Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BTNMT dated August 24, 2016 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on environmental protection report

THE MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENT

Circular No. 19/2016/TT-BTNMT dated August 24, 2016 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment on environmental protection report

Pursuant to the Law on Environment protection dated June 23, 2014;

Pursuant to the Government’s Decree No.21/2013/NĐ-CP dated March 04, 2013 defining functions, rights, obligations and organizational structure of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment;

Upon request by the Directors General of Vietnam Environment Administration and Department of Legal Affairs;

The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment hereby issues this Circular on environmental protection reports.

Article 1. Scope of application

1. This Circular specifies Article 134 of the Law on Environmental Protection concerning environmental protection reports.

2. Confidential environmental information on the List of State’s confidential information shall be conformable to regulations of laws on State secrecy.

Article 2. Subject of application

This Circular applies to entities concerning environmental protection reports.

Article 3. Contents of environmental protection reports by People’s Committees at all levels and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

1. An environmental protection report shall specify:

a) Current status, variation of components of the environment and environmental issues including  current status and changes in environmental components ; polluted and degraded areas; sources of pollution, sources of exhaust emissions; entities causing severe pollution; generation of wastes and primary environmental issues;

b) Progress and achievements in environmental protection including: State regulatory organization structure and personnel in charge of environmental protection; introduction and completion of policies and laws on environmental protection; authorities in charge of State management and environmental protection activities (implementation of measures for mitigating pollution and negative impacts on environment; actions against entities causing severe environmental pollution; waste treatment projects and environmental remediation projects; programs for nature and biodiversity conservation; dissemination and education on environment, environmental monitoring, environmental data and reports and other environmental protection activities); overall evaluation of achievements, limitations and cases; performance of State management of environmental protection as stipulated in Article 141 and 143 and other clauses of the Law on Environmental Protection and guiding documents.

c) Environmental protection orientation and measures for the immediately following year including major objectives and measures;

d) Proposals.

2. Specimens of environmental protection reports for People’s Committees at all ranks and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment are presented in Appendix I, II, III and IV attached hereto.

Article 4. Contents of environmental protection reports by Ministries and Ministerial-Level Agencies

1. An environmental protection report shall specify:

a) General assessment of sources of pollution, environmental impacts, classification of particular wastes and main issues (if any) by sectors under the administration of Ministries and ministerial-level agencies;

b) Progress and achievements in State management and environmental protection activities including: State regulatory organization structure and personnel in charge of environmental protection; introduction of policies and laws on environmental protection; ; performance of State management of environmental protection as stipulated in clause 3 Article 142 and other articles, clauses of the Law on Environmental Protection and guiding documents;

c) Environmental protection orientation for the immediately succeeding year and proposals.

2. Specimen of environmental protection report for Ministries and ministerial-level agencies is presented in Appendix V attached hereto.

Article 5. Contents of environmental protection reports by management boards of economic zones, export processing zones, hi-tech parks and industrial zones

1. An environmental protection report shall specify:

a) Current status, variation of environmental components, and environmental issues including  total land area, water surface, vegetation zones; occupancy rates; environmental quality; sources of pollution and negative impacts on the environment;

b) Progress and achievements in environmental protection including State regulatory organization structure and personnel in charge of environmental protection; performance of State management of environmental protection under regulations of laws.

c) Arising issues and proposals

2. Specimens of environmental protection reports by management boards of economic zones, export processing zones, hi-tech parks and industrial zones are presented in Appendix IV attached hereto.

Article 6. Reporting regime

1. Every People’s Committee of communes shall submit an environmental protection report to the People’s Council at the same rank and People’s Committee of the district by December 15^thof every year.

2. Every People’s Committee of district shall submit an environmental protection report to the People’s Council at the same rank and People’s Committee of the province by January 01 of every year.

3. Every People’s Committee of province shall submit an environmental protection report to the People’s Council at the same rank and the Vietnam Environment Administration - Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment by January 15^thof every year.

4. Management boards of economic zones, export processing zones, hi-tech parks and industrial zones shall submit environmental protection reports to the People’s Committees of provinces by December 31 of every year.

5. Ministries and ministerial-level agencies shall submit environmental reports to the Vietnam Environment Administration - Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment by January 15^thof every year for aggregation.

6. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall submit an aggregate environmental protection report to the Government, National Assembly by January 31 of every year.

7. The figures and information included in environmental protection reports specified from clauses 1 through 6 of this Article are those gathered and calculated from 1st of January to December 31 of every year.

Article 7. Options of reporting

1. Environmental protection reports must be made in accordance with Circular No.01/2011/TT-BNV January 19, 2011 by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

2. The People’s Committees of provinces, Ministries and ministerial-level agencies shall submit environmental protection reports to the Vietnam Environment Administration – Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment by one of the following methods:

a) A copy signed and sealed, by post;

b) An electric copy in pdf or word form submitted to[email protected] hor via environmental protection reporting system of the Vietnam Environment Administration (if any).

Article 8. Funding for environmental protection preparation

Costs of research, collection, aggregation and preparation of environmental protection reports; costs of development and maintenance of environmental reporting systems of central and local authorities shall be funded from environmental protection budgets under regulations of laws.

Article 9. Effect

1. This Circular takes effect on October 10, 2016.

2. Clause 1 Article 37 Circular No.27/2015/TT-BTNMT on strategic environment assessment, environmental impact assessment and environmental protection plans dated May 29, 2015 by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment; clause 4 Article 14 Circular No.35/2015/TT-BTNMT on environmental protection in economic zones, industrial zones, export-processing zones, hi-tech parks dated June 30, 2015 by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment shall expire from the effective date of this Circular.

Article 10. Implementationorganization

1. The Director of the Vietnam Environment Administration shall give instructions, conduct inspection, supervision of implementation of this Circular.

2. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies, Governmental agencies, People’s Committees at all levels, and relevant entities shall be responsible for the implementation of this Circular.

3. Any issue arising in connection to implementation of this Circular should be promptly reported to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment./.

For the Minister

The Deputy Minister

Vo Tuan Nhan

APPENDIX II

DISTRICT-LEVEL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REPORT
(Issued together with the Circular No.19/2016/TT-BTNMT dated August 24, 2016 by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment)

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION REPORT [YEAR]

I. General introduction

General information on natural conditions and socio-economic status of the district(no more than 02 pages).

II. Environmental protection report

1. Current status, components, and environmental issues

a) Current status, components of the environment

Land-use current status and variation in land area; forest cover, the area of protected forests, specialized forests and mangrove forests; bird parks, bird sanctuaries, ecological parks, heritage trees, plant varieties,  precious animals, etc.

Severity of surface water pollution, pesticide and chemical residual contamination, reduction in forest area due to clearance, fire and repurposing, repurposed farm land, etc.

b) Sources of pollution (scope, severity of pollution and negative impacts on the environment), urban complexes and residential areas, industrial clusters; projects for extracting minerals and building materials; commerce and services, trade villages, farms and household farms;

c) Waster generation (volume and characteristics)

Hazardous wastes, domestic solid wastes; non-hazardous industrial wastes; scraps

d) Main environmental problems

Most important and pressing environmental issues (5 -7 issues) such as polluted, degraded areas, sources of pollution, negative impacts on the environment and wastes.

2.  Progress and achievements in environmental protection:

a) Structures and sources of environmental organizations;

b) Introduction of guiding documents, regulations and conventions on environmental protection;

c) Implementation of regulations of laws on environmental protection, inspection of administrative procedures concerning environmental protection; fulfillment of State management of environmental protection as stipulated in clause 2 Article 143, other provisions, clause of the Law on Environmental Protection and other guiding documents;

d) Environmental protection activities (domestic solid waste and wastewater collection and treatment; remediation of residue-contaminated areas and other activities within the district);

dd) Overall evaluation of achievements, limitations and causes.

3. Orientation and solutions

a) Primary duties

b) Principal solutions

III. Proposals

IV. Environmental figures

Figures about environmental information specified in tabled 1 and 2 attached hereto are required. 

Table 1. Required indicators for district-level environmental report

Notes:

1. Aggregated herein refers to information which is aggregated from reports by local authorities of communes.

2. Gathered herein refers to information which is collected or provided by relevant entities.

3. Gathered, Aggregated herein refers to figures which are aggregated from reports by local authorities of communes and are collected within the district.

4. From the second year of report onwards, only figures which are varied in comparison to that in the immediately preceding year are reported.

Table 2. Environmental indicators required for environmental reports by administrative authorities

Reporting authority: [Name of district]:

(To….[date])