Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)...
Text box extracted from "Access Denied -
Land Rights and Ethnic Conflict in Burma" by TNI/BCN,
May 2013 at http://www.burmalibrary.org/sites/burmalibrary.org/files/obl/docs15/TNI-...
A joint preliminary assessment by
TNI Myanmar Project and TNI Agrarian Justice Programme.....Summary:
"October 18, 2014 saw the official unveiling by the government of
the Republic of the Union of Myanmar
Contents:
What is land and why is it important? ...
Why is land such a burning issue in Myanmar? ...
How is land related to debates about development?...
Is there a human right to land?...
What steps are people in Myanmar taking to
express and assert their human right to land?
Burma's dramatic turn-around from 'axis of evil' to western darling in the past year has been imagined as Asia's 'final frontier' for global finance institutions, markets and capital. Burma's agrarian landscape is home to three-fourths of the country's total population which is now being constructed as a potential prime investment sink for domestic and international agribusiness.
This assessment is in response to the 6th draft of the NLUP, released in May
2015, following months of public and expert consultations. It outlines some
of the key positive and negative points of the new draft. The new draft NLUP
has taken on board many of the concerns and recommendations raised by
the public during the consultation process, and includes several key issues
that would greatly improve Myanmar’s land governance arrangements.
Analysis of the social costs of large-scale Chinese-supported rubber farms in northern Burma suggests that the future for ordinary citizens will be affected as much by the country's chosen economic path as the political reforms underway.
Conclusion:
"Myanmar is at a historic crossroads where rapid land polarisation means that a major rethink is needed of how land and associated resources are regulated and for what purposes. The good news is that there is a lot of thinking about and rethinking of land policy happening both inside and outside the corridors of state; many people are putting serious time and energy into thinking about what should be done, and at least for the time being, the political space exists for previously excluded voices to weigh in and be heard.
A RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT
What rural dwellers in the Global South experience as land grabbing, tends to be seen in the Global North as ‘agricultural investment’. The World Bank has been at the forefront of a drive to legitimate these investments, convening to win support for a code of conduct based on Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) principles. Many key civil society groups reject the proposal for a code of conduct, objecting to the top-down process by which it was formulated and arguing that it was more likely to legitimate than prevent land grabbing.
Northern Burma’s borderlands have undergone dramatic changes in the last two decades. Three main and
interconnected developments are simultaneously taking place in Shan State and Kachin State: (1) the increase
in opium cultivation in Burma since 2006 after a decade of steady decline; (2) the increase at about the same
time in Chinese agricultural investments in northern Burma under China’s opium substitution programme,
especially in rubber; and (3) the related increase in dispossession of local communities’ land and livelihoods
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