Draft Land Law (amended): Perfecting regulations on land investigation, statistics and inventory

The Party's viewpoint on basic land investigation work

As we know, land is a special resource, the most important part of the national territory associated with the history of building and defending the country of the whole nation; it is the living space of residential communities associated with each family, every citizen is a great resource for national development, special means of production participating in all areas of economic development activities, social life, that is why the Party and the State have paid great attention to the work of land management and use as in the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, which set out the task of "strictly managing, rationally and effectively using land and resources" , including the work of basic land investigation, which is also stated in the Document of the 13th National Party Congress "Completing the work of basic investigation, assessment, and building a database on land resources"

In addition, in Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW dated June 16, 2022 of the Central Executive Committee on "continuing to innovate and perfect institutions and policies, improving the effectiveness and efficiency of land management and use, creating momentum to turn our country into a high-income developed country", which clearly states the viewpoint "Land must be investigated, evaluated, counted, inventoried, quantified, and fully accounted for in the economy" , and at the same time sets out tasks and solutions in the coming time as "Focusing investment resources on land resource investigation and evaluation; land statistics and inventory; land use monitoring; protection, improvement and restoration of land quality to strictly manage the quantity and quality of land to serve the planning and land use planning, as a basis for sustainable land use" .

Current status of regulations of the 2013 Land Law on land investigation, assessment, statistics and inventory

Regarding land investigation and assessment: The 2013 Land Law has stipulated the activities, contents of land investigation and assessment and responsibilities in organizing the implementation of land investigation and assessment, and announcing the results of land investigation and assessment. However, the current regulations are not sufficient and specific enough to implement synchronously and effectively, thus affecting the State management of land, especially the lack of regulations on measures to restore and improve land in the conditions of climate change and rising sea levels.

Land investigation and assessment in many localities has not been carried out according to regulations. The People's Committees of some provinces and centrally-run cities have just begun to carry out local land investigation and assessment, leading to a lack of information on land quality, land potential, and land degradation. Therefore, the allocation of land for agricultural and non-agricultural purposes is not reasonable, and land use efficiency is low. The scale, type, and risk of land degradation and pollution have not been accurately and promptly determined, so there are no effective measures to warn, protect, improve, and prevent land degradation and pollution. The area of land affected by drought, erosion, and salinity is increasing, and the quality of agricultural land is not maintained and stabilized.

Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has organized a general survey and assessment of land resources nationwide, completed the survey and assessment of land degradation in the whole country and in 6 socio-economic regions; completed the construction of the National Land Resources Monitoring System. The survey results have reflected an overview of the current situation and causes of land degradation in the whole country and in localities as a basis for proposing solutions to protect, prevent land degradation, use land effectively, sustainably and adapt to climate change. At the same time, it also shows that after a long period of increasing productivity, using a lot of fertilizers and chemical pesticides, agricultural land has been degraded; the quality and area of agricultural and forestry land have decreased; crop productivity and output have decreased and affected agricultural development; productivity has decreased and land use efficiency has gradually decreased; there is a risk of not ensuring national food security and imbalance in the ecosystem and environment.

Regarding land statistics and inventory: The 2013 Land Law provides general regulations on the scope and time of land statistics and inventory and the responsibilities of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security, and People's Committees at all levels when organizing the implementation of land statistics and inventory, and mapping the current land use status.

In recent times, land statistics and inventory work has been constantly improved, the quality of collected data has become more and more accurate, the methods of statistics and inventory have made many advances, applying information technology in the implementation process; periodic statistics and inventory according to the law have been carried out in a systematic manner, ensuring both investigation and grasp of in-depth information and periodic grasp of general information on the basis of unified regulations and instructions on procedures; land statistics and inventory have fully quantified data on the area of land types, not only shown in tables and numbers but also represented by maps clearly reflecting the current status of land resource use at each point in time. However, through the implementation and recent results, some issues have emerged such as the statistical and inventory work has not received the attention of local authorities and has not been promptly directed to be implemented according to the requirements of the law to form a set of data on land to serve land management and socio-economic development purposes.

Orientation to perfect regulations on land investigation, assessment, statistics and inventory

Institutionalize the viewpoint of Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW on concentrating investment resources on land resource investigation and assessment; land statistics and inventory; land use monitoring; protection, improvement and restoration of land quality to strictly manage land quantity and quality to serve land use planning and planning, as a basis for sustainable land use. The draft Law specifically regulates land investigation and assessment; land protection, improvement and restoration; organization of land investigation and assessment and land protection, improvement and restoration; land statistics and inventory, and mapping of current land use status.

Regarding land investigation and assessment: To overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings and limitations, promote land investigation and assessment to promptly prevent land degradation and pollution, improve the quality and efficiency of land use, the draft Land Law (amended) has added provisions on principles of land investigation, assessment and protection, improvement and restoration; more specific and separate provisions on the contents of land investigation and assessment such as (1) content of investigation and assessment of land quality and land potential; (2) content of investigation and assessment of land degradation and (3) content of investigation and assessment of land pollution. At the same time, specific provisions on land protection, improvement and restoration, clearer provisions on the organization of land investigation and assessment, in which the responsibility of the People's Committees at the provincial level and land users is enhanced.

Regarding land statistics and inventory: The Draft Law on Land (amended) specifically stipulates the principles for implementing land statistics and inventory and more clearly stipulates the scope, subjects of land statistics and inventory and mapping of current land use status, including:

Land statistics and inventories are carried out for land types (according to land classification in the draft Land Law);

Land statistics and inventory by land management and use objects;

Land statistics and inventory according to a number of other indicators to serve state management of land.

At the same time, regulate the specialized land inventory on one or several indicators of land type, land user type, and land management assigned subjects according to the requirements of state land management in each period.

Thus, the regulation of specific land statistics and inventories according to each type of land, according to land users and land management subjects will ensure specific quantification of the area of each type of land according to land classification, the area of each type of land being managed and used by land users; the area of each type of land being managed by assigned management organizations. The specific quantification of land area is to serve all levels and sectors in planning and orienting socio-economic development, serving the planning and land use plans of the whole country, of localities and serving other economic sectors...

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