As shown in the previous chapter, the Sustainable Development narrative has been on a global conceptual landslide over the last three decades. It was derived for the global scale but has been adapted to multiple contexts within the ecological modernization programme. This chapter examines how the narrative is used by the state and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for governance in Vietnam, and which other alternatives exist. The Sustainable Development narrative has been so successful because it offers space for adaptation and is not perceived as a threat to power relations. The Vietnamese government uses it to further extend its environmental governance. Furthermore, the Sustainable Development narrative allows for ecological modernization, embraces the capitalist economic model and sustains economic growth. By not questioning the current governance system in Vietnam, this narrative has a competitive advantage compared to other narratives. As a result, NGOs have used the Sustainable Development narrative to maintain their place between the Vietnamese government and international funding organizations. Their theories of change are limited to the conceptual path dependency and their perception of the environment, with the identification of environmental crises as part of it. They use Sustainable Development as a narrative to serve power relations but leaves space for manoeuvre when it comes to practical implementation.

The Vietnamese Policy Adaptation of Sustainable Development

The 1980s were a time of transformation in Vietnam. Often attributed to the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 1986, the Đổi Mới renovation politics had actually begun much earlier. In that year, famine and poverty forced people to transform policies (Kerkvliet 2005). For example, family units adopted collective farming, following earlier village traditions, instead of the cooperative structure. Another reason for the major change in politics was the global threat to socialism. As the Soviet Union and East Germany began to crumble and eventually fell apart, the CPV recognized that if they wanted to hold on to power, they might need to change their way of governance. Among the officially proclaimed changes was the introduction of a “market economy in socialist direction” (kinh tế thị trường định hướng xã hội chủ nghĩa). This meant the return of private property and the welcoming of foreign organizations into Vietnam. It led to a new era in Vietnam's environmental policy under the Sustainable Development narrative.