On April 7, a training workshop for the media on sustainable consumption and production was held in cooperation of Vietnam Environment Administration, UNEP and Switch-ASIA programme in the northern province of Vĩnh Phúc. The workshop attracted environmental experts and reporters from local and central newspapers. 

The workshop aims to provide basic information about sustainable consumption and production in Vietnam, international experience and the role of the media for raising awareness and interest, positive participation of the public. Participants of the workshop included Dr. Mai Thanh Dung - Deputy Director of the Vietnam Environment Administration, Mrs. Janet Salem - Representative of the United Nations Environment (UNEP), Dr. Le Hoang Lan – Vietnam Association for Conservation of Nature and Environment with numerous press agencies of the country. 

Mai Thanh Dung, deputy director of the Vietnam Environment Administration, said that the public weren’t very concerned with sustainable consumption and production, so the media should contribute to improving this.

Over the past few years, Vietnam conducted a number of programmes related to sustainable consumption and production. The country enforced the national action plan on clean production in 2002, and the national action programme on sustainable consumption and production last year. However, the implementation of sustainable consumption and production activities is still limited. Material and energy consumption in production process is still high, exploitation and use of natural resources is still wasteful, ecological environment in some areas is heavily polluted. This situation shows that the production and consumption in Vietnam was not put into practice, not effective as expected. One of the important reasons is the awareness and the interest of society not adequate for this problem.

The media should co-operate with the Vietnam Environmental Administration and other concerned organizations to obtain information on sustainable consumption and production and raise awareness of the issue towards a more environmentally friendly stance, he said.

During the workshop, participants were sharing and exchanging international experiences on the role of media in sustainable consumption and production; National Action Program on sustainable consumption and production by 2020, with a vision to 2030; The project "Eco-Innovation in Vietnam" and press, communication activities; press activities in  environmental protection and sustainable development in Vietnam ...

Using natural resources was not feasible and caused waste and environmental pollution, he said.

The country had more than 1,000 mineral mines, but most of them were not managed well leading to losses and pollution, according to the Ministry of Nature Resources and Environment (MONRE).

The amount of solid waste increased by 10-16 per cent per year, which seriously affected socio-economic development and residents’ health, he said.

The southern province of Bình Thuận has nearly 600 million tonnes of titanium and the province had 67 projects exploiting titanium, but only three of them were licensed.

Dung said that last year MONRE founded a club of professional reporters on natural resources and environment to share their knowledge and professional skills on the issue.

Individuals, organisations and enterprises could also join the club to study state management on the issue, and supply information to reporters.

Trần Thu Hường, an Industry and Trade newspaper reporter, proposed stronger punishments for enterprises which did not protect the environment, used natural resources improperly, and prevented reporters from working. 

Reporters should also report good examples of environmental protection, such as enterprises using energy saving light bulbs, re-arranging materials to save time and reduce lost raw materials, so that enterprises could learn from each other, she said.

Summarized by CPSI office