Communication of IRD in Vietnam

Three children find themselves on the edge of a lake invaded by garbage. They then become aware of the fragility of the environment and decide to investigate this abundant waste.

Their adventures will lead them to (re)discover their daily life, their habits, the job of the "ve chai", their city and to explore its surroundings?

The book in French and in Vietnamese is co-published by HAU, IRD, AUF and the French Embassy in Hanoi within the framework of JEAI RECYCURBS. 

Built on 'the bend in the Red River', Hà Nội is among Southeast Asia's most ancient capitals. Over the centuries, it took shape in part from a dense substratum of villages. With the economic liberalisation of the 1980s, it encountered several obstacles to its expansion: absence of a real land market, high population densities, the government's food self-suffciency policy that limits expropriations of land and the water management constraints of this very vulnerable delta.

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the change in speed brought about by the state and by property developers in the construction and urban planning of the province-capital poses the problem of integration of in situ urbanised villages, the importance of preserving a green belt around Hà Nội and the necessity of protection from flooding. The harmonious fusion of city and countryside, which has always constituted the Red River Delta's defining feature, appears to be in jeopardy.

Working from a rich body of maps and field studies, this collective work reveals how this grass-roots urbanisation encounters 'top-down' urbanisation, or metropolisation. By combining a variety of disciplinary approaches on several different scales, through a study of spatial issues and social dynamics, this atlas not only enables the reader to gauge the impact of major projects on the lives of villages integrated into the city's fabric but also to re-establish the peri-urban village stratum as a fully-fledged actor in the diversity of this emerging metropolis.

This book is available in French, in English and in Vietnamese.

The villages around Ha Noi possess a rich capital of cultural, architectural and craft heritage. Less than one hour's journey from the capital are over 500 specialist craft villages, producing an array of religious and artistic objects, as well as food products, industrial goods, textiles, basketwork and much more. Despite the ordeals that Vietnam has endured, these traditions have survived; today they constitute the basis of material social and spiritual culture among the village communities of the Red River Delta. 

The artisans themselves and their local institutions perceive cultural tourism as a way of further improving the fortunes of craft village communities. They also see it as an opportunity to attract wider attention to their heritage. Until recently, few guides or tourists had ventured into these villages, some of which are lost beyond a maze of roads and tracks amid the rice paddies of the Ha Noi hinterland. Little is commonly known of their history and the skills they have maintained. Few of these villages are signposted, yet collectively they are home to the lion's share of the architectural, religious and craft heritage of the Upper Delta. 

This book, the fruit of several years' research by Vietnam specialists, comprises ten itineraries, blending potted histories, legends, descriptions of craft techniques, signposted walks and maps, designed to introduce readers to 40 or so craft villages around Ha Noi, You are probably familiar with the wide variety of Vietnamese handicrafts on sale in the shops of Ha Noi's Old Quarter or in Western cities. This book will give you the chance to meet the anonymous artisans who made these things and to learn something of their lives and their enduring skills.

This book is available in French, in English and in Vietnamese.

This bilingual exhibition for the general public aims to provide an overview of what is known about anthropogenic fine particulate matter air pollution, and to present the health and environmental issues for both Vietnam and Thailand, and SEA as a whole. For several years, Vietnam and Thailand have been experiencing severe episodes of fine particulate matter air pollution, with concentrations in the atmosphere far exceeding the health recommendations of the World Health Organization. The increase in frequency and intensity of these air pollution episodes in major Asian metropolises as well as on a regional scale is accompanied by an increase in awareness of the populations (especially urban populations) and local decision-makers on the magnitude of the problem. Moreover, given the increase in emissions of these fine particles expected for the coming decades, especially in SEA, it is crucial to raise awareness and provide the concerned public and decision-makers with the necessary information for the implementation of prevention and mitigation policies.

This trilingual (French, Vietnamese and English) exhibition for the general public aims to take stock of the social life of plastics in Vietnam, by following the objects from their places of production and consumption, in the intimacy of daily life, to the accumulations of waste in the aquatic environment. It is based on a scientific collaboration between French and Vietnamese researchers in social and environmental sciences: Mikaëla Le Meur (Anthropologist) - Émilie Strady (Water Geochemist) - Kiêu Lê Thuy Chung (Geologist).  Based on Elza Montalhuc's original graphic design, this exhibition makes accessible the local and global issues related to plastics: popular and democratic materials, but whose effects on the environment are increasingly worrying.