Draft Law to mimimize land misuse - Arab Environment Watch

A legislative breakthrough is expected soon in land management policies in Jordan as the government intends to submit a new bylaw to control the land management and land use patterns in a sustainable way.

The Jordan Times has published a news feature on Sunday 6-8-2006, following are the main points.

The government will submit to the Parliament next month a draft law to control the misuse of land, which eats up 25 million square metres of agricultural land every year, a Cabinet minister said on Saturday.

“It will specify what should be the use of each piece of land across the country,” said Minister of Agriculture Akef Zu’bi, during a press conference at his office yesterday.

Zu’bi described the draft law as one of the most important pieces of legislation regulating land use over the past 30 years.

Agricultural land constitutes just nine per cent of the country’s total land surface.

“The primary proposal suggested classifying just agricultural land, but the Cabinet made a decision that the draft law should cover all types of lands,” said Zu’bi.

Minister of Municipal Affairs Nader Thuheirat said in June that his ministry was ready to conduct a comprehensive land survey, through the municipalities, in order to categorise land use in the country.

He also said the ministry had launched a training programme for municipal employees to improve their technical skills, particularly in land survey techniques.