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Anna Kessler
Econ 3720
December 7, 2017
Vietnam’s Environmental Growth and Development
Introduction
Vietnam’s environment has undergone many changes in the past decade in order to
support their rapid economic growth. Vietnam’s main natural resources consist of coal, copper,
crude oil, gold, iron, manganese, silver, and zinc (Asia Society). Since the Vietnam War,
Vietnam has become extremely progressive in industrialization as well as urbanization
(Kiernan). In 2003, 21% of the land was for farming, 28% was forest and woodland, and 51%
accounted for the urban areas. (Asia Society). Since then, urban land has become more populous,
carrying nearly a third of the entire country’s population.
Environmental Degradation
Vietnam has experienced environmental decay and degradation due to many factors.
Three components that have by far most attributed to Vietnam’s environmental decay is the rise
of industrialization, limited arable land, and overall economic growth.
Industrialization
In this past year, Vietnam had achieved an annual growth rate of 14 percent. Although
this is seen as a positive, it comes with many repercussions. Most of the wastewater discharged
by industries are improperly treated. This has caused pollution to rise in the Ku Cing River (Asia
Society). Mining has also attributed to polluting the Hong River (Asia Society). The rise of
industrialization is creating more air pollution, causing not only environmental decay, but putting
people’s health at risk.
Limited Arable Land
The rapid population growth has put even more pressure on the environment. This has led
to an ecological downfall. Not only is the population increasing, but the fertility rate is extremely
high. As the population keeps increasing, the demand for food is going to increase. This forces
farmers to shorten their land rotation cycle in order to have a quicker turn around to satisfy the
growing population’s needs. This could potentially cause deforestation, soil degradation, and soil
erosion (Asia Society).
Economic Development
In result of overall rapid economic development, Vietnam faced significant environmental
