Abstract

Forests and Wetlands in Mekong Delta during the Viêt-Nam War
Track: Ecology and Conservation
Author(s): Françoise Pirot, Thao Tran

Thirty years after the end of the conflict in 1975, the debate on the controversial use of herbicides in Vietnam remains heated. The chemical component of this war carried was the program Ranch Hand (1961-1971), which aimed to the total destruction of the vegetational cover. At that time, the international scientific community already realized what would be the catastrophic environmental and medical consequences in the post-war period. The disappearance of very large surfaces of forests, mangrove forests durably endangered biodiversity; the soils and water were also polluted. Since 1974, reports of the American National Academy of Sciences have listed the number of air missions and the quantity of herbicides spread per military area and year. Nowadays, the American Defense Department tends to open its files to researchers. We can now weigh war as a disturbance and locate the number of missions and the type and quantity of herbicides.

Françoise Pirot
CNRS - UMR8564 - SIS - Centre de Compétence Thématique MASSIG
54 Boulevard Raspail
Paris , Paris - Ile de France 75006
France
Phone: +33 (01) 49 54 21 67
E-mail: pirot@msh-paris.fr

Thao Tran
Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - Laboratoire SET - UMR 5603 CNRS/UPPA - IRSAM
Avenue du Doyen Poplawski - Domaine universitaire
Pau , Pyrénées Atlantiques 64000
France
Phone: +33(05)59407273
E-mail: thao.tran@univ-pau.fr