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The Forests of South Viet Nam in 1971–72: A Personal Account*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Paul W. Richards
Paul W. Richards
Affiliation:
Emeritus Professor of Botany, University College of North Wales, Bangor, Wales, UK present address 14 Wootton Way, Cambridge CB3 9LX, England UK.
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Extract

An account is given of the work on the forests of Viet Nam of the US Academy of Sciences' Committee on the Effects of Herbicides in South Viet Nam during 1971–74. Owing to the insecure state of the country at the time, very little work on the ground was possible. The Committee's conclusions had therefore to depend largely on observations from the air and aerial photography, and were subject to considerable errors.

The appearance after herbicide spraying of the Inland and mangrove forests as seen from the air in 1971 and 1972 is described. In the Inland forest most of the emergent trees were killed, but much of the undergrowth remained alive. In addition to the effects of herbicides, the Inland forests suffered widespread damage from bombing and other military operations. In the mangrove forests, herbicide spraying destroyed almost the whole biomass, resulting in the complete denudation of vast areas of soft sediments.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Summer 1984 , pp. 147 - 153
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1984

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References

REFERENCES

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