A livestock farm can satisfy the rules on breeds, veterinary hygiene and land and still not be ready to operate if it discharges waste into the environment without an environmental permit where the law requires one. This guide explains, for a farm in Vietnam, who must hold an environmental permit, who only needs to register, what the dossier contains, which authority issues the permit, how long the process takes, and what the farm must do after the permit is granted.
Read this guide as the procedure companion to the companion article on administrative penalties in livestock farming under Decree No. 211/2026/ND-CP. That article deals with sanctions; this one deals with getting permission. The two must not be mixed: a fine set by the livestock decree cannot be used as the consequence of operating without an environmental permit, because that failure belongs to the environmental protection sanction framework.
1. Start with the right question: permit, registration, or neither
Under the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 (Law No. 72/2020/QH14, effective 1 January 2022), an environmental permit is a single integrated document authorising the holder to discharge waste into the environment and to manage waste within the limits and conditions written in the permit. It replaced the old set of separate component permits. It is not a livestock business licence and it does not replace veterinary, land or construction approvals. A farm may need several approvals at once, and the environmental permit answers only the waste and discharge question.
The practical test is simple to state and harder to apply. If the farm generates wastewater, dust, exhaust gas or hazardous waste that is released into the environment, the farm must work out which environmental procedure applies to it. Manure, bedding, wash water, odour, dust, dead animals, veterinary medicine packaging, syringes and disinfectant chemicals are all waste streams that count. Size alone does not answer the question; it only points to where the farm is likely to sit in the classification.
2. Who must hold an environmental permit
Article 39 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 requires an environmental permit for Group I, Group II and Group III investment projects that generate wastewater, dust or exhaust gas discharged into the environment after treatment, or that generate hazardous waste subject to waste management rules, before official operation. Projects and establishments already operating before the Law took effect and meeting the same criteria are also covered. Urgent public investment projects in those groups are exempt.
Grouping follows Article 28 of the Law: project scale and capacity, the type of production and its pollution risk, environmental sensitivity, and land and water surface area used. Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP sets out the detailed grouping criteria and, in its Appendix II of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP (as amended by Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP), the types of production, business and services likely to cause environmental pollution. A farm owner therefore cannot decide from headcount alone; the treatment technology, the discharge point and the location matter as well.
For orientation, the Law on Animal Husbandry 2018 (Article 52) divides livestock production into farms and household production, and Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP, as amended by Decree No. 46/2022/ND-CP, converts scale into livestock units: 300 units or more is a large-scale farm, from 30 to under 300 is medium-scale, from 10 to under 30 is small-scale, and under 10 is household production. A large farm discharging directly into the environment will in practice almost always need a permit. A small farm connected entirely to a compliant centralised treatment system may fall into a different procedure. The grouping result, not the headcount, is the legal answer, so every farm should confirm its group before choosing a procedure.
3. When registration is enough, and when exemption is claimed
Article 49 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 provides environmental registration for waste-generating projects and businesses that are not required to hold an environmental permit. Registration covers general information, production type and technology, the type and quantity of waste, the waste collection, management and treatment plan, and environmental commitments. It is filed with the commune-level People’s Committee where the project or business is located; if the site spans two or more communes, the owner may choose one of them.
Exemption from registration is narrow. It covers projects and businesses classified as state secrets in national defence and security, and cases where operation generates no waste or only a small quantity treated by on-site works or managed under local government rules. Exemption from registration is not exemption from environmental duties. The farm must still collect and treat waste, must not discharge untreated wastewater, and must meet livestock conditions on siting, housing, waste treatment and disease prevention under the Law on Animal Husbandry 2018.
A safe working order is: classify first, then choose the procedure, then keep the evidence for the choice. If the farm is within Article 39, apply for a permit. If it generates waste but is outside Article 39, register. If exemption is claimed, write down the legal basis and keep the supporting file, because an inspector will ask for the basis, not for a general assurance.
4. What the dossier must contain
Article 43 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 lists three parts: the application form, the report proposing issuance of the environmental permit, and the legal and technical documents of the project or business. Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP (Articles 28 and 29) prescribes the report forms for each case and adds that a project not subject to environmental impact assessment must enclose a copy of its feasibility study report or an equivalent document under the laws on investment, public investment, public-private partnership and construction.
The proposal report is where most applications stall. It must describe every waste source on the farm, wastewater volume and composition, air emissions, solid waste, the collection and treatment works already built, the discharge parameters proposed for licensing, the monitoring programme, and the environmental incident prevention and response plan. The figures must match the built works: treatment capacity in the report cannot exceed real capacity, the discharge point in the report must be the real discharge point, and the monitored parameters must fit the waste the farm actually generates.
Before filing, check three things. First, have the treatment works been completed, because a project subject to environmental impact assessment files only after its waste treatment works are complete for the whole project or for the relevant phase. Second, are the land, investment and construction papers complete. Third, does the report state clearly whether wastewater goes into a hydraulic structure or into a centralised treatment system, because each case triggers an extra consultation step.
5. Which authority issues the permit after the district level was abolished
Article 41 of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 assigns ministerial-level issuance to projects whose environmental impact assessment was approved at ministerial level, projects spanning two or more provinces or located in sea areas not yet assigned to a provincial People’s Committee, scrap-importing establishments and hazardous waste treatment providers. The environmental function formerly held by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment now sits within the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment after the ministerial reorganisation. Provincial People’s Committees issue permits for Group II projects and equivalent operating establishments. The Law’s text still mentions district-level People’s Committees for the remaining cases, but district-level government ceased operating on 1 July 2025, when local government moved to two levels, provincial and commune. In practice today, there is no longer a district office to file with. Within Clause 4 of Article 41, the flow splits as follows. **Issuance:** the President of the provincial People’s Committee issues the environmental permit where one of the cases in Clause 1, Article 26 of Decree No. 131/2025/ND-CP applies — for a livestock farm, the key working threshold is industrial wastewater requiring treatment of 10 m³/day or more; the remaining thresholds are domestic wastewater requiring treatment of 50 m³/day or more, combined domestic and industrial wastewater requiring treatment of 50 m³/day or more, exhaust gas requiring treatment of 2,000 m³/hour or more upon official operation, and regular generation of hazardous waste together with wastewater or exhaust gas requiring treatment. **Receipt of dossiers:** for environmental permit dossiers under Clause 4 of Article 41 outside the cases in Clause 1, Article 26, the President of the commune-level People’s Committee receives the dossier (Clause 1, Article 29 of Decree No. 131/2025/ND-CP). **This distinction is mandatory: the commune level receives dossiers; it does not issue environmental permits.** Before filing, the farm owner should compare the farm’s actual discharge flow rates with the thresholds above to choose the correct filing channel, rather than defaulting to the province. The detailed two-level division of authority in agriculture and environment is set out in Decree No. 131/2025/ND-CP and Decree No. 136/2025/ND-CP.
Farms inside an industrial park, industrial cluster or concentrated production area should note one more step: the licensing authority consults the investor that built and operates the area’s infrastructure before issuing the permit, unless the project already holds an approved environmental impact assessment with no change to its wastewater discharge content. Connection to a centralised treatment system does not automatically replace the permit; the farm must still establish its own procedure under its own project group.
6. Processing time and permit validity
Time limits run from receipt of a complete and valid dossier. Article 43(4) of the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 caps the licensing time at 45 days for permits issued at ministerial level and 30 days for permits issued by a provincial People’s Committee (the Law’s text also mentions district level, now read under the two-level model). The licensing authority may set a shorter limit depending on the project’s type, scale and nature.
Inside that period, Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP (Article 29(4)) requires the licensing authority, within 5 working days of receiving a complete dossier, to publish the proposal report on its website and to seek opinions from concerned bodies; those bodies reply in writing within 7 days, and silence counts as agreement. Where a project discharges 10,000 cubic metres or more of wastewater per day into an inter-provincial river or lake, or discharges directly into a coastal area, neighbouring provincial People’s Committees are also consulted. If the dossier must be supplemented, the authority notifies only the contents to be changed, and after the supplemented dossier is received it must decide within 15 days for ministerial cases and 10 days for provincial cases under Article 29(6) of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP.
Validity is fixed by Article 40(4) of the Law: 7 years for Group I projects and equivalent operating businesses, and 10 years for all other cases, or a shorter period if the owner requests one. On expiry the owner must apply for re-issuance. Under Article 44, a permit is adjusted or re-issued when total scale, capacity or production technology changes, or another change increases adverse environmental impact. A mere change of project, business or owner name, with all other contents unchanged, only requires notification to the licensing authority for renewal of the permit document.
7. The application sequence, step by step
Step one is classification: compare farm scale, capacity, production type and site against Article 28 of the Law and Appendix II of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP (as amended by Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP) and conclude whether the farm needs a permit, registration, or a documented exemption. Step two is building the treatment works: separate rainwater and wastewater collection, wastewater treatment, solid and hazardous waste storage, and odour, dust and noise controls. Step three is drafting the proposal report on the Decree’s form, with the legal and technical documents attached. Step four is filing in person, by post or through the online public service system, and paying the appraisal charge. Step five is appraisal: publication of the report, consultation, an appraisal council or inspection team, and a site survey. Step six is the decision: the permit, or a written refusal stating reasons; if supplementation is requested, correct exactly what was asked and refile. Step seven, for projects subject to environmental impact assessment, is trial operation: the permit must be in hand before trial operation of the waste treatment works begins, and official operation follows only after trial operation meets requirements.
The most common cause of delay is a gap between paper and site: a treatment tank not yet built, a discharge point moved, or a herd larger than the dossier states. A site survey finds those gaps immediately. Finishing the works first, measuring them, and only then writing the report is the fastest route in practice.
8. Duties after the permit is granted
A permit is a licence to operate within limits, not a one-off approval. The farm must discharge only at the permitted sources, volumes and parameter limits; manage solid and hazardous waste as committed; carry out environmental monitoring exactly as the permit’s programme requires, including wastewater, dust, exhaust gas and related parameters; submit periodic compliance reports to the licensing authority and the local environmental authority; and keep monitoring records and waste collection and treatment contracts for inspection.
The farm must also maintain its livestock conditions, waste treatment, disease prevention and dead-animal handling under the Law on Animal Husbandry 2018. Before expanding the herd, changing treatment technology or moving a discharge point, the owner should check whether the change triggers adjustment or re-issuance of the permit. Expanding first and seeking adjustment later is the quickest way into a violation. As expiry approaches, file for re-issuance early enough to avoid any gap in authorised operation.
9. Operating without a required permit, and the boundary with Decree 211/2026
Operating a project that requires an environmental permit without one is a violation of environmental protection law, handled under the environmental protection administrative sanction framework, with remedial measures as that framework provides and, depending on severity, suspension of the polluting activity. This guide deliberately states no specific fine figure for operating without a permit, because a figure is meaningful only when tied to the correct article of the environmental framework for the specific act and subject.
The boundary matters. Decree No. 211/2026/ND-CP (issued 16 June 2026, effective 5 August 2026) sanctions administrative violations in livestock farming. Under section 8A of the Board of Directors’ directives, verified by QA panel QA-P129, violations of livestock conditions and livestock waste handling, fined at 1 to 30 million VND with remedial measures, must be kept separate from operating without an environmental permit. Operating without a permit falls under environmental protection law and its fine levels must not be attached to Decree 211/2026. When reading any livestock article, check which decree a quoted fine comes from before applying it to your case.
Frequently asked questions
Can a foreign investor apply for the farm’s environmental permit, or must a local entity hold it? The permit is issued to the project or business owner named in the dossier, so the applicant must be the entity that owns and will operate the farm under Vietnamese investment and enterprise rules. A foreign investor that owns the project company applies through that company, with the dossier’s legal documents matching the company’s registered project. Using a nominee owner whose name does not match the real operator creates a mismatch the appraisal team will catch at site inspection.
Does a permit cover future expansion of the herd? No, unless the expansion stays within the scale, capacity and discharge limits written in the permit. A larger herd usually means more wastewater and manure, which changes the permitted parameters. Check Article 44 before expanding: a change in total scale, capacity or technology that increases environmental impact requires adjustment or re-issuance, and the farm should obtain that decision before the expanded herd is stocked.
What happens if the farm’s discharge point has to move? Treat the move as a permit change, not a site convenience. The discharge point, receiving water body and discharge parameters are licensed contents. Notify and seek adjustment or re-issuance before redirecting the discharge, and update the monitoring programme to the new point, because monitoring results tied to the old point will not prove compliance at the new one.
How far in advance should re-issuance be filed? Early enough that the decision can issue before expiry, allowing for the 30-day provincial or 45-day ministerial clock plus any supplementation round. For a provincial permit, start at least two to three months before expiry; for a ministerial permit, longer. Operating after expiry without a new permit is operating without a valid permit, even if the farm’s treatment works have not changed.
Is an environmental permit enough to prove the farm is environmentally compliant? No. The permit sets the limits, but compliance is proven by monitoring results, waste contracts, treatment records and inspection outcomes. A farm that holds a permit yet discharges above its limits, skips monitoring or mishandles hazardous waste is still in violation, and the permit itself becomes evidence of the limits it broke.
Principal sources: Law on Environmental Protection 2020 (Law No. 72/2020/QH14); Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP (as amended by Decree No. 05/2025/ND-CP); Law on Animal Husbandry 2018; Decree No. 13/2020/ND-CP (as amended by Decree No. 46/2022/ND-CP); Decree No. 211/2026/ND-CP; Decree No. 131/2025/ND-CP and Decree No. 136/2025/ND-CP on the two-level local government model. Validity checked as of 25 October 2026.
