Webinar: The quest for land rights

On August 21, 2026, the Agricultural and Forestry Policy Research Network organized a webinar titled “The quest for land rights”, with the participation of Dr. To Xuan Phuc, Executive Director of Forest Trends, and Dr. Pham Tuan Anh, former Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Nong province. The webinar posed a seemingly simple yet increasingly urgent question: If land is not merely property or a means of production, how should humans interact with it?

Land is more than just a “means of production”

Opening the webinar, Dr. To Xuan Phuc shared insights into the state of land degradation globally and in Vietnam. Approximately 40% of the world's land area is degraded, with about 12 million hectares lost each year. In Vietnam, about 5 million hectares of agricultural land are degraded, equivalent to 40% of the country's total agricultural land area.

From the perspective of Actor-Network Theory, Dr. To Xuan Phuc proposed an alternative view of land. Land is not a passive, immutable object merely waiting to be exploited by humans. Land has the ability to “respond” through changes such as degradation, erosion, or declining productivity; simultaneously, the characteristics and state of the land also reciprocally influence human choices regarding crops, farming methods, technology, policies, and investments.

According to this approach, impacts on land are not limited to a single field. Land is part of a broader network of ecosystems and human life. When land degrades, the consequences can spread to water sources, livelihoods, production, and other components of an entire system.

“Golden harvests” can obscure a depleting land base

Continuing on this issue, Dr. Pham Tuan Anh focused on the paradox behind the “golden harvests” of modern agriculture. To maintain yield and output, production increasingly relies on fertilizers, chemicals, irrigation water, and technical interventions. In the short term, these inputs can help sustain or increase output. But over time, the foundation that produces those golden harvests is gradually depleting.

The land begins to “speak out.” Damage to the land can be identified through three groups of signs:

• Damaged physical structure: Compaction, poor water infiltration, prone to erosion; difficulty for plant roots to develop and reduced water retention capacity.

• Declining fertility and chemical balance: Gradual loss of organic matter and nutrients; land easily becomes acidic or imbalanced, forcing producers to rely more on inputs.

• Diminishing biological life in the land: Microorganisms, symbiotic fungi, and land fauna decrease in number and their ability to support the land's recovery processes.

From “Rights to land” to “Rights of land”

If "rights to land" focus on human rights, interests, and obligations (rights to access, use, manage, benefit from, and transfer land established within legal and governance frameworks), then "rights of land" focus on the conditions that enable the land system to maintain its structure, balance, life, functions, and resilience.

“Rights of land” do not negate human rights to land, but rather place those rights within the limits of a living land system.

According to this approach, “rights of land” are not necessarily to be understood primarily as a legal concept, but rather as a shift in perception regarding the relationship between humans and land: moving from merely focusing on what humans can extract and use from land, to identifying the minimum conditions that land needs to sustain its life and perform its ecological functions.

The three core inherent rights of land include:

• The right to maintain physical structure – land needs to maintain its porosity, water infiltration and retention capacity, and gas exchange, while avoiding compaction, erosion, or loss of topsoil.

• The right to maintain chemical balance – land needs appropriate organic matter, nutrients, and chemical conditions, without becoming acidic, polluted, or accumulating harmful substances.

• The right to maintain biological life – land needs microorganisms, symbiotic fungi, land fauna, and biological cycles that contribute to its fertility, resilience, and recovery capacity.

Who will be the “guardian” of land?

Current land governance still has many gaps: the ecological functions of land are not truly central; monitoring land health and early warning systems are limited; and there are no specific mechanisms to protect the long-term interests of land beyond production cycles. A notable proposal to fill this gap is the “Land Guardianship”model.

“Land Guardianship” is not a new administrative management layer or an entity that “speaks for the land,” but rather a way to expand social responsibility towards land. The state, local communities, land users, businesses, social organizations, and the scientific community all participate and share responsibility for monitoring and detecting changes; and for warning and preventing land degradation.

Dr. Pham Tuan Anh also emphasized that the right to use land must come with the responsibility to protect the conditions that enable land to continue performing its vital functions. In that context, responsibility towards land is not merely an ethical appeal but needs to be reflected in development and production decisions.

Ultimately, “seeking the rights of land” is not about anthropomorphizing land or granting it personhood. It is a way of setting limits on human rights to exploit land. When land is regarded merely as a resource to be exploited, humans are “borrowing” from the future. What is taken from the land today without being restored will become a cost that future generations must bear. Therefore, “the rights of land” is not just a story about land, but also a story about our own future. Seeking the rights of land, therefore, is also a journey to transform gratitude for the land that sustains life into responsibility and commitment to future generations.