Dear Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment,

We are groups of individuals, units and organizations working on environmental issues and sustainable development in Vietnam.

We are writing in order to propose these following tasks:

Recently, the Tam Dao Ecotourism zone Project, also known as Tam Dao II Project, has been carried out in the area of Tam Dao National Park by Sun Group investment. In details, the project was started on December 27, 2016, and then stopped for a period until recently, it was restarted with measurements, clearing small trees, digging holes for jib cranes and making roads through the forest. The auction of forest wood after cutting down the tree is also in progress.

Official sources also said that this is a large-scale project with an area of 300 ha and an investment of up to VND 25 trillion. The project is in the core zone of Tam Dao National Park and is managed by Department of Forest Protection which is belonged to The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Consider that:

- The current Law on Environmental Protection 2014 stipulates that a "national park land use" project will have to implement the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, according to Point b, Clause 1, Article 18.

- Article 23 and 25 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 stipulates that the EIA of the project will be appraised and approved under the authority of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

Base on:

- Article 131 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014 on publicizing environmental information, in which EIA regulation is information that must be published for citizens to supervise.

- Article 5 and Article 6 of the Information Access Act 2016 on citizen information is accessed.

We suggest

1. Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment must publish EIA of the Tam Dao Ecotourism zone Project on the web portal of the Ministry and media for all people to easily access in accordance with legal regulations.

2. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment provides information on consultations with agencies, organizations, and communities directly affected by the project during EIA implementation in accordance with Article 21 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2014.

We look forward to receiving feedback from the Ministry and will monitor the settlement of this document in accordance with the Law on Access to Information 2016 and the Law on Citizenship of 2013.

Hanoi, March 11, 2019

Individuals/ units/ Organizations of