Need to end forestry land disputes - Lang Son Newspaper and Radio and Television

Workers of Dinh Lap Forestry Company Limited take care of the forest.

Accordingly, the 4 forestry companies whose land was encroached upon are: Dong Bac Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. 1,638.23 hectares; Dinh Lap Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. 1,598.66 hectares; Loc Binh Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. 865.75 hectares and Dong Bac Forestry Seed Joint Stock Company 2 hectares.

Many areas of land were encroached upon.

According to provincial authorities, land disputes and encroachment between forestry companies and households and individuals have been going on for a long time for many different reasons. The disputed and encroached areas are difficult to determine in detail, and are scattered in the total area rented by the companies. In addition, the forest farms were previously allocated large areas of land, and the handover of forestry land was basically only carried out on paper documents, without measuring and marking specific boundaries clearly in the field, leading to overlap, disputes, and encroachment of forest land; forestry companies have not been proactive in reviewing production and business plans, developing plans to resolve disputes and encroachment, and have not been proactive in adjusting land use plans...

After reviewing and rearranging according to Decree 118/2014/ND-CP of the Government on rearranging, innovating the organization, management mechanism and policies for agricultural and forestry companies and implementing the direction of the Provincial People's Committee, the new companies focused on developing plans, establishing inspection teams, reviewing disputed areas, encroachments, and contract allocations... However, due to limited human resources, the review process was slow.

According to statistics, up to now, the provincial authorities, district People's Committees and forestry companies have recovered 3,226.83/4,104.64 hectares, reaching 78.6% of the total encroached area.

Mr. Nong Van Hung, Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Thang Commune, Huu Lung District, said: In the commune, there are over 443 hectares of disputed land between Dong Bac Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. and 440 households in the area. The main cause of the dispute is that the management and use of land by forestry companies in the past was lax and not strict, and they did not regularly monitor the land use of households receiving contracts to take measures to prevent violations as soon as they occurred or did not promptly propose to local authorities to coordinate in resolving them according to regulations. In addition, in the process of allocating land for forest planting in the past, there was overlap between enterprises, organizations, forest management boards and people, leading to land disputes as they are today.

In addition, there are many cases of households arbitrarily converting and planting perennial and annual crops on the land of forestry companies (adjacent to households' fields and gardens). This leads to disputes over land originating from forestry farms.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tuyen, Deputy Director of Loc Binh Forestry Company Limited, said: Through review, the company has 865.75 hectares of land assigned by the State for management that are in dispute with households. Many households use the land not in accordance with the boundaries signed with the company, there is a situation where one household uses and plants trees on the land that the company has signed a contract with another household. In addition, people have an increasing demand for forest land. Therefore, many households encroach on forestry land, leading to the current land dispute.

At the same time, in the period of 2008 - 2012, implementing the project of establishing cadastral maps, cadastral records and granting certificates of forest land use rights from basic cadastral maps at a scale of 1:10,000 according to Decision No. 1325/QD-UBND dated August 2, 2007 of the Provincial People's Committee, the cadastral maps of forest land were mainly measured in the field using the correlation judgment method with low accuracy and many errors; there were also cases of land allocation and granting of land use right certificates (LURCs) to households and individuals that overlapped with the land assigned to the forestry company, leading to land disputes.

In addition, the dossier on the assignment of management and use of forests and forest land "green books" was carried out in 1993 by the forestry sector's staff on the forestry land allocation map system (contour lines, sub-area boundaries, rivers, streams, lot boundaries, land plots...) drawn manually on paper, without specific coordinates, without digital data, and with low accuracy, leading to overlapping of land allocation to households and land allocation to previous forestry farms....

Actively resolve disputes

To resolve disputes and improve the operational efficiency of forestry companies, since 2018, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to establish a Steering Committee to resolve land disputes between households and individuals with forestry companies in the province (Steering Committee 1546) and establish a team of experts to assist the steering committee; directed the establishment of interdisciplinary inspection teams to inspect and evaluate the situation of land management and use, the situation of land allocation, and the production and business capacity of companies.

The People's Committees of the districts also identified the task of resolving disputes and encroachment on forestry land as a key task to focus on leadership and direction. Mr. Nguyen Cong Hung, Head of the Department of Agriculture and Environment of Dinh Lap district, said: In the district, there are 1,598.66 hectares of agricultural and forestry land in dispute with the people. To effectively promote land resources, the department has advised the District People's Committee to establish a steering committee and working groups to resolve disputes and encroachment on land; at the same time, develop a specific implementation plan.

Accordingly, the People's Committee of Dinh Lap district has organized a conference to urge and direct relevant agencies and People's Committees of communes and towns to implement; organized dialogues and worked with households to propagate and agree on a treatment plan. Up to now, the district's professional department, commune-level People's Committees, and forestry companies have organized implementation meetings in 28 villages and neighborhoods in 5 communes and towns; organized 436 field inspections; and directly propagated to over 600 households. Up to now, the whole district has completely resolved disputes over 1,216.22 hectares with 516 households, reaching 76.1% of the total encroached area.

Like Dinh Lap district, Huu Lung district has 1,638.23 hectares of land of agricultural and forestry origin that are in dispute with the people. The district People's Committee has issued a plan, held regular meetings to review the implementation results; regularly inspected, urged and directed agencies and units to promptly resolve and handle problems; the commune People's Committees established working groups to directly propagate to the people.

Mr. Tran Van Trung, Deputy Director of Dong Bac Forestry One Member Co., Ltd. said: The company has arranged human resources, coordinated with working groups of communes to work with each household; consulted and proposed to the district, agencies and communes to resolve difficult and complicated cases; coordinated and agreed with the commune on the level of collection of contracted products and the form of signing contracts to ensure conformity with the actual situation of each lot/household and in accordance with regulations; re-measured the area according to the request of the household owner... The company has coordinated to organize 36 dialogue conferences with the people; directly went to each house to propagate to 1,700 households. At the same time, the company also filed 8 lawsuits with the People's Court of Huu Lung district, resolved 5 cases, and recovered about 11 hectares. Currently, the authorities are continuing to review and resolve 3 cases (area of ​​about 8.4 hectares). As a result, the company has coordinated to resolve disputes over 1,230.43 hectares. In the coming time, the company will continue to coordinate to resolve and reclaim the remaining 407.8 hectares of disputed land for production purposes.

According to statistics, up to now, the provincial authorities, district People's Committees and forestry companies have recovered 3,226.83/4,104.64 hectares, reaching 78.6% of the total encroached area.

It can be seen that the management of land originating from state-owned agricultural and forestry farms in the province in the past time has basically been implemented in accordance with the direction of the National Assembly, the Government, the Provincial Party Committee, and the Provincial People's Committee. In the coming time, the provincial functional sector will continue to preside over and advise the Provincial People's Committee to urge agencies and units to implement the contents of Document No. 85/UBND-KT dated January 17, 2024 of the Provincial People's Committee on strengthening the management and use of land originating from state-owned agricultural and forestry farms in the area; advise the Provincial People's Committee to direct relevant units to focus on thoroughly handling disputes over agricultural and forestry land; focus on reviewing and clearly defining land boundaries according to the project of establishing land use boundary records, planting boundary markers, measuring and correcting cadastral maps; Speed ​​up the issuance of land use right certificates to forestry companies... Thereby, maximizing land resources of agricultural and forestry origin to develop the economy - society, ensure social security, national defense and security in the area.

Source: https://baolangson.vn/quyet-liet-giai-quyet-tranh-chap-dat-nong-lam-truong-5047196.html