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

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2013 – As the Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty convened this week in Washington, DC, The World Bank Group issued the following statement:

"By 2050, the world will have two billion more people to feed. To do that, global agricultural production will need to increase by 70 percent. That calls for substantial new investment in agriculture-- in smallholders and large farms—from both the public and private sectors.

Provisional English title.

Executive Summary:
"Land acquisition issues and resultant land disputes of various types are some
of the most controversial, contentious and vexing issues at play in the evolving
political and economic landscape of today's Myanmar. Few issues are discussed
more fervently and frequently than issues relating to the critical question of land;
who owns it, who controls it, who may seek to acquire it, disputes over it, and who is
to be potentially removed from it. Innumerable recent reports indicate three

Abstract:
"The Myanmar Parliament has passed the
Farmland
Law
and the
Vacant, Fallow, and Virgin Lands Management Law
. Both
pieces of legislation form part of a legislative re
sponse as Myanmar
(Burma) emerges from a sixty year period of chronic
armed conflict. Part
2 of this paper outlines the underlying grievances
associated with land
disputes with a focus upon Kayin (Karen) and Rakhin
e (Arakan) states.
Part 3 critically analyses the relevant constitutio
nal and legislative

Summary: "This paper presents an overview of the distinctive
features of communal tenure in
different community-based land and natural resource
management systems. Communal
tenure refers to situations where groups, communities, or one or more villages have
well defined, exclusive rights to jointly own and/or manage particular areas of natural
resources such as land, forest and water. These are
often referred to as
common pool
resources: many rural communities are dependent on these resources for their

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

The reform process in Burma/Myanmar by the quasi-civilian government of President Thein Sein has raised hopes that a long overdue solution can be found to more than 60 years of devastating civil war...

A report on mining in Burma. The problems mining is bringing to the Burmese people, and the multinational companies involved in it. Includes an analysis of the SLORC 1994 Mining Law.... 'Grave Diggers, authored by world renowned mining environmental activist Roger Moody, was the first major review of mining in Burma since the country's military regime opened the door to foreign mining investment in 1994.

Land governance is an inherently political-economic
issue. This report on Myanmar1 is one of a series of
country reports on Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Viet
Nam (CLMV) that seek to present country-level analyses
of the political economy of land governance.
The country level analysis addresses land governance
in Myanmar in two ways. First, it summarises what the
existing body of knowledge tells us about power and
configurations that shape access to and exclusion from
land, particularly among smallholders, the rural poor,

... The restitution of housing, land and property rights after conflicts
and periods of non-democratic governance are fundamental aspects of transitional justice which are
essential for the achievement of durable solutions to forced displacement, and to broader concerns
of peace, reconciliation and economic prosperity. The NRC Country Office in Myanmar considers it
necessary and positive to increase attention to raise public awareness on international standards on

This case study presents a country-wide quantitative analysis of a Parliamentary Commission established in 2012 in Myanmar to examine ‘land grab’ cases considered and to propose solutions towards releasing the land to its original owners, in most cases smallholder farming families. The study analyses the information contained in four reports released to the public, but also aims to elicit information they do not reveal.