The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) helps people to realize the benefits of their countries’ endowments of oil, gas and minerals. We do this through technical advice, advocacy, applied research, policy analysis, and capacity development. We work with innovative agents of change within government ministries, civil society, the media, legislatures, the private sector, and international institutions to promote accountable and effective governance in the extractive industries...

Myanmar's natural resources include gems, industrial minerals, oil, and offshore natural gas reserves estimated at 10 trillion cubic feet. The extractive sector accounted for 39 percent of exports in 2010, yet despite its mineral wealth, Myanmar is one of the least developed nations in the world. Its extractive industries are infamously opaque. In the April 2012 elections, the main opposition party won seats in the parliament, a development that could lead to improved transparency...

Abstract: "Global economic change and policy interventions
are driving transitions from long-fallow swidden (LFS)
systems to alternative land uses in Southeast Asia’s uplands.
This study presents a systematic review of how these
transitions impact upon livelihoods and ecosystem services
in the region. Over 17 000 studies published between 1950
and 2015 were narrowed, based on relevance and quality, to
93 studies for further analysis. Our analysis of land-use
transitions from swidden to intensified cropping systems

A Report to Enhance Discussions about
Customary Land Rights in Burma.....This purpose of this paper is to present a brief summary of the
issues and current
situations facing ethnic and indigenous communities around the
world that are
using a customary rights framework to manage their land and natural resources.
By outlining these experiences, ethnic groups in Burma will be
able to better understand their own context and
possibilities as they struggle to gain control over

A Report to Enhance Discussions about Customary Land Rights in Burma.....This purpose of this paper is to present a brief summary of the
issues and current
situations facing ethnic and indigenous communities around the
world that are
using a customary rights framework to manage their land and natural resources.
By outlining these experiences, ethnic groups in Burma will be
able to better understand their own context and
possibilities as they struggle to gain control over
their lands during this transitional time. While examining how

Summary:

The governance of natural resources used by many individuals in common is an issue of increasing concern to policy analysts. Both state control and privatisation of resources have been advocated, but neither the state nor the market have been uniformly successful in solving common pool resource problems. Offering a critique of the foundations of policy analysis as applied to natural resources, Elinor Ostrom here provides a unique body of empirical data to explore conditions under which common pool resource problems have been satisfactorily or unsatisfactorily solved.

The Myanmar Development Resource Institute's Centre for Economic and Social Development (MDRI-CESD) and The Asia Foundation are pleased to present this fourth volume in the Subnational Governance in Myanmar Discussion Paper Series.

A new report by the Karenni Civil Society Network (KCSN) raises concerns about
international “peace support” programming amid
st increasing Burma Army militarization in
Karenni State after the2012 ceasefire with the
Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP).
The report “Where is Genuine Peace?” exposes how a pilot resettlement project of the
Norway-led Myanmar Peace Support Initiative (MPSI) in Shardaw
Township is encouraging
IDPs to return to an area controlled by the Burma Army where their safety cannot be
guaranteed.

CONCLUSION:
"A developing country like Lao PDR is struggling to gain recognition from other countries
in the world. This requires that the country applies a human rights perspective to
governance of land. In this case the land rights are the rights of the ethnic groups in the
uplands that practice customary communal tenure. These groups would like the
government to accept and register their communal land use legally. The first step
towards this is in the development of the National Land Use Policy which is still in draft.

Myanmar's Union government collects much of the trillions of kyat generated by oil, gas, gemstones and other minerals each year, primarily through its state-owned economic enterprises (SEEs).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: "In recent years, many governments globally have formally recognized community land and natural resource tenure, either based on existing customary practices or more recently established land governance arrangements.1 These tenure arrangements have been called by a variety of names, such as community, customary, communal, collective, indigenous, ancestral, or native land rights recognition. In essence, they seek to establish the rights of a group to obtain joint tenure security over their community’s land.