Gov't aims to take land back for environmental preservation
In the latest conflict over land use, a court in Southwest China's Yunnan Province has ruled against a county government, ordering it to release information required by villagers who claim the government has illegally cleared their rubber forest.
The Intermediate Court of Xishuangbanna ruled on July 26 that Menghai county in southern Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan must release the information within 30 days.
Wang Gangmei, 48, a villager of Huitang village in Menghai county, said he has lost 200,000 yuan a year from the county government's action.
"The court's verdict gives us confidence. But it's only a first step," Wang, who was chosen to represent the villagers, told the Global Times.
A total of 1,300 mu (0.87 square kilometers) of the rubber forest, or the size of more than 100 football fields, had been uprooted by the county government between 2014 and 2015.
The government claims the rubber trees grew on State-owned land meant for environmental preservation. But villagers insist the land was collectively owned and therefore private property.
The key issue here is that it is still unclear where the boundaries are between State land and collective land, the villagers' lawyer said.
The villagers asked the government to disclose the legal basis for the bulldozing, but their attempt failed, since local authorities said in January that "the information concerns public security, economic safety and social stability," and might "threaten the lives" of the villagers.
Wei Tao, the county legislative affairs office's legal adviser, told thepaper.cn in January that it is a crime for the villagers to occupy State-owned forest land, but the government was lenient and didn't hold them under any legal responsibility.
Wei said it is "for the good of the villagers' personal safety" that the government refused to release the information.
The local government's response further infuriated the villagers, who later brought the case to court.
By the end of February, villagers had filed two lawsuits at the Xishuangbanna Intermediate People's Court, demanding that local authorities justify the forced bulldozing and pay compensation for their unlawful act. Although the first case favors the villagers, "the judges said the other case concerns a lot of people and needs investigation," Wang said.
Conflicting claims
Authorities said they did nothing wrong. In a January report on yunnan.cn, the local government said in 2010 78 villagers in Huitang had occupied 3,620 mu of State-owned forest land. In late 2014 they began reclaiming the land and posted a notice in the village a month before the action, the authorities claimed.
Nevertheless, Zhang Jinghui, the villagers' attorney from the Beijing Guoshun Law Firm, said since the government lacked evidence, what it did was illegal.
"First they didn't have a license to uproot the rubber forest, which is provided under the Forest Law. Second, the notice was very vague, and failed to specify the villagers and the land involved," Zhang told the Global Times, noting that the government failed to fulfill its duty when it enforced the law.
What's worse, the government failed to draw an accurate boundary in the forest between villagers and the State, said Zhang, who went to the village once to prepare for the trial.
The village is surrounded by primitive forests which the locals have been dependent on. But they had very little knowledge of the boundary, and it's not uncommon for the villagers to exploit the forest to grow cash crops, he said.
Wang said encouraged by their victory, many other villagers are ready to follow suit.
Income from land transfers has been a major source of local government revenue. As urbanization expands and accelerates, more land grab disputes have emerged.
"It's common for the governments to collaborate with developers to grab land from rural users," Zhang claimed.
The judicial organs shall be given more independence and people should have more faith in the law rather than protests, he suggested.
