The Land Management Bureau (and the regional Land Management Sector) was organized on September 2, 1901 under Act 218 as the Insular Bureau of Public Lands (IBPL) with the mandate of supervising the survey and distribution of public lands in the Philippine Islands. William Tipton was appointed as the first chief of the IBPL. Under his supervision, the Bureau planned out a system for the survey of the archipelago and in 1903 implemented Act 926 or the first Public Land Act of the country which became the basis of public land disposition thereafter.
Disposition under this law was done by way of homestead, free patent, sale and lease of public lands suitable for agriculture. The name Insular Bureau of Public Land was later changed by virtue of Act 1470 to the Bureau of Lands, the name became popularly known to the masses who are the direct beneficiary of public agricultural lands for distribution.
The Bureau of Lands was likewise mandated to administer the distribution of friar lands under Act 1120 in 1903. It is the first land reform program in the country as vast tract of the most productive agricultural lands were purchased by the Insular Government from religious orders and agricultural corporations and sold to actual occupants and settlers.