Implementation of the two laws which launched the land governance reform 2012—the Farmland Law (FLL) and Vacant Fallow Virgin Land Law (VFVLL)— continues, with the process of translating their principles on-the-ground proving a complex process.

The FLL allows for the registration of user rights over land classified as Farmland, by individual land users. This represents an important change from past land administration, which did not allow individual registration of plots of agricultural land with the government. However, as land records have, in many cases, not been kept updated in the past 80 years, the classification of land by the government does not always accurately reflect how land use has evolved on the ground. This creates many complications in the way that land is classified and registered.

The registration process itself also has many difficulties. Farmers face problems with lack of information about the process and local township offices need more resources to carry out the work effectively. Other issues are linked to inter-household gender dynamics— particularly because the law provides for household registration in the name of the head of the household, which is in most cases a man. Joint registration can in some cases be successfully negotiated, but in general this results in land ownership being largely the domain of men, with women accessing rights by proxy, through the men in their families. This requires women farmers to maintain stable social arrangements if they are to have secure access to land and, as such, renders their land tenure more insecure than men’s.

As this article was going to print, Parliament released a number of proposed amendments to the FLL for public comment.

The VFVLL allows for granting land for commercial purposes, where that land is considered vacant, fallow or virgin, according to government classifications. As noted above, government classification of land does not always accurately reflect land use on the ground and as a result this law has been the subject of much controversy, especially in ethnic areas, where the government considers land governed customarily to be vacant land. The application of the VFVLL has seen new evolution this year, as the new NLD government and civil society are seeking to enforce provisions to reclaim land allocated to companies for large-scale agriculture, following provisions in the law to reclaim land which has not been exploited within four years of acquisition. These provisions apply only where land has not been used for the intended purpose or fully exploited by the investor within four years. Through these procedures there is scope to return land to communities who have ancestral and historic links to the area.

In Tanintharyi, there is particular interest in reclaiming land under the VFVLL. A process has been developed as a test study called the Oil Palm Sector Review (OPSR), led jointly by the Regional government and One Map Myanmar, with active support from local civil society. The OPSR will involve collaboration between government, private sector and civil society to discuss areas of land previously granted for oil palm sector development, which has not been planted. This is the first process of its kind under the law.

Much of my work revolves around the issues pertinent to women farmers. Although women play a key role in agricultural labour, they are often not considered as landowners or decision makers in land governance.

The Land Core Group organised Myanmar’s first Female Farmer Forum in July 2016 where women farmers from 12 states and regions came together to discuss issues important to them, many of which related to their access to and control over land. Major themes that emerged were barriers to land ownership and decision-making in land for women— many of which are due to discrimination in inheritance practices and in state systems that have a bias toward issuing land documentation in the name of men only, due to their denomination by the state system as household heads. Women also noted the particular obstacles they face in accessing state service departments, attending community meetings and obtaining information on land due to prejudice around their ability to be involved in land management and land decision-making. A briefing paper was followed by a participatory photo exhibition of images by women farmers that highlighted women’s detailed knowledge and understanding of the land they farm— showing a vision of land as a place of community, family and livelihoods. This stands in stark contrast to the assumptions about women that underlie current policy approaches to land.

Karen Human Rights Group’s research details some of the main issues for women in post-conflict areas, noting the particular challenges for single women, widows and women whose husbands do not live with them due to pressures of land confiscation. Also, while some women had taken on positions of authority in these areas during the conflict, men have been re-occupying these roles since the preliminary ceasefire.

Namati also issued a report that notes that application for land registration is led almost entirely by men and that men are predominantly managing land registration processes and that joint registration is rarely sought in practice.