Wattle forest in Binh Phuoc province. Vietnam plans to increase its forest coverage to 42-43% of the country's total acreage by 2010 and to 47% by 2020.

For more than 30 years, Le Thi Hoa, Chairwoman of the Cong Nong Transportation Co-operative, has been working on cleaning up HCM City and improving the waste disposal system of the co-operative.

Natural calamities, mainly hails, flash floods, floodings, whirlwinds and especially typhoons Chanchu, Xangsane and Durian, caused a total losses of over VND 18.7 trillion (US $1.168 billion) to Vietnam in 2006, reported the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The WU of Ho Chi Minh city in coordination with the Branch Office of Environmental Protection and Energy Saving Center have organized 15 advanced training courses on environmental protection and energy saving for over 1,000 WU staff, local motivators, core members of Women’s Club participating in environmental protection from 24 districts.

To echo the Month of Action for food hygiene and safety, Yen Bai Women’s Union actively cooperated with relevant agencies to prevent food poisoning and food transmitted diseases.

On 3rd June, at the 30 April Park, the HCM City Women’s Union in cooperation with the Environmental Natural Resources Department organized meeting and walking in celebration of the International Environment Day 5th June which attracted the participation of nearly 6,000 people included 3,000 WU members. This year, the major theme of the International Environment Day in Ho Chi Minh City was “For streets Free from garbage”

Once every a few days, Bettina Martin leaves Hanoi for Tam Dao National Park where she participates in the Project of Managing Tam Dao National Park and the Buffer Zone. For her, who lived for nearly five years in the remote forests in Tuyen Quang, the 70km ride from Hanoi to Tam Dao National Park is not a long distance to travel.

General of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has said that Vietnam is showing progress in its efforts to preserve and protect the country's ecosystems and pledged to continue partnering with Government bodies in environmental management programmes.

In the morning of 12th Dec., the Conference on launching for the initiative of household energy saving models was held at the head office of the Vietnam Women’s Union.

The 2nd CIO Indochina conference and awards ceremony took place in Hanoi on Monday, August 28, with seven CIOs honoured.