Abstract
This study draws upon a case study of Lao Cai, a province recognized as one of the most important ecological regions in Vietnam, but also one of the most vulnerable to climate hazards. The province has recently adopted an action plan for climate change adaptation. However, the national authorities intend to promote Lao Cai as a major secondary city on the main route from China to Hanoi. In a context of rapid, strategic, state-driven urban development, I identify three main obstacles to effective implementation of environmental and climate change policies: (1) the pre-eminence of economic growth over any environmental goal, (2) the under-enforcement of existing regulations, and (3) a failure of environmental governance. Environmental risk management is mainly based on the reinforcement of defensive infrastructures (such as the river embankment) and the displacement of exposed people. These actions are likely inefficient in a context of increased major hazards that might put great pressure on displaced residents’ livelihoods. In other words, there is a wide gap between discourse and implementation.
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Notes
- 1.
This research was conducted during my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto and was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through the Urban Climate Resilience on South East Asia (UCRSEA) partnership.
- 2.
In Vietnam, every ward is subdivided into several neighbourhoods and one resident from each of them is in charge of the inhabitants. They are the first person that people refer to because they help residents in various administrative tasks. As a result, they often have a very keen knowledge of their ward and its inhabitants and are, therefore, unavoidable gatekeepers and a valuable point of entry to the field.
- 3.
This perception of rising inequalities caused by development projects is similar to what was observed in Ninh Binh in Chapter 5 of this book.
- 4.
Population resettlements are not new: resettlement programs have been broadly used by the Communist Party both at national and local scales since its accession to power (Jones and Fraser 1982).
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Pulliat, G. (2019). The Implementation Gap: Environmental Rhetoric Versus Reality in Lao Cai, Vietnam. In: Daniere, A., Garschagen, M. (eds) Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98968-6_10
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