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Laos: Parliament debates draft master plan on land use

Members of the National Assembly (NA) yesterday called for the government to better manage and properly allocate land for use for various purposes, as law makers debate the draft National Master Plan on Land Allocation.
Representing NA members in commenting on the draft, Chairman of the Assembly’s Economic, Technology and Environment Committee, Mr Bounpone Sisoulath, said a number of land-related issues had emerged in recent years.
He said that a comprehensive reference on the conversion or change in the use of land, as specified in various categories, was still missing so land was not being used for the right purposes.
“Public land and forests have been encroached upon and occupied. Land-related laws and regulations are not strictly enforced,” he told the ongoing 5th Ordinary Session of the NA’s 8th Legislature.
Mr Bounpone said more and more state land had been occupied by individuals, while some land titles had been issued in duplicate.
Members of parliament noted that in some cases land concessions exceeded the scope permitted by the relevant laws and regulations. 
Worse, the concessions sometimes encroached upon conservation forests as well as woodland allocated for villagers’ use, resulting in disputes. The parliamentarians welcomed the draft master plan, expressing hope that its content would be wide-ranging so that it would be effective in properly managing and allocating land. 
The law-makers supported the draft, which sets a target to increase forest cover to 70 percent of the country’s entire area of 236,800 square kilometres by 2020, and preserve the remaining 30 percent for use in various development activities. If approved, the master plan will be the first of its kind and will be in use until 2030 before a revision is made.
Once it is promulgated, the master plan will stimulate the land authorities to set targets for the issuing of land titles for all plots of land across the country by 2025, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sommad Pholsena told the session as he presented the draft. The draft plan outlines measures to support the government’s policies to increase forest cover, manage land areas for various development purposes including hydropower and mining projects, as well as protecting and expanding farmland from the current 2.5 million hectares to 4.5 million hectares by 2030.
Assembly members asked the government to re-inspect information regarding the updated area of conservation forest, protected forest and agricultural production plots, to ensure proper management given that the data contained in the draft master plan was obtained from surveys carried out a long time ago.

Source: http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/FreeConten_Parliament.php