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

This field report describes events occurring in Toungoo District between January and December 2013. It includes information submitted by KHRG researchers on a range of human rights abuses and other issues of importance to local communities, including violent abuse, landmine contamination, the loss of land and other negative impacts on livelihoods related to infrastructure and industrial projects, on-going militarization and a lack of access to education.

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in December 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Dooplaya District, between July and November 2012. The report describes problems relating to land confiscation and contains updated information regarding the sale of forest reserve for rubber plantations involving the BGF, with individuals who profited from the sale listed.

Welcome to ANGOC's Knowledge Portal! This is a simple, searchable, and easy-to-use online library of articles, discussion papers, and publications produced by ANGOC and its partners. Here you will find an array of resources on: access to land and agrarian reform; sustainable agriculture and natural resources management; participatory governance; food security; tools; and sustainable development.

No such thing as a “clean concession” or
“idle land”...Insecure tenure represents a material
financial and reputational risk....Case analysis reveals drivers of tenure-
related conflict....Primary cause of dispute in agricultural
investment is rarely compensation...
IAN Risk...
IAN Diligence...The Tenure Facility...11
Links to Materials
Disputes
around agricultural investments
tend
to start early in project life...Implications for Shaping Effective Due
Diligence.

This Situation Update was written in October 2014 and describes events occurring in Bu Tho Township, Hpapun District, including issues of land confiscation...

The Burma/Myanmar government Land Registration and Management Department and Land Administrative Department in Hpapun District confiscated villagers’ lands and gave it to Tatmadaw Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) #340, #341, #434 and #642, which are under Tatmadaw Southeast Command Headquarters...

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

This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in April 2011 by a villager describing events occurring in Te Naw Th'Ri Township, Tenasserim Division between June 2010 and April 2011. The report details abuses related to land confiscation by Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) officials; forced labour, including forced USDP membership; and attacks on villages in hiding, including the burning of houses, food stores, a school dormitory and supplies by Tatmadaw forces.

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.

The Complaint Letter below was written by the Shwegyin Karen Baptist Association, a missionary association from Kyaukkyi Town, Kyaukkyi Township, Nyaunglebin District, and sent to the chairman of the Burma/Myanmar government Kyaukkyi Township Land Management Committee, on November 5th 2015. The letter concerns the Burma/Myanmar government’s construction of buildings on a Christian church compound. According to the letter, the compound has belonged to the church for 55 years.

The phrase “land grab” has become common in Myanmar, often making front page news. This reflects the more open political space available to talk about injustices, as well as the escalating severity and degree of land dispossession under the new government.

But this seemingly simple two-word phrase is in fact very complex and opaque. It thus deserves greater clarity in order to better understand the deep layers of meaning to farmers in the historical political context of Myanmar.