FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tyler Roush
tylerr@landesa.org | 206-257-6135

SEATTLE, Wash. — Landesa, a US-based global nonprofit organization focused on rural land rights, has successfully registered to continue its work on land policy in mainland China. The registration comes after China announced that foreign-based NGOs operating in China would be required to register with the government, and helps solidify Landesa’s ongoing work supporting policy reform with the potential to benefit hundreds of millions of rural Chinese.

The law requiring foreign-based NGOs to register with China’s Ministry of Public Security became effective Jan. 1, 2017. Since the law went into effect, approximately 421 organizations have been approved. Landesa is the first organization with a focus on land rights to successfully register.

In November 2017, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs agreed to sponsor Landesa’s application for registration under the new law. On May 14, 2018, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau approved Landesa’s application and registered the organization as an international NGO authorized to practice in China.

Landesa, which began working in China in 1987, is authorized to carry out work within a business scope of “research of rural land policy, rural development and poverty reduction, sustainable development and women’s land rights and protection.”  The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs will be the organization’s supervisory counterpart.

China’s land reform begun in the 1980s has been one of the most ambitious and successful poverty alleviation programs in history, helping lift hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty.