People in mountainous commune Chau Phong (Quy Chau) are waiting wearily for land and forest allocation.
Although the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board has agreed to review and separate more than 1,500 hectares of land to return to the locality, for many years now, the recovery and handover to the people has not been completed.
People are looking forward to
For many years now, at neighborhood meetings or meetings with voters, people in Chau Phong commune (Quy Chau) have often made recommendations about early land recovery.protective foresthanded over to local authorities for management and distribution to the people. However, until now that wish has not come true.
Mr. Le Van Tien - Secretary of the Moi Village Party Cell (Chau Phong Commune), was one of the people who made this recommendation during the meeting with voters of the Provincial People's Council delegates before the 17th Session. According to Mr. Tien, people in Chau Phong Commune, especially in Moi Village, are very concerned about this issue, because most of them are lacking land for production.
Ban Moi has 232 households, the most populous village in Chau Phong commune. However, up to now, there are still 93 households without agricultural land for production as well as forest land. “The remaining households only have about 1 sao of land to grow rice. It is very scarce. Previously, when allocating land, the government prioritized poor households, while other households had to wait for consideration later. Therefore, up to now, many households do not have land. When receiving information that the Forest Protection Management Board agreed to return nearly 900 hectares of forest land to the people, everyone was very excited. But waiting from year to year, there is still no return,” said Mr. Tien, adding that he is also one of the households in Chau Phong commune without agricultural land for production.
Ms. Dang Thi Vinh (48 years old) said that her family is also one of the households without land for production, so they are looking forward to this policy. Ms. Vinh's family currently only has a plot of land about 80m wide.2It is both a house and a clothing store. “My family has 3 people of working age, so we really want to be allocated forest land for production,” said Ms. Vinh, adding that in 2015, her family was also allocated nearly 3 hectares of forest land for protection, but only on paper, and she did not know where the land was located. However, she still received forest protection fees.
“After a while, nearly 3 hectares of this forest were also confiscated, and my family no longer received that money. They said it was due to wrong division, overlapping with other people's land,” Ms. Vinh added.
Although it is a mountainous commune with a large land area, many people in Chau Phong commune still lack land for production. We really hope that the Forest Protection Management Board will soon hand over to the locality the forest land area that has been reviewed so that we can divide it among the households.
Mr. Luong Van Hiep - Chairman of Chau Phong Commune People's Committee, Quy Chau District.
District proposes to speed up land recovery progress
Mr. Tran Bao Linh - Head of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of the People's Committee of Quy Chau district said that in recent years, the locality has sent many documents and reports on this issue to competent authorities. "Since 2019, we have submitted a report on this issue. The protective forest management board has also reviewed and agreed to separate more than 1,500 hectares of land to return to local management. But so far, it has not been completed," said Mr. Linh. According to Mr. Linh, of these more than 1,500 hectares, about 900 hectares are in Chau Phong commune, the rest are scattered in communes such as Chau Hoan, Dien Lam, etc.
At the end of 2023, before the 17th session of the Provincial People's Council, voters in Chau Phong commune once again made a request on this issue. In an official dispatch sent to the People's Committee of Quy Chau district to resolve the voters' request issued in March 2024, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the surveying and mapping of land funds under management and use by Forest Management Boards in general and the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board in particular is part of the Project "Strengthening management of land originating from state-owned farms and forestry farms currently used by agricultural companies, forestry companies not subject to rearrangement under Decree No. 118/2014/ND-CP, forest management boards and other public service organizations, households, and individuals" approved by the People's Committee of Nghe An province.
Currently, for the area that the Forest Management Boards propose to retain for continued management and use, the Provincial People's Committee has approved the technical design - estimate for establishing land use boundary records; establishing cadastral maps, issuing land use right certificates and building cadastral databases for land originating from state-owned farms and forestry farms that are not subject to rearrangement. For the area that the Forest Management Boards plan to return to local management (including 1,529.46 hectares of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board requesting to establish an extract and measure), the technical design - estimate has not been established.
“Based on the opinions of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board in Report No. 38/BC-BQL dated December 13, 2023, of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Official Dispatch No. 5159/SNN-KL dated December 22, 2023, of the Quy Chau District People's Committee in Official Dispatch No. 70/UBND-TNMT dated January 25, 2024; in order to promptly resolve voters' petitions, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment has assigned the Provincial Land Registration Office to conduct surveys, establish technical designs, estimate measurements and establish cadastral maps for the area that the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board plans to return to the locality to serve the land recovery work according to current regulations; at the same time, directly carry out the measurement to shorten the time to resolve voters' petitions. It is requested that the Quy Chau District People's Committee and the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board coordinate with the Provincial Land Registration Office during the investigation process, survey", the official dispatch of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment stated.
However, this process has not yet been completed. A leader of the People's Committee of Quy Chau district said that due to this delay, on October 10, the locality sent a document requesting consideration to speed up the land recovery progress of the Quy Chau District Protective Forest Management Board.
This document states that, in order to prepare a dossier to recover an area of 1,529.46 hectares of land belonging to the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board, in April 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued a document on surveying, designing, and measuring the land to return to the local management and use of the Quy Chau Protective Forest Management Board. Up to now, the Quy Chau District People's Committee has coordinated with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Provincial Land Registration Office and related units to complete the relevant dossiers.
Quy Chau District People's Committee respectfully requests the Provincial People's Committee and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to consider and speed up the recovery of the above-mentioned area from the Quy Chau District Protective Forest Management Board for local management to develop a land allocation plan, promptly responding to the people's recommendations on land production needs.
(Excerpt from document of Quy Chau District People's Committee)