Taiwan’s arable land has been steadily decreasing since 1977, with the main decline occurring in paddy fields. From 1967 to 2013, the area of land used for paddy fields fell from 537,600 hectares to 396,500 hectares. Paddy fields have the highest soil quality and losing them to uses other than raising crops raises alarms for the rapid decline of the nation’s food security.
After amendments were made to the Agricultural Development Act (農業發展條例) in 2000, it became easier for people to sell agricultural land or build houses on them. There has been a gradual, worrying destruction of arable land ever since.
The current legal protection of agricultural land is based on a command-and-control type land zoning, with strict controls on agricultural land use and rezoning.
However, the controls have actually caused a considerable loss of paddy fields and deteriorated the environment, which shows that the control mechanism is not an efficient tool to protect farmlands.
Agricultural land has many uses: growing crops, maintaining ecological balance, protecting the landscape and providing recreational open spaces. Zoning regulations are supposed to prevent residential development on agricultural land and preserve it for public use.
According to the laws that regulate the protection of agricultural land, selling a plot of land does not incur any compensation for the landowner, unless the sale was carried out under special circumstances. This is clearly disadvantageous to the landowner. Taiwan should implement laws similar to the US’ Conservation Easement (CE) legislation, which has been in effect for several years. Its purpose is to protect agricultural land and provide reasonable compensation for landowners.
CE encompasses a set of rules that restrict the use of land, which conserve land by loosening rather tightening control. The landowner makes a voluntary donation or sells the land development rights to a conservation agency, then signs a CE contract with it. After the conservation agency obtains the development rights to the land, it assumes long-term responsibility for monitoring, supervising and implementing the terms of the CE agreement.
To implement CE in Taiwan, the government should do the following: First, classify agricultural land as Type 1 or Type 2 depending on its quality and then select a suitable rural county for the pilot program.
Second, the government should take the role of the conservation agency and advise in the establishment of a land trust or non-profit conservation organization.
Third, landowners should be able to voluntarily apply to the CE program and choose whether to donate their land or sell the rights to land development. When development rights are transferred, they will be able to sign a CE contract with the conservation agency.
Fourth, the government should provide incentives in the form of tax deductions to encourage landowners to donate development rights.
Fifth, conservation agencies should have the right of first refusal on development rights. The lower the bidding price in ratio to the land value, the higher priority it should be given.
Sixth, the government should establish CE funds. Sources for the funds would include budgetary revenues, land tax revenues, the Bureau of Agricultural Finance fund and the Equalization of Land Rights Act (平均地權基金) bonds, conservation bonds and revenues obtained from the sale of lottery tickets.
Yang Chung-hsin is a retired Academia Sinica researcher.
Translated by Clare Lear
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