Plastic pollution is one of the greatest challenges facing our ocean today and requires action at all levels — international, national, urban, and individual.

Vietnam has emerged as an early leader on the issue, setting ambitious goals to tackle marine debris in one of the world’s first comprehensive country-level strategies, its National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris. Admirably, when developing its plan, the Vietnamese government showed not only political commitment, but also a determination to use the best available science to inform its actions.

Ocean Conservancy was honored to be included in the consultative process, and as longtime advocates for and investors in the science around ocean plastics, we also saw an opportunity to support the Government of Vietnam in its efforts to generate Vietnam-specific research around the issue. With the generous support of the U.S. Department of State, we teamed up with longtime partners at the University of Georgia’s New Materials Institute and the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD) in Hanoi to bring the CircularityAssessment Protocol (CAP) to Vietnam.This is the true power of partnerships — the ability to move forward even under adverse circumstances like the COVID pandemic.

Ocean Conservancy hopes that the CAP reports for Hanoi and Nam Dinh will spark conversations and innovative collaboration in those cities and elsewhere in Vietnam around the implementation of the country’s National Action Plan; and serve as a blueprint for other governments ready to do the same. After all, the ocean — and plastic pollution — know no boundaries, and it’s going to take all of us to solve this problem.

—Chever Voltmer, Director Plastics Initiative, OceanConservancy