This report provides an overview of issues related to upland smallholder land tenure. The immediate
objective of the report is to promote a shared understanding of land tenure issues by national-level
stakeholders, with a longer term objective of improving the land tenure, livelihood and food security of
upland farm families. The report is intended for government and non-government agencies, policy
makers and those impacted by policy. The report covers four main areas: status of and trends in upland

President of Myanmar, U Thein Sein, announced that the government cannot give back over 30,000 acres of paddy land that the state has been using since it was confiscated by the army two decades ago. On the one hand the President ordered state and regional governments and land management committee to cooperate with members of the parliament to solve the problem of land grabbing cases. On the other hand he has announced the government cannot handover some land back.

Access to land for smallholder farmers is a critical foundation for food security in Myanmar's uplands. Land tenure guarantees seem to be eroding and access to land becoming more difficult in some upland areas. If this trend continues it may have negative impacts for food security and undermine environmental and economic sustainability. This briefing paper explores the relationship between land tenure and food security, as well as key institutional and other factors that influence land access and tenure for smallholder farmers in the uplands today.

Access to land for smallholder farmers is a critical foundation for food security in Myanmar's uplands. Land tenure guarantees seem to be eroding and access to land becoming more difficult in some upland areas. If this trend continues it may have negative impacts for food security and undermine environmental and economic sustainability. This briefing paper explores the relationship between land tenure and food security, as well as key institutional and other factors that influence land access and tenure for smallholder farmers in the uplands today...

As Myanmar’s junta prepared to step down from government, the military set about seizing public assets and natural resources to ensure its economic control in a new era of democratic rule.

Guns, Cronies and Crops details the collusion at the heart of operations carried out by Myanmar’s armed forces in northeastern Shan State. Large swathes of land were taken from farming communities in the mid-2000s and handed to companies and political associates to develop rubber plantations.

As Myanmar’s opening economy is celebrated, rights activists warn it will see people who have lived in areas for generations forced out under ‘legal’ means that merely cover mercenary greed.

BURMA: Farmers' land fight celebrated in new booklet...

(Hong Kong, January 10, 2012) A Burma-based rights group has released a new publication documenting and recounting the courageous fight against land expropriation, intimidation and false prosecution of a group of rural villagers.

This Situation Update describes events occurring in Kawkareik Township, Dooplaya District in September 2014, including issues of land confiscation and explicit threats toward villagers. Starting in November 2010, the Tatmadaw began to confiscate A--- villagers land upon which they built houses for their soldiers’ families, as well as houses for members of the Border Guard Force (BGF) and the Karen Peace Force (KPF) and their families. Villagers complained to the A--- village head, who felt too afraid to raise the issue with the Military Operations Command (MOC) #19 General Tun Nay Lin.

This Photo Set presents 17 still photographs taken by a local community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The photos were all taken in March 2012 at the Toh Boh Dam construction site in Tantabin Township within locally-defined Toungoo District. According to the community member who took these photos, more than 100 households have been relocated from the area now occupied by the dam construction site, where construction is ongoing.

...Beginning in December 2010, Burmese Navy Unit No. 43, under the
command of Ka Dike-based government navy regional command head
quarters, began to confiscate the rubber plantations and household plots of
villagers on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island, Yebyu Township, Tennaserim
Division. Since then, all land on which red signboards were placed by the
navy has been confiscated. This report documents the confiscation of over
1,000 acres of land on Kywe Thone Nyi Ma Island. However, HURFOM found

This report covers much of SE Asia, with specific references to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Myanmar....."...In Myanmar, the ceasefire negotiations and move
toward democracy have opened the door to a
virtual gold rush for foreign investors, posing new
threats to the country’s rural populations in the
guise of economic development. On March 30,
2012, the Parliament approved the Farmland Law
and Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law, which are designed to encourage large-scale
agricultural investment and retain the government’s

This Situation Update describes events occurring in Thandaunggyi Township, Toungoo District in July 2014, including livelihood problems due to land confiscation:

In 2014, Tatmadaw Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) #603 confiscated over 200 acres of villagers’ land without providing any compensation...

The villagers requested permission to collect their crops from LIB #603, however they were denied access to their fields. Instead, LIB #603 allowed local female police officers to collect the crops for themselves...