Land Management Day in Ukraine and Kazakhstan Date in the current year: March 9, 2024

Land management is the process of use and development of land resources. It involves surveying, mapping, documenting the boundaries of land ownership, and land registration. In most former Soviet states, there is a state cadastral register, where information concerning ownership, possession, or other rights on land is recorded; land managers employed with government agencies and private companies play an important role in maintaining the register.

Land Management Day is celebrated in several of the former Soviet states, but each of them has its own name and date of the holiday: Land Management, Mapping and Surveying Service Employees’ Day in Belarus (February 21), Land Management, Surveying and Mapping Employee Day in Kyrgyzstan (February 22), Surveying and Mapping Employees’ Day in Russia (the second Sunday of March). Ukraine has Land Managers’ Day, and Kazakhstan celebrates Land Management, Surveying and Mapping Employees’ Day; both holidays occur on the second Saturday in March.

In Ukraine, a professional holiday for land management professionals was first suggested by the Ukrainian State Committee for Land Resources and the Land Surveyors Union of Ukraine. To highlight the importance of land reforms designed to improve the conservation and rational use of land resources, Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma supported the initiative and officially declared the second Saturday of March Land Managers’ Day in 1999. The inaugural celebration was held on March 11, 2000.

In Kazakhstan, Land Management, Surveying and Mapping Employees’ Day has been celebrated since 2017. It is a professional holiday for the employees of the Land Management Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan, the National Center for Geodesy and Spatial Information (Kazgeodeziya), the National Catastrophic and Geodetic Fund, and the State Corporation “Government for Citizens”, which provides land registration and cadastre-related services.