Contenu du sommaire : Vietnam.

The Green Revolution and Land Collectivization in the Mekong Delta : the Example of the Rach Noch Plain. In Vietnam , agrarian policies have changed several times since 1945. These successive changes, the consequences they have had for the peasantry, and the modifications in the system of farming are discussed here with, in mind, the example of the Rach Noch plain, located in the Mekong Delta, a natural setting that is relatively favorable for exploitation by man. From a single annual rice crop using flooded fields, a farming custom that was unable to provide them with self-subsistence, the peasants in 1960, and especially in 1970, when a new agrarian reform began, the «green revolution» and its technological innovations, started planting two annual crops. But after 1982, the gradual introduction of a cooperative structure had the adverse effect of increasing charges and lowering production. This state of affairs continued until 1988, when a return to private property began and the resulting interest in earning a profit in a free market economy. Since this date, a diversification of crops has developed -soja, food crops, orchards-and an increase in the farm area devoted to three annual rice crops. Unfortunately, an increase in social-economic inequalities has also developed. A part of the peasantry has become well-off and is able to modernize its farm equipment and procur additional land, while others just manage to satisfy their basic needs, or are able to survive only by obtaining complementary resources.

Degradation of the Natural Environment in Vietnam. Vietnam today is a prey to the rapid degradation of its natural setting. This process began during the country 's war of indépendance and has not ceased to worsen since. Forest destruction, in large part a result of the defoliants used by the Americans during the I960' s , has increased since 1975 because of land clearing for agricultural purposes, forest exploitation and real estate development. The augmentation in the number of quarries and mines has added to the effects of the destruction of vegetation cover, causing impressive erosion damage and favoring floods. The large natural fauna has been directly affected by the shrinking forests as well as by various other excesses, and no satisfactory remedy has as yet been found. There is, moreover, a depletion of drinkable water ressources, mainly due to various polluting factors. Ho Chi Minh-City and its surroundings are especially affected. The degradation of the Vietnam environment, inseparable from the reigning poverty in the nation, only serves to aggravate problems in the descending spiral of loss of resources, deterioration in the health of the people, and their undernourishment.

City Expansion ; the Management of Cities and Dwellings As Exemplified by Ho Chi Minh-City, Vietnam. Since 1986, the economic reform undertaken by the Vietnamese authorities and characterized by a political opening towards a certain degree of liberalism, has led to the acceleration of demographic growth of cities, in particular Ho Chi Minh-City, and to an increase in the number of private enterprises. The standard of living has risen, but the spread in income among the urban population has also widened. The centralized control of cities had made of the State the only decider in all sectors, especially as regards dwellings, but the dearth of financial means had only enabled it to offer lodgings of a mediocre quality. The present tendancy is directed to «shared management», which aims at associating the citizens in the choice and realization of development projects, and the renovation concerning them ; but the former authoritarian thinking and inclinations have not yet disappeared.

The Peripheral Sector in Ho Chi Minh-Ville. The peripheral, or informal, sector in Vietnam is still badly know. After a short historical survey, the author undertakes to outline the special characteristics of the economic system called «underground» as it concerns Ho Chi Minh-City. She thus studies the different human groups -men, women, children -who are active in this domain, before reflecting on the living conditions of these poor population groups. Finally, in conclusion, she shows the complex relationship of concurrence and complimentarity that unites these two broad sectors of activity, the formal and the peripheral, where is clearly expressed the duality and present ambiguity of this large city, progressing haltingly towards the projected phase of its development.