Seven districts and towns with forests in Hanoi, namely Ba Vi, Chuong My, My Duc, Quoc Oai, Soc Son, Thach That and Son Tay town, lack land database, have not been marked, and have not been digitally mapped for many years, leading to many consequences, seriously affecting the rights and legitimate interests of the people.
Forest planning violations affect people's lives
Soc Son District is one of 7 districts and towns with unmarked forest areas that overlap with other types of land. In 2019, the Hanoi City Inspectorate inspected the land use process in Soc Son District and issued a conclusion, clearly pointing out the errors in the 2008 forest planning that overlapped with people's residential land and requested that Hanoi City separate people's land from the planning.
Actual observations of the reporter in Minh Tan village, Minh Tri commune, Soc Son district, Hanoi show that: The village was established in 1985, has a full Party cell, a village chief and departments and organizations. Notably, Minh Tan village is one of the only two villages in Hanoi that does not yet have a cadastral map.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa - Head of Minh Tan village said: Since 1983, Hanoi City has decided to bring people here to reclaim and develop the forest economy. Minh Tan village has a total area of about 1,000 hectares, of which nearly 300 hectares are residential land and garden land that people have reclaimed since 1985, living stably, without disputes. The area of more than 600 hectares of forest land outside the residential land, garden land, and production land of the people is now being assigned by the people to protect and keep it green.
However, since 1993, land statistics officers have forgotten to survey Minh Tan village. Therefore, the entire land area of Minh Tan village does not have a cadastral map. In 1998, Hanoi City had a forest planning policy. The implementing units made mistakes in not measuring, not investigating the actual situation, not fully disclosing planning information, leading to the entire Minh Tan village being included in the forest planning. It was not until 2016, when an inspection team came, that people discovered that all of their residential land and garden land was located in the forest area.
Even through investigation from the authorities, the people of Minh Tan village discovered that the forest planning map No. 2100/2008 of the Hanoi People's Committee was established and approved in violation of the law. For example, the investor of this project is the District Special-Use Forest Management Board, while this is a public service unit, without the authority to manage the State, and without the function of planning. The project violated the direction of the Prime Minister and the Standing Committee of the Hanoi Party Committee, which instructed to review the planning of 2 types of forests into 3 types of forests: special-use forests, protection forests and production forests, because it is consistent with the history of forests in Soc Son mainly grown by the people themselves. The project to adjust the forest planning of Soc Son district planned all production forests of the people into 1 type of protection forest, without a plan to compensate and return forest benefits to the people...
Furthermore, the project has included the entire Minh Tan village in the forest planning, contrary to Decision No. 186/2006/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister that residential land, fields and gardens in the forest are not planned into protective forests and are managed according to decisions of the law on land.
“After discovering the violations of the 2008 forest planning, we filed a petition and the Hanoi City Inspectorate and the Government Inspectorate established many inspection teams and recommended that Hanoi City should soon separate the people’s land from the 2008 forest planning. However, for many years now, it has not been completed, affecting the rights of the people for more than 30 years, such as land not being granted certificates, not being invested in infrastructure such as electricity, roads, schools, stations…” – Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa, Head of Minh Tan village emphasized.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Nguyen Quang Ngoc - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Son district said that after reviewing the forest land area, it was discovered that 1,300 hectares of land out of 4,557 hectares of forest land were planted on other types of land, which is not in accordance with the actual use. In particular, there are many areas of national defense land, religious facilities, schools, and villages that are still located in the forest, causing many difficulties in local land management as well as affecting people's lives.
"In the remaining nearly 1,300 hectares, there are about 3,000 plots of land of villages, hamlets, and villages located in the forest, in addition to welfare works, historical and cultural relics, and military works. Currently, the district is reviewing to propose the city to adjust the 2008 forest planning in accordance with reality, expected to be completed in October 2023" - Mr. Ngoc said.
Mr. Le Minh Tuyen - Head of Hanoi Forest Protection Department informed that currently, the forest and forestry land area in Hanoi has not been measured and marked in the field, and has not been allocated land or forests according to the Forestry Law. Forest owners must be allocated land and forests to have a plan for forest management, protection and development. The lack of marking of 3 types of forests, and the boundary of forestry land with other types of land has led to disputes between forestry land and other types of land of people and other socio-economic organizations. Soc Son district is only one of 7 districts and towns of Hanoi with overlapping land areas. The largest area is Ba Vi with 3,000 hectares of land....
Early separation of overlapping land to return legitimate rights to people
Acknowledging the shortcomings in the lack of land database when making forest planning, in February 2023, Hanoi City issued Plan 57, which specifically required localities with forests to compile statistics on shortcomings and problems in the 2008 environmental protection forest planning as a basis for proposing to competent authorities to allow adjustments to forest planning in accordance with the actual situation.
Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Manh Phuong said that Hanoi has about 28,000 hectares of forest in 7 districts and towns that have not been demarcated and do not have digital maps. Forest land is overlapping with many other types of land such as religious land, national defense land, schools, and people's villages, causing many problems such as people not being able to exercise their rights on the land in accordance with the Land Law. Therefore, in early 2022, the Department advised Hanoi city to issue a plan to direct forest areas to review, demarcate, digitize the entire area and assign the agricultural sector to manage.
However, after more than a year, the review has not been completed due to many reasons, including resolving the overlap between forest land and residential land in some areas.
Obviously, the planning of protective forests in Hanoi City that overlaps with other land areas, especially residential land of the people, is the fault of the government. These problems need to be resolved soon to stabilize the lives of the people.
According to planning experts, the Planning Law clearly stipulates that the planning implementation period is 3 years. After 3 years, if the State fails to implement the planning content, it must adjust or cancel the planning and restore the legitimate rights of people in the planning area. However, this has not been properly implemented by management agencies.
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