This report provides an overview of state and regional governments’ roles in natural resource governance, highlighting the mining, oil and gas, timber, and hydropower sectors. This report is the fourth volume in the Subnational Governance in Myanmar Discussion Paper Series, which aims to inform future analysis of the potential risks and benefits of changes to the role of subnational governments. This report is funded by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID).

This comprehensive review of Myanmar's policies regarding inward direct investment covers such issues as trends in investment in Myanmar, responsible business conduct, regulation and protection of investment, investment promotion and facilitation, tax policy, the financial sector in Myanmar, infrastructure in Myanmar, and sustainable investment in Myanmar's agriculture.

This paper uses household panel data from rural Vietnam to explore the effects of having a relative in a position of political or bureaucratic power. Our results suggest that households increase their investment in land improvements due to such ties. Likely explanations are that connections to office holders strengthen de facto land property rights and access to both credit and transfers. Results also indicate that officials prefer to use informal rather than formal channels of redistribution to relatives.

A report revealing how Siamese rosewood has been illegally logged to the brink of extinction in the Mekong region to feed the demand for luxury hongmu furniture in China.

SUMMARY: The Vietnamese government has made some progress towards tackling illegal logging and the associated trade. It has negotiated a voluntary partnership agreement (VPA) with the EU, a process that has prompted a review of relevant legislation and improved the government’s engagement with civil society. In addition, it has signed agreements with Lao PDR and Cambodia in which it has committed to coordination on forest management and trade. However, there has been little progress in policy reform, and there is still no legislation regulating illegal timber imports.

Change is taking place in Myanmar. Since this ethnically and geographically diverse country elected its first civilian government in 2010, a series of rapid and dramatic reforms have taken place to allow freedom of expression, an opening of the economy and the consolidation of peace. The government has also taken the first tentative steps toward decentralization. In October 2013, Mercy Corps conducted a combined economic, governance and conflict assessment that focused on Myanmar’s southern Shan State as a microcosm of the issues present throughout the country.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report deals with land concessions in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand – a much contended topic which leads discussants from issues such as land ownership and utilization to social structures, human rights and beyond. Overall, this report aims to examine changes in relative competitiveness in selected tradable commodities of Thailand and whether they are impacted through increases of land concession in selected countries in the subregion.

ABSTRACTED FROM INTRODUCTION: Many of the economic, demographic, and social changes animating land disputes in Vietnam are also sweeping across other countries in East Asia. The aim of this Report is to provide comparative insights into land-taking disputes in three East Asian countries—China, Indonesia, and Cambodia—that are relevant to Vietnamese conditions. It is not the intention of this Report to provide a comprehensive account of land-taking disputes, but rather to identify trends in dispute resolution.

On 18 October 2014 the Myanmar government released a much-awaited draft national land use policy. Land and how it is governed is of fundamental importance for Myanmar society. The current laws mainly benefit private companies and not small-holder farmers in the country, who represent more then 75% of the population. The current laws also do not respect traditional and customary practices of the country's ethnic minority groups. This new TNI briefing examines the draft national land policy and assesses whether it is pro-business or pro-poor.

The aim of this article has been to identify and evaluate main factors which influence the agricultural land market in Poland. Statistical data from two institutions, namely the Agricultural Property Agency (APA) and the Central Statistical Office (CSO) as well as the author’s research have been used in the paper. The time horizon of the analysis covers the years 1992-2012. The lower limit was determined by the start of operation of the Agency of Agricultural Property of the State Treasury and the launching of a process of transformation in agriculture state.

Integration of the Russian Federation in the international community, to find the most effective ways to implement the military and land reforms require a comprehensive study. The paper identifies the main problems that hinder the effective implementation of the reform of the conversion, the ways of their solutions, including use of the experience of the advanced countries of the European Union. Identified military objects to be conversion, shown combining them into groups according to various criteria. Proposed a typology of ex-military territories.

Study was conducted in north-eastern Latvia (57° 38’ N, 22° 17’ E): in a part of Slitere National Park that was un-managed since year 1923 and affected by large storm in November of 1969. Supervised classification of Corona and Landsat 5 images of the area (in total 1646 ha) from years before and after the storm (1966–2010) were carried out and parameters characterizing the fragmentation calculated for 3 land-cover classes: forest, areas with low woody biomass and non-forest areas.