Mr.

Le Trong Hai
 Changes in legal framework from 1980 to present –
focus on changes in land use rights - emphasise 5 land
use rights (1993)
 Changes in land holders – from state to private, SOEs,
households Cooperative, community
 Market liberalization, investment and migration
accelerate transfer of land among different land holders
(coffee, shrimp) (between rich and poor, kinh and ethnic
minority)
 Some ethnic minorities (Thai, Tay, Nung, Ede, Hmong,
etc.) has customary land laws – examples about
spiritural forests, water sources, etc.
 Customary land laws and community land ownership
has not been recognized properly by state law
 Recently, some efforts have been made to integrate
customary laws into state laws: hamlet regulation
(huong uoc), land laws and forest protection and
development law recognize community ownership over
land and forest (civil code does not recognize
community as a legal entity)
 The H’mong’ s customary law. In this custom, they give more
and remind conventions of forest protection, they re-define
ways of punishment if somebody breaks it. Someone does not
respect this custom, they will punished as same as the cattle
destroys crop, forbidding strickly someone burns off land for
cultivation. If someone penetrates free into a forest to cut tree
down, he will punished one pig or from 50.000VND to
100.000VND.
 The Thai’s customary law: If somebody wants to burn off land
for cultivation, he must allowed by the hamlet head; If he
makes themselves, he will punished from one to three a bar of
silver, wine, and meat. Every year, in the end of lunar May
people are allowed to penetrate into a forest to get bamboo
shoot, but they only get the first and forth broods. If someone
breaks, he will punished a bar of silver, wine, and meat. A
timber or cinnamon tree in the forest is small or big, if in the
body of tree is marked by(+) or (x), it means this tree belongs
to someone, nobody is allowed to cut that tree down.
 The Tay’s customary law: forbid to fire the forest, someone
steals forest tree of other one, he will punished threefold of
the loss.
 The Nung’s customary law (Ha Giang): households are not
allowed to cut the forest tree down, to burn off land in the
riverhead areas. Not to pick bamboo shoot up or let buffalo
eat the other one’s bamboo shoot. If somebody breaks, he
will punished by five kg of paddy and one bamboo shoot.
 The Kho Mu’s customary law: someone cuts tree down in the
forbidden forest, he will punished by money or seized to
confiscate, If someone breaks into “Gostforest “[1], he will
punished by chicken, wine, rice, first is to worship following is
for people eating and to remind that not break again.
 The E De’s customary law (Tay Nguyen) defines behaviors of the
forest destruction and burning. 80th clause of E De’s customary
law defines: “Men usually burn uncontrolled, women usually burn
unseemly, someone burns as a crazy man or stupid man. Cay le
is budding, they cut top of tree down, cay lo o is budding, they
cut young shoot down. If they are arrested, they will brought to a
rich house of tribe head, they will tied their hands and feet at
once… So that there are a serious problem, they need to be
judged”. 231th clause of E De’s customary law defines: “Land,
river, stream, and forest tree are basket, large basket, and back
of our grandparents who are people to keep a cave, to care the
forest, K’tong and Kdjar trees”, someone encroaches the forest
and the forest land of the other one, he will judged.
 For village regulation, Intercircular No 03/2000/TTLT/BTP-
BVHTT-UBTUMTTQVN dated March 31st ,2000, of
Interministry of Justice- Culture and Information-
Vietnamese Fatherland Front Central Committee on
issuing and implementing the regulations of village,
hamlet, small village, population groups, etc..: “the
regulation is a social normative act that defines common
behavior regulations and they are issued and aggreed by
all people to adjust the social relations that are
selfmanagement of people in order to preserve and bring
into play good manners and customs and tradditional
culture in the village, hamlet, small village, population
groups so it gives a positive contribution to the state
management by the law.
Article 29.- Assignment of forests to village population
communities
a/ The village population communities have the same
customs, practices and traditions of close community
association with forests in their production, life, culture
and belief; are capable of managing forests; have
demand and file applications for forest assignment;
b/ The assignment of forests to village population
communities must be in line with the approved forest
protection and development plannings and plans; and
match the capacity of the local forest funds.
 Forest land area Protection and Special use forests Production forests
managed by
communities Total Natural Plantation Bare land Total Natural Plantation Bare land
forest forest forest forest

In total: 1,968,500.4 1,404,829.4 40,953.7 522,710.0 824,445.9 426,802.9 43,583.2 354,059.8

2.792.946,3

1.643.254,1 ha 1,164,515.0 803,191.6 18,546.6 342,776.8 478,739.1 134,735.5 30,566.5 313,437.1

allocated

247.029,5 ha 146,338.7 107,093.0 5,786.3 33,459.4 100,690.8 55,142.1 7,373.8 38,174.9

Not yet
allocated

902.662,7 ha 657,646.7 494,544.8 16,620.8 146,473.8 245,016.0 236,925.3 5,642.9 2,447.8

for contracting

Source: Forest Department – Synthesized from reports prepared by 37 provinces, cities in March 2008
 Region Forest land area managed Forest land area managed by communities categorized according to origin, and percentage
by communities in different compared to the entire region
regions and the percentage
compared to the figures Allocated Not yet allocated Contracting
nation wide

Nation wide 2,792,946.3 100 1,643,254.1 100 247,029.5 100 902,662.7 100

North West 1,893,300.9 67.8 1,263,675.6 66.7 45,248.4 2.4 584,376.9 30.9

North East 760,131.1 27.2 319,859.9 42.0 181,932.9 24.0 258,338.3 34.0

North Central 58,541.7 2.1 40,489.1 69.2 18,052.6 30.8 0 0

South Central 5,737.3 0.2 0 0 1,124.4 19.6 4,612.9 80.4

South West 62,422.3 2.2 19,229.6 30.8 671.2 1.1 42,521.5 68.1

North East 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Mekong river 12,813.1 0.5 0 0 0 0 12,813.1 0

delta

Source: Forest Department – Synthesized from reports prepared by 37 provinces, cities in March 2008
 Changes in state law, market
liberalization and late recognition of
customary law have resulted in some
consequences
 Landlessness, forest loss and land conflicts
(Central highlands, Mekong Delta, land
mortgage in Soc Trang/Ca Mau)
 Changes in farming techniques (shifting
cultivation to resettled) and land-use (food
crop to industrial crops (coffee, rubber)
 This leads to: increasing income gaps –
higher risks, less opportunity for the poor
and EM
Before 1975

2009
 Community and customary law
 Natural resouces: forest land
 Obsession
 Hamlet: Losing land ownership,, living space/narrowed
culture, component of changed population, institution of
traditional selfmanagement is winded up, customary law
is denied.
Three fulcrums of Traditional culture subject

- Nature Alien impact is

- God/Ghost selected, recreated
- Death and made village-
- Being abandoned like by the culture
- Morality subject. At the
Time same time, ethnic
village culture also
Obsession scatters, spread
and affect other
ethnic groups.

Culture Village
subject
Com-
- Land mu- -- Ethnic group
Blood relationship
- Forest
- Floral Nature nity - Ownership
- Fauna - Customs
- Water - Sublimation
- Annual Human: - Belief
cycle - Skill - Hand down
of climate, -Lifestyle -----------
weather -Behavior - Rule
threshold - Auto-control
institution
  Policies:
- Land  New knowledge
- State Management  Multidisciplinary skill
- Labour re-arrangement  Multilateral relations
- New culture
Under impact of development policies
 Diversified lifestyle
- Development  New consumption culturei
Culture subject of ethnic minorities

- Public services  Denied or deformed

 Market obsession
 Indus. –Modern.-Global.
 Communication
 Immigrants
Society
Market

Obsession

Nature Village
Com-
munity
 National assembly: law making
 MONRE and MARD: executive
 CEMA: ethnic minorities focuses
 Vietnamese Fatherland Front: solidarity and
unity promotion
 Customary law has been undermined and
eroded
 Civil code has not recognized community as a
legal entity
 Customary law has been recognized fully by
state law – there are deviation
 Ethnicity and sovereignty are sensitive issues in
Vietnam
 Unbalanced power relation between EM and
other actors
 State commit to support ethnic minority: 135
program, 30a resolution, 134 program on land,
“tam nong”
 Land law revision (i) Recognition for specificity
of region/ethnicity in land law revision (ii)
Consultation process to input this law revision
(MONRE, MARD, IPSARD, iSEE)
 State Forest Enterprises reforms
 Private Public Partnership (forestation, cacao,
rubber)