Issuing forestry land use right certificates: Difficult due to lack of funding

(Baonghean) - Allocating land and forests to people is one of the policies issued by the Government with the goal of "making every plot of land, every forest, every hill have an owner". However, the progress of allocating forest land and granting land use right certificates is still slow, significantly affecting the development of the forest economy...

Recently, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to review and separate forest land at agricultural and forestry farms, and protective forest management boards to convert and return part of the forest land area to the districts for management and hand over to the people. However, up to now, the progress of land allocation to local people is still slow. In Chau Binh-Quy Chau commune, after people arbitrarily entered the land of forestry farms to cut down and encroach on land, the Provincial People's Committee directed Co Ba Forest Farm to hand over 1,800 hectares of land to local management and to households in Chau Binh and Chau Hanh communes. Mr. Nguyen Van Thien, Head of Village 32, said: Chau Binh Commune People's Committee has only temporarily handed over to Village 32 with 89 hectares/235 households. While people are in dire need of early land division to receive land for management and production. The problem in the land allocation process here is that the land is not allocated "convenient for farming and living" but is allocated 3-4 km away from the location, so there are many difficulties.

Mr. Kim Van Duyen, Chairman of Chau Binh Commune People's Committee, said: Chau Binh Commune has received 1,135 hectares of forest land from Co Ba Forestry Enterprise, however, it has only been able to allocate more than 100 hectares to the people, and is currently completing procedures to allocate to 96 households in Ke Can village. The reason for the slow allocation of forest land to the people is due to manual measurement. In addition to the two commune cadastral officers, the rest are officers from other sectors, lacking professional expertise in surveying; the vast and rugged terrain of the mountains and forests affects the progress.

According to the review, Quy Chau district needs to hand over 15,000 hectares of forest land to the people. According to the roadmap of the People's Committee of Quy Chau district, by June 30, 2014, the land allocation to the people will be completed, but up to this point, only 2,000 hectares/15,000 hectares have been allocated. The reason is that the field allocation is very difficult, there are no supporting tools and machinery, mainly having to climb mountains and wade through streams to measure manually in the form of "provisional estimates". The district has established a Steering Committee and had to mobilize all departments and offices with many non-professional staff, so the expertise is limited. The district is proposing to the Provincial People's Committee to allocate funds to carry out the work of measuring forestry land. According to the estimate, the cost of measurement is about 16 billion VND.

Que Phong Forest Ranger Department coordinated with Tien Phong Commune Government (Que Phong) to allocate forestry land to local people.

Currently, some localities have been allocated forestry land but are mainly using "white forest books" without issuing land use right certificates. Mr. Nguyen Van Ba, hamlet 14, Dien Doai commune (Dien Chau) said: His family has 22.1 hectares that have been issued "white forest books" since 1995. Currently, he really hopes that the State will issue a land use right certificate to feel secure in managing production. The above land area has long been mainly planted with acacia and eucalyptus, which has not been effective. Recently, some businesses have come to survey and want to invest in planting raw material forests in the direction of intensive farming, but because they do not have a "red book", they do not dare to invest.

Mr. Bui Van Nam, Chairman of Dien Doai Commune People's Committee, reported: Dien Doai currently has over 400 hectares of forestry land, of which over 200 hectares are assigned to the people for management according to the forest register issued in 1994-1995. Up to this point, the whole commune has only converted from the forest register to land use right certificates for 30 households/23.65 hectares. The reason is due to procedural problems, especially the lack of funds for surveying, leading to delays in granting forest land use right certificates.

The entire Dien Chau district currently has about 7,400 hectares of forestry land, but over 80% of the area that people are using "white forest registers" have not been issued red books, mainly concentrated in the communes of Dien Lam, Dien Doai, Dien Phu... According to Mr. Le Van Thuan - Head of Dien Chau Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the reason for the delay in converting from forest registers to land use rights certificates is also due to lack of funds, it is estimated that measuring the above area will cost about 11 billion VND.

In Nghi Loc district, up to now, 550 land use right certificates have been issued, equivalent to over 2,300 hectares of forestry land, and nearly 2,000 hectares are still being used by people using "blank forest land". Discussing this issue, Mr. Nguyen Van Chat - Head of the Land Management Department (Department of Natural Resources and Environment) said: Currently, the whole province still has about 25,000 hectares of forestry land that have not been handed over to the people, concentrated in Tuong Duong, Quy Chau, Que Phong and Ky Son districts. Most of the above districts have prepared documents to approve funding for the issue of forestry land allocation, but the province does not have funding yet. This funding source mainly serves land allocation, surveying, and cadastral mapping. To remove capital obstacles, some districts are implementing the hiring of consulting units to spend money to measure first, requesting funding to pay back later, but encountering many difficulties.

In order for the forest to have a real owner, to link rights with responsibilities, to create conditions for people to protect the forest, to confidently manage and invest in forest development on the assigned forest area, the above difficulties and problems need to be resolved soon.

Van Truong