We are trading, trading with nature

Prof. Nguyen Ngoc Lung – Director of the Institute for Sustainable Forest Management and Forest Certification has been with the forest for almost 60 years and is known as “the man of the forest” (he often jokingly calls the man of the forest). He is the proponent and participant of the first afforestation project in Vietnam, returning green to the land and bare hills.

He frankly shared with Vietnam Week:

The small hydroelectric works spontaneously, sacrificing forests for electricity

Dear professor, are the small hydroelectric projects built with a large amount of natural forests to be converted for use purposes the cause of the severe floods in the Central region today?

Vietnam is one of the six countries in the world most affected by climate change in the last four years. The central region is once again the worst affected area in Vietnam.

For objective reasons, it is difficult for people to overcome because it is the natural law of rain and wind, the complicated topographic factor of the Central region has coastal areas, plains, midlands, bare hills and mountains. high and steep …

But here are both subjective and human causes that can overcome or mitigate the damage.

The scene of the landslide at the Rao Trang 3 hydroelectric power station, Thua Thien Province – Hue

I think hydropower is not to blame. Error in regulation and planning. How many hydropower plants can be built on a river, it is necessary to have a clear plan. The management and regulation of the water flow should follow the river and the flow, not according to each hydroelectric power station.

The plant, for its own benefit, should always keep the water level high so that there is no water in the dry season to generate electricity. If the regulation is unified throughout the stream, I will ask you to reduce the water level completely, so that if the rain gets harder or harder, it is still difficult for the dam to spill or break …

Here, people instinctively regulate hydropower, not by flow rate.

We are allowing small hydroelectric plants to run spontaneously. Large factories are built and run by the state. Small and medium-sized factories in the last 20 years have been privatized and private hydroelectric plants have been made. So we are breaking the planning of the entire river. We should only build 5 or 10 factories on a river, we can “tell ourselves”, commit ourselves to regulate the water in the rainy or dry season, and for the good of the common development of the country more than because it factory.

Professor Nguyen Ngoc Lung

Next, we divide into two levels of hydropower management. Any plant with a capacity greater than 10 MW belongs to the state (MoNRE evaluates and approves it). Plant with a capacity of less than 10 MW approved by the provincial level.

It is clear that “the elephant is about to slide down the needle” without stopping. It does not matter how much of the 5-10 MW hydroelectric plant has lost the converted forest use purpose. Hydroelectric companies evade the preparation of environmental impact assessment reports.

So the blame is not on hydroelectricity but on the way it is used, on how it is managed and regulated.

We are trading the environment for economic benefits, sacrificing forests for electricity. We need to see if this compensation is beneficial or not. In other words, people call this trade, exchange with nature.

A person in Tan Hoa Commune, Minh Hoa (Quang Binh) District is sitting on the roof waiting to be rescued. Photo taken at 10 am on October 19

At the macro level we can manage, but the micro is difficult to manage. It was as if he only planned to build 5 hydroelectric plants that could be controlled, but there were 20 smaller plants alternating, without unified management, the water regulation was broken.

It is better to maintain 1 ha of natural forest than to develop 5-10 ha of planted forest

We talk about the history of planted forests, but international experts recommend that it is better to maintain 1 ha of natural forest than to develop 5 to 10 ha of planted forest. How does the teacher share?

We need to make this clear. That is the role of natural forests. If the land is bare, the hill is barren, there is only grass and shrubs, when it rains 95% flows over the surface, only 5% soaks a thin layer on the ground. The amount of water that overflows on the surface is called flooding, such as tubular flood, flash flood …

But in natural forests, 90% of the water that falls does not flow over the surface. If a normal rain lasts 1-2 hours with a rain of about 100mm, there is no water flowing on the surface, after all, the ground has no water. All the water becomes groundwater.

The natural forest is so good because it has a canopy, different layers of trees, it has a rotten carpet, the root system is 20-30 m deep (how deep is the height of the tree). If you draw the groundwater system, you will see very crowded, digging a well where there is water, which shows that the groundwater system is very even. Although the rain and sun from month to month, the groundwater system is still sufficient to provide.

Meanwhile, planted forests only have the effect of 1/5 of natural forests. And in fact, when hydropower plants are built, very few investors have alternative afforestation plans when natural forests are converted for use purposes. As a result, natural forests are lost, planted forests cannot make up for the area lost without taking into account the water efficiency, soil and environmental preservation of two types of forests.

Border guards brought relief supplies to Dong Truong Village, Hai Truong Commune, Hai Lang District, Quang Tri

As the world tries to protect natural forests, we deforest natural forests for economic purposes. No matter how poor the natural forest is, its biodiversity is many times greater than that of the planted forest due to the effects mentioned above. Therefore, international experts recommend that it is better to maintain 1 ha of natural forest than to develop 5 to 10 ha of planted forest.

In Vietnam, although forest cover has increased, very few natural forests, mainly planted forests, are of very low quality.

How much do you take away and return how much?

Are we paying the price for what you said are exchanges, compensations with nature?

So is. I see very clearly what is sacrificed but it is not known as sacrifice. I trade the risks for the advantage of the economy, but I don’t know how great the risks are, and I leave it out: it is the environmental risk.

In 1945, our natural forest still accounted for about 95%. Throughout economic development, the forest is depleted. In years 92-93, the State had an ecological restoration program for the country – program 327, which restored forest cover from 27% to 42%, close to the level when the French left 43%.

But it is in terms of area, and the quality of the forest, as I said, has not been achieved. What is important is both the total area and the proportion of forest available in the territory, but also where it is available. There are countries that only have 30-35% of the forest but extremely safe because there is a plan called stable forest ownership, where there is a forest, what kind of forest people do well.

We are also witnessing the cost of deforestation very well. Deforestation and floods occur upstream, not downstream. The world has claimed that forests are the best factor for people to participate in the fight against climate change. The poor can also participate, it is important that they plant and conserve forests. We take much of the forest, but how much do we give it back?

Thai

Can hydropower cause more flooding?

If there were no hydroelectric dams, the floods would be even greater. In many cases, without hydroelectric reservoirs, the floods are much greater.