On 3^rd October 2012, the Simacai People’s Committee (Lao Cai province) decided to officially grant the land use right certificates - LURCs (‘red books’) for 63 Hmong families and community in Lung San village, Lung Sui commune after 7 years of interval. The main cause of this delay is due to a discrepancy in measurement, demarcation, mapping, overlapping of forestland borders, as well deficiency of cooperation amongst relevant government bodies in forestland planning and allocation. 



Situated on the Mountain with the height over 1,100 meters, which is home to  63 Hmong families with 327 people of seven clans i.e. Vang, Giang, Cu, Sung, Hau, Ly and Trang, that is the Lung San community, Lung Sui commune, Si Ma Cai district, Lao Cai province - Northern border between Vietnam and China. For many generations until date, the life of villagers in Lung San has intimately embedded to each piece of land and forest. The hunger, poverty still wears with people here. "Have been cared of the Party and State, our lives are getting better .... Yet, do you know why families in our village have yet got ‘Red books’?  Mr Ly Seo Pao - chief of Lung San questioned!

Eight years ago, in 2005 with the attempt to finalize the basic cadastral map which was conducted by the Vietnam Department for Geodesy and Map under MoRE via the project namely "establishment of geo-map for granting LURCs in eight mountainous provinces in the North, North Central Coast, and nine Central Coastal and South East provinces”, the Lao Cai Department of Natural Resources and Environment (PoNRE) hired the Firm on Natural Resources and Environment Services to set up the detailed cadastral maps for granting LURCs in whole Lao Cai. Lung San is one of hundreds of villages included in the project. The project targeted to accelerate LURCs provision applied for the existing agricultural and forestry land to boost up the production and stabilize the livelihood of mountainous inhabitants.

Mid 2006, the project has published a set of factorial and land allocation maps for Lung San with scale of 1:10,000. These maps were approved by Si Ma Cai district office of natural resources and environment (DoNRE) with the confirmation of Lung Sui Communal People’s Committee in 2006. Under these official recognitions, 63 families in Lung San got ‘red books’. However, these ‘red books’ must be kept in offices of Land Management Unit. Lung Sui Communal People’s Committee did not grant LURCs for families due to the fear of protest!

The main reason of above situation is due to many differences between data on the maps of land allocation compared with the reality. Many plots of land on the map deviated from the actuality is about 1.000 meters. Several cases happened which the location of land plots was drawn in other mountains. What villagers were surprised that is, they did not know when the government officials come to measure and allocate their forest and land! Mr Ly Seo Pao, chief of Lung San said: “I have been leading this village for more than 10 years. I knew that government officials came to measure and allocate forestland in my village. However, they just stood in distance to point and measure; we did not know so did not involve …”

Many families unexpectedly received two ‘red books’, whilst they have only one parcel of land.  Mr Cu Seo Lua - deputy chairman of Lung Sui commune reflects: “my family suddenly got two ‘red books’ for only one piece of land. I felt uncomfortable, and then went to ask the Simacai DoNRE. After watching, they told to me that I have a plot behind the People’s committee office; other is near the residential area. I said to them that, I have only one plot close to the residential area. Other plot is belonged to my brother…”

After two years yearning to acquire ‘red books’ but still have not been completed, in August 2008 Lao Cai Provincial Department of Forestry (LCPDF) continually conducted forest classification to set up a set of maps for the current status of forest resources with the scale of 1/25,000. This map was used for development of the 661 project on re-greening barren hills and preserving the watershed forests for the period from 2009-2010. These maps were afterwards approved by the functional government authorities. Under this project, it is notable that, all forest and land which were already allocated to families in 2005 are now mapped for the Simacai Management Board of Protection Forest.

When asked about the cause, the Simacai Management Board of Protection Forest said: “While the Simacai DoNRE made the map of land allocation, they did not ask us, and also ignored to refer our documents. In contrast, when deploying the review and classification of forest resources, we also did not refer to their information...”.

Consequently, families Lung San did not get ‘red books’. Further, they lost the rights to their land which were officially granted to them in 2005.

After the 7 years yearning, villagers in Lung San acquired titles

June 2011, the Simacai District People’s Committee established a Steering Committee in Forestland Allocation (SCFA). SCFA then collaborated with LCPDF and Social Policy Ecology Research Institute (SPERI) to implement a pilot project on forest allocation in association with land allotment under the Join Circular 07/TTLT-MARD & MoNRE (2011) in Lung San.  The collaboration aims to: i) review forest and land borders, ii) set up a set of criteria and approaches in forestland conflict resolutions / overlapping, iii) develop alternatives to re-plan and re-allocate forestland resources, iv) re-allocate, re-distribute and re-map forestland to villagers and community in Lung San, v) improve processes and procedures associated with the allocation of forest land to communities and villages in the conditions in Simacai, as well support to set up community based regulations for forest land governance. This project was supported by the Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) since 2010.

With the principle of ‘learning by doing’, all sectors in Lung San, especially women and land users are equal to know and participate in every stage of the project i.e. forestland survey, demarcation, land border identification, conflict resolutions, etc. the pilot project was completed. 63 families and community in Lung San village officially obtained LURCs on 3^rd October 2012. Mr Ly Seo Pao cheerfully said: “Now, we are so delighted because all families in our village obtained ‘red books’. We also know how to measure and clearly know our land and forest borders... “.

Over the last 30 years, forest and land allocation has been a foremost policy of the Vietnamese government. The policy aims to manage forest land resources effectively while supporting remote mountainous people, notably ethnic minorities to escape the hunger and poverty situation and uncertainty. However, many cases shown that local people are still not included in the development process, shortage of qualified and dedicated officials and poor cooperation among government bodies would be tricky to reach the goal.