Ho Chi Minh city: Towards becoming a green city

15/09/2015

Towards the goals of the urban green space plan, many new urban areas in Ho Chi Minh city have saved more areas for green space. Ho Chi Minh city is striving to transform into a "green city" in the future. With each passing day, the appearance of green space is becoming clearer in every corner and street of the city.  Roadmap for urban green space planning for the period of 2013 - 2015 In 2012, the movement for urban improvement "Green - Clean - Beautiful" was started with the formation of the systems of green tree and building in order to restore the ecosystems and biodiversity and contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution. Specifically, the city also planted 500,000 trees along the rivers and canals in Thu Duc, Binh Thanh, Nha Be, Hoc Mon, Cu Chi, etc. In addition, green landscapes with trees and water surfaces for tourism and entertainment along the banks of the rivers of Saigon, Dong Nai and Nha Be will also be planned with a total area of ​​about 7,000 hectares. Besides, the city prescribed that any perennial and annual tree area to be converted to other uses must retain at least 35 - 40% of the planted trees. However, the current green space in Ho Chi Minh city is not evenly distributed. Therefore, in the roadmap for urban green space planning for the period of 2013 - 2015 and the orientation to 2020 recently approved by the People's Committee of the city at the end of 2012, in addition to the development of additional 250 hectares of green tree, the city will preserve and improve the existing parks and trees which cover an area of ​​about 200 hectares. The goals need the consent of the people In fact, in major cities such as Ho Chi Minh city and Hanoi, urban green space is mainly formed from tree-populated streets, parks, zoos, etc. Facing the challenges of the process of urbanization, green urban development is the solution to help the Vietnamese cities achieve a prosperous, sustainable, unique and environment-friendly development. Green space, green building, green transportation, green industry, green urban environmental quality together with the conservation of natural landscape will create a community lifestyle which is friendly to the environment and nature. Though many plans were approved, the implementation of the projects on green trees, green space, building parks and planting trees in new residential areas was not easy. In fact, the number of existing trees in Ho Chi Minh city is not sufficient enough to meet the defined requirements to improve the ecological environment for a major city. Therefore, the planning of urban green space is still a long road which requires a strong consensus between the authorities and people of the city.                                                                                VNS (English edition I-2013-VEM)