Inadequacies in land and forest allocation

Lesson 1: "Bottlenecks" from planning

In order to improve the effectiveness of forest management and protection and create a legal basis for completing land allocation, forest allocation, and granting of forestry land use right certificates, in the period of 2006 - 2020, the province carried out the task of planning 3 types of forests. However, the planning has revealed inadequacies and shortcomings that need to be adjusted and supplemented to suit the actual situation. Therefore, on December 21, 2018, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 1208/QD-UBND on approving the project to review and adjust the planning of 3 types of forests in the province until 2025, with a vision to 2030. However, after reviewing, adjusting and announcing the planning of 3 types of forests, many people and localities encountered difficulties in their production and life, as well as in performing the task of local socio -economic development.

Many households in Tua Chua district are currently located in the planning of 3 types of forests.

Over many years of implementation, the planning of 3 types of forests has revealed inadequacies and shortcomings that need to be adjusted and supplemented to suit the actual situation such as: Databases, maps, forest status and forestry land use status have very large differences compared to the field; many areas of stable agricultural production land of individuals and households are still interspersed in the planning of 3 types of forests. Many areas of forests and forestry land planned according to the functions of 3 types of forests are no longer suitable with the new regulations and actual conditions, significantly affecting the implementation of local socio-economic development goals.

To overcome the limitations, meet the goals of good management, protection and development of forest and forestry land areas, contribute to environmental protection, create jobs, improve the lives of people in forest areas, and sustainably reduce poverty, the Provincial People's Committee has issued Decision 1208/QD-UBND. In particular, focusing on reviewing and removing from the planning area of ​​residential land, rice land, construction works, etc. and organizing the announcement, land allocation, and forest allocation in the field to each sub-region, commune, district, and forest manager.

Accordingly, Dien Bien province has nearly 695,000 hectares (accounting for 72% of the natural area) under forestry land planning. Of which, special-use forests are more than 51,664 hectares (including forested and non-forested land); protective forests are more than 416,163 hectares and production forests are 226,925 hectares. The goal of the planning is to review and readjust the scale of forestry land and the structure of forest types in accordance with land use planning and the actual situation of the locality. Linking the planning of 3 types of forests with restructuring the forestry sector, gradually increasing forest cover, striving to reach 45% by 2025 and 48% by 2030.

Officers of Dien Bien District Forest Protection Department review the planning of 3 types of forests on the map.

However, the review and adjustment of the planning of 3 types of forests faces many difficulties. Many villages, hamlets and houses are still in the forestry land planning that has not been released. Typically, Pa Thom commune (Dien Bien district) has a total natural land area of ​​more than 8,908 hectares, but according to the planning, there are more than 8,297 hectares of forestry land (accounting for 93.1% of the total natural area). This means that many areas of rice fields, ponds, gardens, houses, headquarters buildings... in Pa Thom commune are all in the forestry land planning. For example, Pa Thom village is a long-standing residence of Lao ethnic people, but the entire village area is planned as forestry land!

Similarly, all 84 households in Chan 3 village, Ngoi Cay commune (Muong Ang district) are included in the forestry land planning. According to Mr. Ly A Si, Head of Chan 3 village, the villagers have lived here for a long time, but when the planning of 3 types of forests was announced, they knew that the whole village was included in the forest planning. This has had a significant impact on people's lives, especially the implementation of works and projects in the area.

Officers of Tua Chua District Forest Protection Department checked residential land, houses, fields, gardens, etc. to remove 3 types of forests from the planning.

Not only that, even the land of the State agency headquarters in some communes is included in the forestry land planning. According to Mr. Thao A Tu, an officer of the Forest Protection Department of Tua Chua district, through the review according to Decision 1208/QD-UBND, the headquarters of the People's Committee of Muong Bang commune (Tua Chua district) currently has nearly ^600m2 included in the planning of 3 types of forests, even though the headquarters is located next to the road, in the central area, with a dense population. Or Tong Lenh lake (Tua Chua district) also has about ^1,500m2 included in the planning of 3 types of forests.

In addition, when implementing the planning of 3 types of forests, the process of organizing the announcement of internal and external forest planning is still limited. In particular, when localities organize the announcement of the planning of 3 types of forests, many households do not participate, partly because they are busy with work, partly because they do not take the announcement of the planning seriously (only reaching 25.4% of the households that need to announce). In particular, the 2 districts of Tuan Giao and Dien Bien Dong do not organize the announcement of the planning of 3 types of forests in the field.

Some houses located right in the center of Muong Bang commune (Tua Chua district) have just been reviewed by Tua Chua district Forest Protection Department to remove them from the planning of 3 types of forests.

Therefore, many households, village communities and hamlets do not clearly understand the planning of 3 types of forests after adjustment, so only a short time after the decision to approve the planning of 3 types of forests by the Provincial People's Committee, forest encroachment cases occurred in some localities and were discovered and handled. For example, Mr. Vang A Giang, Nam Nga 2 village, Nam Chua commune (Nam Po district) did not agree to put the area of ​​regenerated forest on his family's upland into the protection area according to the planning of 3 types of forests because the payment for forest environmental services was lower than that for farming. Therefore, his family destroyed the regenerated forest to make fields.

In order to overcome the shortcomings of planning 3 types of forests, in 2021, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development directed its affiliated units to focus on reviewing locations and areas (residential land, rice fields, aquaculture land, garden land and other land) in the planning of 3 types of forests to remove them from the planning and add the area of ​​natural forests outside the planning into the forestry planning. Through the review, the Department of Agriculture proposed to remove more than 6,836 hectares of 3 types of forests from the planning. At the same time, based on the review results, the inter-sectoral proposed the Provincial People's Committee to adjust down the land allocation and forest allocation targets for granting forestry land use right certificates for the period 2019 - 2023 according to Plan 2783/KH-UBND to 102,484 hectares. Thus, the total planned area of ​​forestry land in the province after adjustment is reduced to 592,269 hectares.

Source: https://baodienbienphu.com.vn/tin-tuc/kinh-te/217211/bat-cap-trong-giao-dat-giao-rung