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Landesa Founder Roy Prosterman Visits CDRF

On December 15, 2016, a delegation headed by Roy Prosterman, founder of non-profit Landesa and professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s School of Law, visited China Development Research Foundation (CDRF). The two sides conducted academic discussions on the rural land reform of China.


Mr. Prosterman shared the findings of the investigation Landesa and Renmin University of China jointly conducted on rural land rights in 17 Chinese provinces, including farmers’ understanding of land rights and policies, situations of land ownership confirmation, registration and certification, transfer of contractual land management right and scaled-up agricultural operations, expropriation and urbanization. He acknowledged the progress China has made in determining land ownership, and also pointed out challenges in this regard and in other aspects like the standardization of certificates and protection of women’s rights.


CDRF Secretary General Lu Mai introduced the Foundation’s investigation and research on land ownership confirmation, and commented that the two investigations arrived at some similar conclusions, especially regarding the progress and promotion of land ownership confirmation, scale of land right transfer, and farmers’ attitudes toward land ownership confirmation. He pointed out that the land system reform is a gradual process and this round of land ownership confirmation is worthy of praise despite regional differences in progress and standards, highlighting that “determining, registering and certifying land ownership strengthens the protection of farmers’ contractual land management right and paves the way for the separation of ownership, contractual right and management right, thus conducive to the stability and development of rural areas”.