The Policy Day of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD) was held in Hanoi, Vietnam on November 1. This year’s theme for this special event was Economic Approaches for the Management of Air, Water, Waste and Marine Pollution: Lessons Learnt and Ways Forward.
Soft launch of ADB report
The speakers in this session included Mr. Isao Endo from the Asian Development Bank and the key research group leaders led by Professor Gunnar Köhlin of the University of Gothenburg. These experts provided an overview and important highlights of the ADB report. The report demonstrated the commitment of ADB to promote the use of market-based instruments through knowledge sharing and pilot programs in the region. Market-based approaches have been deployed in various programs at different scales in Asia in dealing with air pollution, water management, and solid waste management. They can provide efficient alternatives or complements to command-and-control approaches by providing incentives for lowering compliance costs and creating innovations. However, the presenters also admitted that in order to scale up those market-based programs, important institutional and political factors should be taken into consideration. Unfortunately, the scope of the report does not accommodate such a task.
Fisheries management
The afternoon session of the Policy Day was dedicated to the management of fisheries. The three speakers included Dr. Pham Viet Anh of Vietnam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Professor Håkan Eggert of the University of Gothenburg, and Professor Chris Anderson of the University of Washington. The speakers presented statistics on worldwide fisheries and the case of Vietnam, which underscored the crucial role of regulation in aquaculture to achieve sustainability in this sector. Professor Eggert also presented an economic model to explain the biological and economic tragedy of fisheries. The model justified a careful adoption of regulation in terms of catch limits and the total level of fish stock, at least among the countries being studied.
Full program of the Policy Day below.
A news videoclip from the day can be watched at VTV from around 8:50 into the clip with a brief review about environmental issues in Vietnam, the Policy Dialogue and interview with EfD Vetnam Director Pham Khanh Nam and EfD Director Gunnar Köhlin.
(Reported by Dr. Nguyen Luu Bao Doan, EfD-Vietnam)
