Construction Aggregates and Environmental Policy Integration in a One-Party State: The Case of Hoa Binh, Vietnam

Paulina Schiappacasse,Peter Wirth,Bernhard Müller,Le Thuy Linh

doi:10.3390/su12176890

Abstract

In fast growing economies, rapid urbanization generates high demand for construction aggregates in the rural hinterland of cities. Their extraction often causes negative repercussions on the environment. In Vietnam, the central government has made strong efforts to incorporate environmental objectives in the aggregate mining sector, and, in a one-party state, it has powerful means to implement its policies. Nevertheless, adverse environmental effects of aggregate mining are visible throughout the country. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to identify barriers for environmental policy integration in a one-party state. The aggregates industry in Hoa Binh Province, located in the hinterland of the fast growing capital Hanoi, is taken as a case. Methods of the study, which was conducted between 2015 and 2019, include literature review, document and data analysis, interviews, group discussions for information collection and validation of results, and site visits. Six environmental policy integration barriers are derived from the literature. They form the conceptual basis for explaining difficulties of environmental policy implementation and integration in the concrete case. The study demonstrates that the following factors provide a viable concept for analyzing deficits of environmental policy integration in a fast modernizing one-party state: (a) the prevalence of top-down approaches with insufficient trigger-down effects, (b) the predominance of socioeconomic over environmental objectives, (c) weak incentives to improve environmental performance, (d) fragmented environmental planning and implementation, (e) weak institutional control mechanisms on lower levels of government, and (f) compliance oriented public participation and deficient compensation mechanisms. These are potential entry points for coping with environmental challenges of growth oriented sector policies.

Highlights

Construction aggregates, i.e., sand, stone, and gravel, are among the most mined materials globally
Taking the province of Hoa Binh as a living laboratory (Figures 2 and 3), the authors analyzed obstacles for the implementation of environmental regulations in aggregate mining in Vietnam, using the taxonomy developed in Section 2 of this article
The study has demonstrated that the taxonomy elaborated in this article provides a viable concept for analyzing policy implementation gaps and deficits of environmental policy integration in a fast urbanization one-party state

Summary

Introduction

Construction aggregates, i.e., sand, stone, and gravel, are among the most mined materials globally This is especially true for fast urbanizing countries such as those located in Asia. One of the main problems challenging the construction aggregates industry is related to the direct environmental repercussions of mineral extraction in the rural hinterland of cities, such as landscape alteration, conversion of land use, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss, as well as noise and dust production. These facets of environmental degradation usually cause serious conflicts with other sectors, such as agriculture, forestry, water supply, and tourism development [2]. As a reaction to the high resource consumption of urbanization, many governments, especially in Asian countries, have put environmental concerns more prominently on their agendas [4]

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Conclusion