After being approved by the Parliament in its session held on February 2, 2024, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad issued Law No. 7 of 2024, amending certain articles of Law No. 62 of 2006 concerning badia (“barren” or “steppe”) lands. The amendments included an increase in the financial penalties imposed for the following violations of badia lands: grazing livestock, deforestation, farming and agriculture.

Law No. 7 of 2024 distributed the value of those fines collected as follows: 80 percent go to the general treasury, and 20 percent to personnel with judicial authority and employees of the General Commission for Badia Management, Development and Protection (GCBMDP).

Badia lands are subject to the management of the GCBMDP, established under Decree No. 78 of 2011, with the aim of developing, protecting, and enhancing the local community, resources, infrastructure, and coordinating with relevant entities to implement economic, social, environmental, and service development programmes in the badia.

The amendments included granting branches of the GCBMDP in the governorates the right to seize cultivated badia lands, farming tools and machinery, and crops and sell them by mutual agreement according to contract law, and deposit their value in the general treasury of the state.

According to No. Law 7 of 2024, the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform can appoint personnel from the GCBMDP and its branches, empowering them with judicial authority after they take the legal oath before the Civil Court of First Instance. These personnel are responsible for enforcing regulations against those who trespass on prohibited lands for farming, cultivation, or grazing, and for seizing the tools and crops used. Violations are referred to the branch of the GCBMDP, which then submits them to the Public Prosecutor’s Office to initiate public prosecution against the trespassers.

These new judicial authorities are supported by local committees for badia protection formed by governors in their governorates, each chaired by the relevant district director, with membership from a staff member of the branch of the GCBMDP, a staff member from the Farmers’ Union in the governorate, and a land surveyor from the State Property Department.

Law No. 7 stipulates that the demarcation of badia lands is going to be done by decree based on the proposal of the Minister of Agriculture, including the fixation of badia land boundaries on maps and plans. Syrian media reports suggest that the area of badia lands is approximately 8 million hectares, out of 18 million hectares representing the entire area of Syria.

Previously, Law No. 62 of 2006 considered badia lands as state-owned properties. Consequently, badia lands are now subject to Law No. 252 of 1959, retroactively regulating the provisions of state-owned properties. Law No. 62 of 2006 prohibits the acquisition of rights to dispose of these lands due to possession, and prohibits occupation without a licence. This is confirmed by Article 2 of Law No. 62 of 2006, which does not allow encroachment on badia lands and does not recognise any rights for encroachers.

It is worth noting that Amiri lands are state-owned properties. The difference between them and badia lands is that the state grants individuals the right to dispose of Amiri lands, whereas it does not grant this right over badia lands.

Furthermore, those who encroach upon badia lands no longer have the right to claim compensation equivalent to rent if they are removed from the land they occupy. Compensation equivalent to rent is the value of renting a similar property in the same area, if it is leased or invested in regularly. Those who encroached upon badia lands before the issuance of Law No.  62 cannot acquire the right to be registered in the Land Registry if delimitation and census processes have been carried out on the land.

Law No. 62 exempted from the prohibition anyone who had previously acquired a proprietary right over badia lands by virtue of a judicial decision made before the issuance of the previous law for badia lands, Law No. 140 of 1970. This law had recognised rights of usufruct and disposal for badia lands prior to its issuance date, but it prevented the acquisition of any proprietary right over these lands after its issuance.

Additionally, Law No. 62 exempted those with registered rights on badia lands in the Land Registry before the mentioned date. The law also exempted lands expropriated under Law No. 161 of 1958, the Agrarian Reform Law. In fact, these rights do not need a provision to exempt them because their holders have obtained decisions or registered them.

Law No. 62 allowed the acquisition of certain rights over badia lands in only three cases: firstly, if the state sells them for the establishment of industrial, commercial, tourist, service, or agricultural facilities. Secondly, badia lands that fall within the zoning plans of administrative units. Thirdly, badia lands are subject to the Euphrates and Khabur dam projects and all irrigation projects implemented by the state.

Law No. 62 distinguishes between non-irrigated badia lands and irrigated badia lands, with specific utilisation methods outlined. The law prohibits the cultivation or farming of non-irrigated lands and limits their use to irrigation projects and animal husbandry only. As for irrigated badia lands, they benefit from government irrigation projects, which are invested in according to the plan set by the Ministry of Agriculture.

It is not yet clear whether badia lands, as part of state-owned properties, will be managed and protected by the General Commission for the Management and Protection of State Properties established under Law No. 43 of 2023, to manage and protect state-owned properties and maintain and invest in them to generate steady and permanent resources for the state treasury.