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The Vietnamese natural environment, which supports one of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems, has deteriorated rapidly over the past 10 years, the World Bank said in a report released Wednesday. Vietnam is home to about 10 percent of the world's species, said the report, titled "Vietnam Environment Monitor 2002." Yet, of Vietnam's endemic species, 28 percent of mammals, 10 percent of birds, and 21 percent of reptile and amphibian species are now endangered, mainly because of habitat loss and hunting, the report said.
"There has been a drastic decline in environmental quality, but the government is beginning to take steps to counter the decline," World Bank environmental specialist Patchamuthu Illangovan said. "This is a huge challenge." The report was funded by the Danish International Development Agency and designed to raise awareness of policy makers as well as donor countries and ordinary Vietnamese citizens, Illangovan said.
The report said communist Vietnam's cultivated land area has increased 38 percent over the past decade, with 50 percent of the country's land now classified as having poor soils because of human activity. Forested land area has increased, but the quality of forests has declined, it said. About 96 percent of Vietnam's coral reefs are now severely threatened, while more than 80 percent of its mangrove forests - a spawning ground for marine life - have been lost, the report said.
Over the past decade, Vietnam's economy has doubled in size, and poverty has been reduced from 70 percent of the population to about 35 percent - one of the fastest declines in the world, according to the World Bank. But over the past five years, only 0.85 percent of the national budget has gone to environmental protection, "so it gets very low priority," Illangovan said.
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