PeaceTrees Vietnam, a Washington State-based non-profit with headquarters in Seattle and in Dong Ha, Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, is dedicated to addressing the legacy of war by removing dangerous explosives, returning land to safe use, promoting peace, and cultivating a brighter future for the children and families of Vietnam. Since their founding in 1995, the organization has cleared over 4,700 acres of land, removed nearly 140,000 explosive ordnances, planted more than 44,000 trees, and supported communities through education, scholarships, and community-building.
Thanks to funding from the Ingrid Rasch Legacy Fund, Earth Economics and PeaceTrees partnered to map the impacts of environmental and climate change-related hazards to support their work in the humanitarian mine action space.
Sea level rise, extreme precipitation, and ongoing development all contribute to increased coastal and riverine flooding. In turn these changes increase areas of exposure and shift the location of mine hazards. Figure 2 highlights the overlap between settlement and ordnance hazard areas based on maps of 2020’s floods in Central Vietnam.
Overall, this partnership shows that more research is needed to identify areas at greater risk of overlapping climate and munitions hazards as higher priority areas to clear ERW in Central Vietnam.
