Jungles blasted clear during the Vietnam war four decades ago are now at the center of a debate in the country about how forests should be recovered.
The battle is between native and non-native trees, business interests and local villagers.
"Thirty-five years after North Vietnamese tanks entered Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon - and four decades after U.S. forces destroyed or damaged large swaths of Vietnamese forest with bombs and defoliants, this landscape is a window into Vietnam's struggle to regenerate its once-abundant forests. With much of the country's woodlands and jungle lost or damaged over the past half-century by war, the spread of agriculture, and logging, Vietnam's forestry experts are split over what the nation's new forests should look like.
On the one side are those who would replace the lost forests with acacia and eucalyptus plantations - alien, monocultural forms of regeneration that supply abundant wood products but support little biodiversity. On the other side are scientists and conservationists who would like to regenerate forests of Hopea odorata and other native species, which are slow-growing but support a far wider variety of indigenous plants, animals, birds, and insects."
FULL STORY: In War-Scarred Landscape, Vietnam Replants Its Forests

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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Gallatin County Department of Planning & Community Development
Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Claremont