Hanoi residents face land transfer issues due to forest zoning overlaps

Residents in Yen Bai commune, Hanoi, are reporting difficulties in transferring land titles after residential and garden lands, which held official land use certificates, were classified as forest land during a 2015 inventory.

Many households, including those who have lived stably on their land since 1998, claim they were not informed of the forest planning or the inventory process. This classification has prevented residents from transferring land to family members for business capital or other purposes.

Local authorities in Yen Bai have formed working groups to verify the situation and report to Hanoi city officials. A broader review indicates that over 7,300 hectares of land across 25 communes in Hanoi, including residential, agricultural, and defense land, are currently overlapping with forest planning. Local wards have proposed separating these areas from forest designations. Nguyen Minh Tan, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Environment, stated that specialized agencies are cautiously investigating the current status, boundaries, and origins of the land to propose solutions.