SUMMARY:
"This paper is the main output of a research project initiated by Pyoe Pin, and led by ECCDI with support from the University of East Anglia, whose aim has been to fill the gap in knowledge over the progress of Community Forestry in Myanmar through a systematic study. This paper presents the key data and findings, and offers policy recommendations based on these.

Over 7,800 acres of farmland in Salingyi Township, Sagaing Division, has been confiscated for a copper mine project with landowners forced out of their villages, according to local sources. A number of concerned residents told The Irrawaddy that grabbed lands belong to people in Salingyi’s Hse Te, Zee Daw, Wet Hmay and Kan Taw villages and authorities ordered residents to leave the area earlier this year. Most of the villagers do not want to relocate but some have already left, they claim.

While foreign governments heap praise on the Burmese government’s liberal tilt, land theft appears to be increasing as state agencies and powerfully placed domestic firms position themselves to welcome foreign investment.

Farmers across the country are being muscled out of their fields with little hope of appeal to the law. This is because despite all the trumpeting in the West about President Thein Sein’s “reforms,” the rule of law in Burma is closer to 12th Century Europe than the 21st Century.

Paper prepared for presentation at the 2016 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY, The World Bank - Washington DC, March 14-18, 2016

Forestry Water Management, Landscape Approach and Land Management in Kachin State, northern Myanmar.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Burma today is experiencing a crisis in security of land tenure, which includes the widespread abuse of human, economic, social, cultural, and political rights. This report, Displacement and Dispossession: Forced Migration and Land Rights in Burma focuses on land confiscation by Government forces, responsible for Burma’s most acute Housing, Land and Property (HLP) rights abuses. Among the most vulnerable populations are more than one million internally displaced people in Burma, most from ethnic nationality communities.

... Namati offers this brief in the hope that Myanmar’s national reforms and the implementation of the country’s new National Land Use Policy can grow from the lived experience of ordinary Myanmar citizens. Namati and our partners assist farmers in Myanmar to claim their land rights through a community paralegal approach. Community paralegals are trained in relevant laws, community education, negotiation, and mediation skills to work with farmers to resolve a variety of land rights issues.

... Located on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, Kayah State has long been isolated because of conflicts between the minority groups there and the Burmese army; as a result, little is known about its agricultural systems. As a preliminary to NGO agricultural development projects, an agrarian diagnosis of two major types of agroecosystems in the state—lowlands alluvial plains and uplands—was conducted. The objective was to identify recent agrarian changes leading to the current presence of different types of farmers in each area and understand their development potential.

Summary:
Since 2007, destructive platinum mining has been taking place in the hills north of
Tachilek, eastern Shan State, impacting about 2,000 people from eight Lahu, Akha
and Shan villages. The platinum is being extracted by Burmese mining companies and
exported to China and Thailand.
Five companies are currently operating around the Akha village of Ah Yeh, 13 kilometers
north of Tachilek. They have forced villagers to sell property and land at cheap prices,
and confiscated other lands without compensation. Hundreds of acres of farms and

Zay Kabar, a Burmese company that has been accused of illegally confiscating more than 800 acres of land from farmers in Shwenanthar, a village in Rangoon’s Mingaladon Township, has continued clearing the land despite being told to stop by local authorities.

After embankments on the farmland were leveled last week, around 50 farmers began rebuilding them in preparation for the start of the planting season, prompting officials from the Housing Department and the local administrative office to order both sides to desist.

ABSTRACT: Burma (Myanmar) is currently emerging from almost half a century of severe military dictatorship. In a country comprising over 50% forested landscapes, the status of forest governance and forest rights are central to the democratisation process.

Commentary: Land Confiscation;
Situation of land confiscation in Nam-Zarng and Kun-Hing;
Land confiscated, villagers house destroyed, in Nam-Zarng;
Cultivated land confiscated in Nam-Zarng;
Farmlands and cemetery ground confiscated in Nam-Zarng;
Lands confiscated, forced labour used, to build new military bases and an airstrip, in Kun-Hing;
Confiscation of land with regard to mining projects;
Land Confiscation due to coal mining concession in Murng-Sart;