Interpretation of the Grassland Law of the People's Republic of China: Article 38

Article 38: No or less grassland should be occupied for mineral mining and engineering construction; if it is really necessary to requisition or use grassland, it must be reviewed and approved by the grassland administrative department of the people's government at or above the provincial level. Handle construction land approval procedures in accordance with relevant laws and administrative regulations on land management.

Definition: This article stipulates the principles and approval procedures for requisitioning collective grasslands and using state-owned grasslands.

The requisition of grassland referred to in this article means that the state legally changes collectively owned grassland to state ownership due to construction needs. The use of grassland means that the state uses state-owned grassland (including state-owned grassland designated for use by rural collective economic organizations, agencies, enterprises and institutions, and the military in accordance with the law) for mineral mining and engineering construction. After grassland is expropriated and used by the state, its nature of use often changes and is transformed into factories, mines, railways, highways, and even cities. After the grassland is expropriated, the ownership of the original grassland is transferred from collective ownership to state-owned. After the grassland is used for construction, the state-owned nature remains unchanged and the user unit changes accordingly.

This article has three meanings:

1. No or less grassland should be occupied for mineral mining and engineering construction. Although my country's grassland area is large, the per capita grassland area is only 0.3 hectares, which is half of the world average. Requisitioning and using grasslands for mineral mining and engineering construction will inevitably lead to a reduction in grassland area, make the conflict between grassland and livestock more prominent, and increase the pressure on the grassland ecological environment. Therefore, this article stipulates the principle that “no or less grassland should be occupied”.

2. The requisition and use of grassland must be reviewed and approved by the grassland administrative department at or above the provincial level. This provision is a newly added content in the revised Grassland Law. Without changing the original approval agency, the grassland administrative department will effectively perform its duties, which will help the grassland administrative department to fully grasp the status of grassland utilization, ensure the authority of grassland protection, construction, and utilization planning, and increase the monitoring of the grassland ecological environment. Strength of protection. Secondly, most of my country's grasslands are located in the border areas. Since the phenomenon of cross-regional grazing by various ethnic groups in history is relatively common, that is, the administrative boundaries are inconsistent with the grazing boundaries, the grassland administrative departments have a better understanding of the specific conditions of the grassland areas, which is conducive to maintaining border stability and ethnic unity. , safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of farmers and herdsmen. Thirdly, the requisition and use of grassland not only involves the change of grassland ownership, but also involves issues such as compensation and resettlement to the original ownership units, users, management units and individuals. The intervention of the grassland administrative department can alleviate and solve the current illegal expropriation to a certain extent. , use the unreasonable phenomena existing in the grassland to avoid serious consequences.

3. The requisition and use of grassland must be approved in accordance with the law. Grassland belongs to agricultural land (land types in my country are divided into agricultural land, construction land and unused land). When using grassland for mineral mining or engineering construction, the nature and purpose of the grassland must be changed. After approval by the grassland administrative department at or above the provincial level, After review and approval, the approval procedures must be completed in accordance with the provisions of the Land Management Law and relevant administrative regulations.