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Abstract:
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"The land question has never been as pressing in the history of the Central Highlands as today. Land loss, land conflicts, and lack of land have become increasingly frequent problems over the past two decades. The problems around land have contributed to larger economic, social, and environmental problems affecting the Central Highlands, primarily poverty, social differentiation, deforestation, and environmental degradation. At the same time, they have been due to a combination of multiple causes. This paper highlights the mismatch between land policy and traditional land tenure as a primary cause of the land problem in the Central Highlands. While Vietnamese land policy promotes individual ownership of land, indigenous people in the Central Highlands have maintained a tradition of communal ownership. The mismatch calls for action to adjust land policy to match with local traditions in the Central Highlands, in particular to recognize and reviving community management of land. However, it is also clear that attempts to promote communal ownership need to consider the difference between contemporary and historical contexts. Above all, the role of communities in land management has to be set in relation to the role of the state. Other changes affecting the potential role of communities in land management include migration, the geographical inter-mingling of different ethnic groups, and the broader development trends of different regions and ethnic groups."
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