It is pleasure to inform that at section 33, Article 2 of Decree 01/2017/ND-CP dated 6th January 2017 on revisal of Decrees guiding implementation of 2013 Land Law stipulates that “Households, individuals, and communities who are living in forest areas are legally allocated forest areas as natural forest for production where there is no organizations to manage in order to protect and enrich forests and to combine with other utilizing benefits if the mentioned legal entities are in needs and have ability to protect and use forests”. This regulation is a helpful solution for a discrepancy caused by unequal/unclear provision at Section 1, Article 135 of 2013 Land Law, which merely mentions organizations as solely legal entities for being benefited from allocation of production forests.
Village elder is telling story to the village youth for the importance of sacred forests of the Tày ethic group at Khe Váp village, Bắc Lãng commune, Đình Lập district, Lạng Sơn province, where CIRUM supported land allocation program
Changes in Decree 01/2017/ND-CP is a clear achievement resulted from efforts of CIRUM/Landnet in the long advocacy process for land rights of ethnic minority people in Vietnam such as Nùng, Tày, Dao, Mông, Thái, Ja Rai, Xê Đăng in the Northern, Central regions and Central Highland. On the basis of vivid evidences from the fields, CIRUM/Landnet have strongly provided recommendations, which reflect voices of many different ethnic groups to contribute to improve legislation/policies. Specifically, for Decree 01/2017/ND-CP, CIRUM has sent Official Letter No 39/CV-CIRUM dated 27th November 2015 to contribute recommendations to the draft team of the Decree revisal, in which CIRUM suggested solutions and alternatives for filling up gaps existing in the related legal documents.
Seminar for experts counseling for Draft revisal of the Law on Forest Protection and Development
In continuing advocacy for Land Law revisal, CIRUM/LandNet and their partners are actively involving in evidence-based advocacy for the draft revisal of the law on Forest Protection and Development. They particularly focus on the rights of ethnic minority communities to use, manage and benefit from sacred forests, watershed and other cultural and livelihood spaces.
