The State protects the lawful rights and interests of such developers in accordance with law.

Article 39 Unused lands shall be reclaimed on the basis of scientific confirmation and evaluation, within the reclaimable area designated as such in an overall plan for land utilization and with lawful approval. It is forbidden to reclaim cultivated land by destroying forests or grasslands, to reclaim land from lakes and to encroach on tidal-flat areas of rivers.

Where land is reclaimed from forests, grasslands or lakes at the expense of the ecological environment, it shall gradually be returned to forests, grasslands and lakes according to plan.

Article 40 Units or individuals that wish to develop State-owned barren hills, wastelands or waste tidal flats, the land-use right of which is not yet established, for crop cultivation, forestry, animal husbandry or fishery shall be subject to lawful approval by people's governments at or above the county level, which may decide that such land be used by the said units or individuals for a long time.

Article 41 The State encourages land revitalization. County and township (town) people's governments shall make arrangements for rural collective economic organizations to conduct, in accordance with overall plans for land utilization, all-round improvement of the fields, water conservancy, roads and forests and development of the villages in order to improve the quality of the cultivated land, increase the efficient area of cultivated land and better the conditions of agricultural production and the ecological environment.

Local people's governments at all levels shall take measures to transform the medium-and low-yield fields and improve idle and waste land.

Article 42 Land users that cause damage to land as a result of digging, subsiding or crumbling under heavy weight shall be responsible for recultivating the land in accordance with the relevant regulations of the State. Where conditions do not permit such recultivation or the land recultivated does not meet the requirements, the user shall pay charges for recultivation, which shall exclusively be used for the purpose. The land recultivated shall first be used for agriculture.

Chapter V Land to Be Used for Construction

Article 43 All units and individuals that need land for construction purposes shall, in accordance with law, apply for the use of State-owned land, with the exception of the ones that have lawfully obtained approval of using the land owned by peasant collectives of their own collective economic organizations to build township or town enterprises or to build houses for villagers and the ones that have lawfully obtained approval of using the land owned by peasant collectives to build public utilities or public welfare undertakings of a township (town) or village.

"The State-owned land" mentioned in the preceding paragraph includes land owned by the State and land originally owned by peasant collectives but requisitioned by the State.

Article 44 Where land for agriculture is to be used for construction purposes, the formalities of examination and approval shall be gone through for the conversion of use.

Where land for agriculture is to be converted to land for the construction of road, pipeline or large infrastructure projects, for which approval has been obtained from people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, or for the construction of projects, for which approval has been obtained from the State Council, the conversion shall be subject to approval by the State Council.

Where land for agriculture is to be converted to land for construction of projects in different periods in order to carry out the overall plan for land utilization within the limits of the amount of land fixed in the plan for the construction of cities, villages or towns, the conversion of use of land shall, in accordance with the annual plan for land utilization, be subject to approval in batches by the organ that originally approved the overall plan for land utilization. Approval for the use of land for construction of specific projects within the limits of the amount of land for agriculture, conversion of the use of which has been approved, may be obtained from people's governments of cities or counties.

Where land for agriculture is to be converted to land for construction projects other than what is provided for in the second and third paragraphs of this Article, the conversion shall be subject to approval by people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Article 45 Approval shall be obtained from the State Council for requisition of the following land:

(1) capital farm land;

(2) cultivated land, not included in capital farm land, that exceeds 35 hectares; and

(3) other land that exceeds 70 hectares.

Requisition of land other than that provided for in the preceding paragraph shall be subject to approval of the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government and be submitted to the State Council for the record.

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