Over the last decade, several environmental movements have emerged in Vietnam. In 2015, organic demonstrations erupted in Hanoi in reaction to a government plan to cut down thousands of trees. The next year, a nation-wide protest movement spilled onto the streets in response to the Formosa environmental disaster. More recently, a group of NGO professionals formed coalitions and successfully advocated for the government to take action on climate change.

Starting in 2021, the Vietnamese authorities have imprisoned six leaders of the country’s climate change movement on false charges. These cases have been covered extensively by international media, and international organizations have campaigned to free the activists. Such campaigns, however, largely ignore the activists who participated in earlier environmental movements, even though they continue to be persecuted for their work.

Like climate activists today, these earlier figures dedicated themselves to protecting the environment. And like those today, Vietnam’s forgotten environmental activists also worked to improve the lives of their fellow citizens. Indeed, many of these individuals view the climate activists as fellow travelers in an evolving environmental movement.

Vietnam’s forgotten environmental activists are equally deserving of support and advocacy as are the recent climate activists. Each were exercising rights protected by international law. Each fought to promote human rights through peaceful means. All have endured, and many continue to endure, repression.  And all have dedicated their life to protecting and promoting human rights, often at great personal expense.

This advocacy brief provides an overview of different environmental movements in Vietnam over the past decade, of the people involved in these movements, and of the government repression meted out against them. Interspersed throughout the report are personal narratives in which activists themselves outline their motivations, their advocacy work, and what they endured at the hands of Vietnamese authorities. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for people who are advocating on behalf of environmental activists in Vietnam.

 Download the advocacy brief here