Community living

The skywalks which directly connect to the two bridges above the island, urge residents to extend their footprints further into the forest and to fully integrate the city with nature. They enable people to see, walk in and touch the forest.

Green lungs Hanoi is also an open-air laboratory for students and researchers where education on sustainable development and conservation is imparted.

The forest would also provide job possibilities for the local community on the island. Most of them are experienced farmers, so training about tree plantation and forest maintenance wouldn’t take much time. The local people will take care of young forest for the initial five years and after that they will turn out to be forest rangers and extra ride maintainers in the next length of the green lungs.

Flora and fauna

Vietnam’s high human population density has taken a heavy toll on its natural habitats. The coastal and alluvial forests in particular have been hardest hit because the human population densities are highest in these lowland habitats. Hanoi which has been home to several species of birds has seen their numbers reduce drastically over the last decade from about 214 species to a mere 25. The forest aims to resuscitate these numbers and provide a safe haven for the birds.

Biotic homogenization, which refers to the replacement of native (and often endemic) species with non-native, invasive and cosmopolitan species is another factor that results in a decrease in the regional biodiversity, and also causes drastic alterations to the composition of urban biological communities.

Economic sustainability

Green lungs will be an economically sustainable project with a positive impact on local community in terms of socio-economic development and for the surrounding areas. The forest stimulates economic growth and enterprise development on the two river banks along the river in close vicinity to the island and provides opportunities in both formal and informal ways. Paying attention to greening develops a city economically and pays rich rewards in tangible and intangible ways. It is to say the most cost-effective project. Greening and biodiversity conservation programs will pay for themselves, therefore, should be seen in the context of the benefits that biodiversity and greenery provide to cities and their occupants.

Measures taken to reduce CO2 emissions

Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, currently in the period of strong economic development, was ranked among the top polluted cities in the world. Cities account for more than 70 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and consume two-thirds of the world’s energy; they are ideally positioned, therefore, to drive local action.

Tropical and sub-tropical forests play an important role as carbon sinks in the global carbon cycle. On average, one hectare of forest can sequester 460 kg of carbon daily. Trees reach their most productive stage of carbon storage at about 10 years at which point the forest is estimated to absorb 12 tons of carbon daily. The green lungs with an area of about 26 hectares and thousands of trees, would act as an important carbon sink for Hanoi.