The national authority for environmental affairs in Vietnam is pooling feedback to revise its decree on livestock farming regulations, including those stipulating that farms with at least 100 buffaloes or cows must obtain an environmental permit to run their business.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has written to the local administrations across the country, asking for their feedback on Decree No. 8 guiding the implementation of the Environmental Protection Law.

The ministry said it would mostly adjust regulations regarding the size and capacity of production and business facilities that pose risks of environmental pollution.

It will consider increasing the delegation of authority to localities in granting environmental permits to these facilities and monitoring the businesses’ compliance with environmental regulations.

Specifically, livestock farms with 10-300 head of cattle and poultry would be classified as small-sized facilities, compared with the current size of 10-100 animals.

Farms with 300-3,000 head of cattle and poultry would be categorized as medium-sized facilities,  while those with at least 3,000 animals would be considered as large-sized farms.

As for the electronic and electrical equipment and accessories sector, medium-sized projects would need to have an annual capacity of below 2,000 metric tons, compared to the current capacity cap of one million devices or 1,000 metric tons of products per year.

The minimum capacity of large-sized projects in the field would be 2,000 metric tons of products per year, while the current lower limit is one million devices or 1,000 metric tons of products per year.

As per Decree No. 8, district-level People’s Committees are responsible for granting the environmental permit to small-sized facilities.

The provincial administrations and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment are in charge of issuing the permits to medium- and large-sized projects, respectively.

The ministry said the adjustments will increase the delegation of responsibility to local administrations and streamline administrative procedures.

Decree No. 8 took effect on January 10 last year, but it shows certain inadequacies.

For instance, slaughterhouses with at least 10 pigs each or 100 chickens and livestock farms with at least 10 buffaloes or cows must get an environmental permit from the district-level administration to be operational.

Such regulation is likened to requirements that seafood processing plants with an annual capacity of 100-1,000 metric tons or livestock farms of at least 100 cows or buffaloes in vulnerable areas must have an environmental impact assessment report approved by the above-mentioned ministry.

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