercises or when he was going out. Then in 2018, a rubbish collecting movement was initiated by Luong to raise funds for the children and poor families in Binh Phuoc. It received a positive response from the locals. The children rubbish collecting club was set up in early 2019. The club includes several children age between 6 to 12 who want to raise awareness about environmental protection and raise funds for disadvantaged families. As of now, the club has a total of 34 members and many contributors. "We have to teach the children because they will be the pioneers who lead others," Luong said. Collecting and classifying the rubbish Ever since the club was set up, the local families have been actively classified their rubbish and placed them in front of their house for the children to collect. The rubbish was brought to the gathering location and classified again by volunteers. 9-year-old Cao Hoang Phuc Thinh said, "I think our club is meaningful and help make our area cleaner so I felt good to come there every weekend." 12-year-old Le Anh Thu said, "It's not just the weekends, now, whenever I saw litter on the street, I'll always pick it up and put it in the bin." The club has earned nearly VND100m (USD4,300) up until now. The money was used as rewards for children with good academic results and to organise sports events for the children. After Covid-19 broke out, the club sent 290kg of rice to 29 disadvantaged cases. They …
Environmental protection articles
Measures sought to manage, preserve Vietnam’s biosphere reserves
Cu Lao Cham in Tan Hiep island commune, Hoi An city, Quang Nam province seen from above (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam has nine biosphere reserves with a total area of 4 million hectares, accounting for 12.1 percent of the country’s total natural land area. These reserves are home to 1.78 million people. According to the Vietnam Environment Administration , the nine biosphere reserves, which are located in plains, mountains, coastal areas and islands, are recognised by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme ( MAB-UNESCO ). Among the nine Southeast Asian countries which have biosphere reserves, Vietnam is second only to Indonesia in the number of biosphere reserves , with the latter owning 11. However, there is still no document that regulates the management of biosphere reserves, causing loose coordination between ministries and sectors. Lack of unified organisational structures The core zones, mostly national parks, nature reserves and special-use forests, account for 11 percent of the total area of the biosphere reserves, about 450,000 hectares. There is high biodiversity concentration with diverse ecosystem services. Cat Ba archipelago is the smallest biosphere reserve, with an area of 26,241 hectares, while the largest is Western Nghe An with more than 1.3 million hectares. There is also no common organisational structure for biosphere reserve management boards as each locality follows its own way of organising its board. Meanwhile, a unified management model is important for unifying State management. The problem is that there are no detailed guidelines from central agencies for the biosphere reserves on the need to strengthen organisational structure and coordinate their operations. Some biosphere reserves are put under the administrative management of many districts, towns and provinces with large areas and populations, which makes it difficult to manage the reserves. Dong Nai Biosphere, for example, is located …
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Accountability sought in e-commerce
Accountability sought in e-commerce, illustration photo A draft decree amending 2013’s Decree No.52/2013/ND-CP on e-commerce, which will see comments collected from businesses and consultant firms, has recently caused concern for e-commerce operators if the draft is adopted. Nguyen Chi Linh, representative of an e-commerce platform which is a subsidiary of the Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, noted her criticisms to VIR about an adjusted article which orders a searching tool for state authorities to manage all information of their traders to check and inspect any violations or complaints. “This regulation is unnecessary and can seriously impact the convenience of traders. Even if traders do not violate or make any complaints, they don’t want private information to be monitored by state management agencies. They could jump to other social platforms, and hamper e-commerce development,” said Linh. She added that the platforms are assisting state management agencies in investigating illegal business acts, saying that providing registration information, transaction histories, and other documents on the issue on the e-commerce trading platform should be enough. In addition, new regulations related to joint responsibility on goods and services on the platforms has caused headaches for e-commerce operators. The draft decree has added responsibilities in Article 36.11.d, and the representative of the Chinese e-commerce platform said this is impossible for them, which plays a commercial intermediary role only. Without a legal framework, the role and responsibilities of e-commerce platforms continue to be highlighted. At the end of 2019, sneaker and sports apparel giant Nike ditched its deal with Amazon after two years, after noting its concerns about third-party sellers offering counterfeit products on the marketplace. Many brands are unhappy with how Amazon operates, with fake goods running rampant. According to Bloomberg, the e-commerce giant is also …
