The mission of the Ministry of Land and Resources as prescribed by the State Council of the People's Republic of China is:

To be responsible for the planning, administration, protection and rational utilization of such natural resources as land, mineral and marine resources in the People's Republic of China. Major functions and responsibilities assigned to the Ministry of Land and Resources by the 5tate Council of the People's Republic of China are:

To enact relevant laws and regulations and promulgate the rules governing the management of land, mineral and marine resources (with the exception of marine fishery resources managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, similarly hereinafter); to be responsible of administrative review in accordance with relevant regulations; to develop policies regarding the management, protection and rational utilization of land , mineral and marine resources; to formulate the technical criteria, rules, standards and measures for land, mineral and marine resources;

To compile and implement the national comprehensive planning for land and resources, overall plan for land use and other specific plans; to participate in the examination and verification of urban overall plans submitted to the State Council to organize the survey and evaluation of mineral and marine resources; to develop plans for the protection and rational utilization of mineral resources and marine resources for the prevention and mitigation of geological hazards and for the protection of sites of geological importance;

To supervise and inspect the law enforcement of the departments; responsible for land and resources management at various levels and the implementation of plans for land, mineral and marine resources; to protect the lawful rights and interests of the owners and users of land, mineral and marine resources, to undertake and organize the arbitration of major disputes over rights and ownership and investigation of major law-breaking cases;

To develop policies and regulations concerning cultivated land, especially those that protect and encourage the development of cultivated land; to enforce the control over the different purposes of land used for agriculture; to organize the protection of capital farmland; to administrate and supervise the development of unused land and cultivated land, land revitalization and reclamation so as to ensure the increase instead of decrease of cultivated land;

To formulate cadastral regulations, organize land and resources survey, cadastral survey, land statistics and dynamic monitoring; to administrate land titles, land grading and registration;

To develop and implement the regulations for the assignment, lease, evaluation, transfer, transaction and governmental purchasing of the right to the use of land; work out catalogue guide for the allocation of the land-use right for state-owned land and measures concerning the land used by villages and townships, and to administrate the transfer of right to use non-agricultural land owned by rural collectives;

To administrate the evaluation of land price (bench mark and standard land price), validate the qualification of the land evaluation and appraisal agencies, and confirm the land-use prices; to examine and submit applications for land use that require the approval of the State Council as prescribed by law;

To supervise the examination, approval, registration and licensing of the rights to explore and to mine the mineral resources and the transfer of the rights to examine and approve blocks open to foreign investment; to undertake the management of mineral reserves and the collection and compilation of geological data; to administrate, according to law, the geological exploration work, to examine and determine the qualifications of geological exploration organizations and manage results of geological exploration; to manage according to relevant provisions the collection and use of mineral resources compensation; to examine and validate the qualifications of the institutions responsible for the evaluation and examination of exploration rights and mining rights and confirm their evaluation and estimation results;

To organize the monitoring, prevention and mitigation of geological hazards and the protection of sites of geological importance; to supervise according to law the hydrogeological, engineering geological exploration and evaluation; to supervise the monitoring and prevention of the over-extraction and contamination of groundwater and protect geological environment; to designate geologically important areas for protection such as areas of valuable fossil occurrence and standard geological sections;

To arrange, supervise and inspect the use of the state funds for geological exploration and other related funds;

To organize international cooperation and exchange in the field of land, mineral and marine resources;

To perform other duties assigned by the State Council;

Managing the State Oceanic Administration and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in accordance with the relevant provisions of the State Council.