Sound land policies to improve lives   A corner of a terraced field is under cultivation in northern mountainous Lao Cai Province's Bat Xat District. — VNA/VNS Photo Pham Hau HA NOI (VNS)- Thousands of ethnic minority households badly need residential and production land, which could be supplied by amending the 2003 Land Law as well as hydro-power and mining development policies. The remark was made by experts of the Ethnic Minority Council of the National Assembly, Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and international organisations yesterday. Danh Ut, vice president of the NA Ethnic Minority Council, said although policies to help ethnic minorities get land have been in place for 10 years, more than 300,000 poor ethnic minority households still lack space to live and farm. "My family has yet to be allocated fertile agricultural land to grow subsidiary crops," said Ly Thua Phuc, a Dao resident of northern Tuyen Quang Province's mountainous Chiem Hoa District. His family was moved to the district 10 years ago due to the construction of the Tuyen Quang Hydro-power Plant. "Most of our production land is on hills, where there are often landslides." Although he also requested forest land for protection and development, saying many products could be procured from the forest, relevant authorities have not yet responded to his requests. Meanwhile, local people are struggling to reach an agreement with the local company that owns the nearby forest because this company sets high rents for hiring forest land, he said. Pratibha Mehta, UN Resident Co-ordinator in Viet Nam, said ethnic minority households in the poorest communities in the country hold only 5 per cent of fertile land on average. "Viet Nam has implemented programmes to provide cultivation land to poor landless households. However, research shows this practice needs to be continued and sustained," she said. Recommendations At yesterday's forum, experts put forward ideas for improving ethnic minorities' access to fertile land. Ut said that article 15 of the 2003 Land Law should be revised to ban trade and speculation in ethnic minority areas and provide specific conditions for land recovery. A group of development partners including the United Nations system in Viet Nam, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, Oxfam and AUSAID proposed a set of joint revisions. These include limiting the power to recover land to cases of necessity on the grounds of national defence, security and the public interest - bringing the law in line with both international practice and the 1992 Constitution. Land for economic investment projects should be acquired through negotiation and voluntary consent of land users. The process of land recovery should be completely transparent. This would mean notifying land owners publicly about intent to recover, providing them with an opportunity to submit objections and offering affected parties a hearing before representative bodies in which they would have free legal assistance and the right to appeal both the decision to recover land and the amount of compensation. "Results from the National Assembly Standing Committee's oversight missions last year on residential and production land suggest many policy issues that need to be tackled, including land use rights that are suitable for traditional and customary practices in ethnic minority communities," Ut said. Pratibha Mehta agreed, saying, "customary practices, traditions and indigenous knowledge often offer the most appropriate and sustainable solutions for effective and equitable land management and land-related conflict resolution." Meanwhile, Nguyen Do Anh Tuan, director of the Centre for Agricultural Policy under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, suggested hydro-power and mining development policies could be improved by halting licensing for small-scale hydro-power and mining projects in ethnic minority areas and revoking the licenses of inefficient projects and those that polluted. As for large hydro-power and mining projects requiring land acquisition, project revenue should go towards supporting people's livelihoods and socio-economic development in ethnic minority areas as well as dealing with the environmental consequences of the projects, he said. Land support policies for ethnic minorities should also include mapping and the issuance of land use-right certificates, he added. - VNS