As Vietnam fights climate change, has it missed the wood for a billion trees?

The country is to plant 1 billion trees nationwide by 2025, but its decision to plant most of them in urban areas is perplexing to some

While the trees may alleviate urban pollution, experts say if the goal is to mitigate the impact of floods and landslides caused by tropical storms it would be better to plant them in forests

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Michael Tatarski

Published: 4:27pm, 16 Jun 2021Updated: 4:38pm, 16 Jun 2021

For residents of Vietnam’s biggest city, the sight of trees being cut down for development is not uncommon.

In 2017, 258 trees that had dated back to the French colonial period were removed from a major street in central Ho Chi Minh City for the construction of a bridge. Last month, city officials announced that 178 trees on the same road would be cut down or relocated for the renovation of a park along the Saigon River.

Such actions come despite Ho Chi Minh City having just 0.55 square metres of public park per resident, compared to 30.3 square metres per person in Singapore and 41 square metres per capita in Seoul, according to local media.

Meanwhile, air pollution – a problem that trees can help to alleviate – has become the top environmental concern for Vietnamese. Hanoi, the capital, has had some of the worst air quality in the world in recent years, while Ho Chi Minh City also suffers heavily.

Motorcyclists in Hanoi, Vietnam, which suffers some of the world’s worst air pollution. Photo: EPA

There may be hope on the horizon for Vietnam’s heavily developed urban areas though, in the form of an ambitious government plan to plant 1 billion trees nationwide by 2025.