VietNamNet Bridge – Local people in mountainous provinces are often at a disadvantage compared to State organisations when it comes to acquiring land for production, even though they are supposed to receive preferential treatment from the Government.

Experts expressed concern about this situation in a conference on land use and management in northern mountainous provinces held yesterday, Nov 1, by the Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI), the Consultancy on Development Institute (CODE), Culture Identity and Resource Use Management (CIRUM).

Tran Manh Long, an official from the Forest Protection Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that only 27.5 per cent of forest land areas belonged to local residents.

Organisations and private firms held a significant advantage over individuals, as they were able to access information faster than residents and had the financial resources to acquire more land, Phan Dinh Nha, an expert from CODE, said.

Though the Government policy of land distribution was supposed to prioritize individuals and families, local authorities had not paid enough attention to their constituents' interests, he said.

About 40 per cent of ethnic minority households did not have sufficient land for agricultural production despite the abundance of land in the mountainous provinces, he added.

People who had been forced out of their homes by the hydropower plant felt the lack of land particularly critical.

In some localities, after being resettled, people had to abandon their agricultural traditions to earn their living by other means.

Le Luong Tien, chairman of the People's Committee of Hanh Dich Commune of central Nghe An Province's Que Phong District, said that while the committee was managing 3,400 ha of forest land, the land allocation only met the demand of 40 per cent of the local households.

Local people did not apply for land allocation as they were not aware that there was still a lot of available land. Meanwhile, private firms like Nghe An Rubber Company were eagerly seeking space for production.

Therefore, traditional forests risked being cut down and replaced by rubber trees.

The shortage of production land led to conflicts between State organisations and local people over forest land, such as the conflict between the local community and the Dong Bac Company in northern Lang Son Province's Huu Lung District, Long from the Forest Protection Department said.

The situation had become even worse due to the increasing population and economic difficulties.

A solution might come from the fact that many hectares of land on State-run forestry farms were left fallow or used for improper purposes, Nha said.

Therefore, the Government could address the issue by assessing the efficiency of State-run forestry farms. If the farms were inefficient, their land could then be reallocated to local residents to serve their agricultural and forestry production.

VietNamNet/VNS