Research On The Protection Of Farmers’Rights And Interests On The Issue Of Restoring Farmland To Forest

Restoring farmland to forest is the necessary measure to change the mode of economic development and to promote the sustainable economic growth. It is not only a public policy but also a land reform which has a far-reaching influence. On the one hand, the farmers lose their farmland, it forces them to change the old production method as well as the life style, and they need to transfer the rights of land-use, right of living, employment rights and some other relevant rights to the public interests. On the other hand, it is necessary for our country to establish and perfect the relevant legal system providing a guarantee of all rights and interests for the farmers who returned farmland to forest, escorting the smooth implementation of projects. However, it has been more than10years since the implementation of this project and the country didn’t issue any special legal norm so far about restoring farmland to forests project. Merely rely on the relevant regulations, implementation measures and other administrative laws and regulations introduced by the government for specification. The farmers fail to get effective protection of their rights such as the rights of settlement, re-employment, compensation, social security and forest ownership, which will be the hidden trouble for further implementation of the project and consolidation of the project achievement. And what’s worse it may even affect social stability and unity. Meanwhile, although academics have done some research on the issue of restoring farmland to forest, most of them are from the aspects of sociology, economics and environtology. It is seldom found that the research on the protection of farmers’rights and interests on the issue of restoring farmland to forest especially from the aspect of law. Therefore, studying the protection of farmers’rights and interests on the issue of restoring farmland to forest from the perspective of legal laws has very important social practical significance as well as strong theoretical significance.Except the introduction part, this thesis is divided into four parts.The first part, it made a systematic analysis of the project policy and relevant rights and interests of the farmers. Firstly it analyzes the following reasons why we should restore the farmland to forests from different perspectives:a) The complexity geographical environment of our country and the unreasonable land development lead to the fragile ecology and natural disasters, which objectively requires to restore the ecosystem through restoring farmland to forests, b) With a large population and rapid process of urbanization, the pressure on the ecosystem is intensifying, which means restoring farmland to forests is inevitable choice for China to promote the harmonious development of human and social environment. c) The developing economic strength of our country provides a strong material security for the implementation of the project. d) The introduction of relevant policies also directly contributes to the implementation of the project. Secondly, based on the analysis of the reasons and related policies on restoring farmland to forests, it stated its systematicness, comprehensiveness, sociality, sustainability, payoffs and other characteristics. Finally, it stated the farmers’rights and interests, including the economic interests and social security rights.In the second part, based on the analysis of current situation about the impairment of farmers’rights and interests, it analyzed the reasons for the problem. Although the relevant laws and "Regulations on restoring farmland to forest" raised the farmers’rights from "entitlement" to "legal rights", but considering the reality of the weakened compensation rights of the farmers, the lagged behind substituted industries, the failure to get forest rights, the strict restriction of deforestation profits and other facts, all those facts really lead to the serious impairment of their relevant rights and interests. The reasons are various, but the main ones are form the following two aspects:internal cause and external cause. The former refers to farmers’ignorance of the advocacy and remedies of their own rights and interests and the latter is the policy defects and lack of social assistance.In the third part, it mainly elaborated the perfection of protection system of farmers’ rights and interests. Firstly, it elaborated the perfection of compensation system. Improving the compensation system must set about from these aspects:establish the scientific and reasonable compensation standards, strengthen of the continuity of the compensation policy, and broaden the financing channels of ecological compensation and so on. Secondly, it elaborated the perfection of forest land property rights system. we need to make the forest land property rights system clear to protect the farmers income rights, rand we need to relax the restrictions of deforestation conditions to protect the farmers’ rights of wood management. Then, standardize the legal norms of the transference of the forest land property rights to effectively protect the farmers’moderate rights to dispose of forest land. Finally, it explained the necessity and feasibility of building the legal system of restoring farmland to forest. That means our country should introduce the Restoring Farmland to Forest Law as soon as possible to eliminate the conflicts between different departments’policies of the government. Then farmers’ social security system will be incorporated into the country’s legal system construction, which improves the relevant system to the country’s will. After that, the farmers’rights and interests can get the most powerful guarantee.In the fourth party, it mainly elaborated the development of the relevant supporting measures. Restoring farmland to forest changed farmers’production method and life style, which made them urgently seek for new ways to survive. Based on that fact, firstly the government should clearly define its role and responsibility in the project process. As the leader and commander of the project, the government should change its role and promote the administration according to law. Secondly the government should lead the adjustment of the industrial structure to develop the follow-up industries vigorously and accelerate the establishment of rural infrastructure, encourage the farmers to form various affiliated organizations. All those can enable farmers to get rich, which is an effective measure to get rid of the dependency on the country’s "transfusion-style" compensation policy. Thirdly the restoring farmland to forest farmers must strengthen the study and improvement the new production methods and life skills. The development of new agriculture needs intellectual and technical support, the success of protecting the farmers’ rights and interests depends on their own rights-protection awareness. So no matter from the point of the rights realization or rights relief, improve the overall quality of the farmers is the intrinsic motivation of promoting rural economic development after restoring farmland to forest.