About 88% of the population is concentrated in the highlands, which constitute less than half of the national territory; here the population density is 141 persons km-2. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood and national income in the country. Over 85% of the population directly depends on it and about half of the GDP is generated from the sector. However, agriculture is small-scale and subsistence oriented, and it is in a very low state of development.

Uncontrolled development was threatening to destroy the forest environment
and the traditional way of life of the hill people of Ratanakiri. Researchers
worked with the villagers to produce unique maps and resource use plans
that convinced the government of the people’s traditional resource use and
management rights, and eventually set an example for inclusion in new land
tenure legislation for the nation.

“Both tragedy and hope are reflected in this fifth annual survey of internal displacement in eastern Burma. The tragedy is that such systematic and widespread violations of human rights and humanitarian law continue to occur with national impunity and a largely ineffective international response. Yet it is the ongoing commitment and courage of ethnic community-based organisations to support grassroots coping strategies and document the impacts of conflict, violence and abuse which inspires hope for the future of Burma.

Main chapters cover access to land and poverty reduction, land redistribution, and securing land rights. The last includes the role of land markets, women’s land rights, securing local resource rights in foreign investment projects, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and pastoralists, conflicts.

As the rainy season nears its end, SPDC operations in northern Papun District persist. Civilians living in Lu Thaw township in northern Papun District who fled from military attacks on their villages earlier in the current offensive have been joined by those more recently displaced. So long as military forces remain active in the area of their abandoned homes, these villagers are unable to return to tend their crops, collect possessions and reclaim their land.

Land is the most fundamental resource in any society because it is the basis of human survival. Land is the space upon which all human activities take place and provides continued existence of all life forms and minerals.

This link leads to a document containing the Table of Contents of the report, with links to the English, Burmese and Thai versions...

This review follows a five day day field based learning session on the failure to implement the co management agreement in Dwesa Cwebe. It highlights a range of problems evident in 2007/8 including:

KHRG continues to monitor the activities of large SPDC military columns which are systematically destroying villages in Papun, Nyaunglebin and Toungoo districts. We have just received information from a KHRG researcher in the field that in the past week SPDC Military Operations Command #15 has launched its expected pincer operation in northern Papun district, trying to catch Karen villagers between its Tactical Operations Command #2 coming from the south and Tactical Operations Command #3 coming from the north.

AFRA is an independent land rights non-governmental organization that works with black rural people in KwaZulu-Natal who were dispossessed and whose land tenure rights remain insecure. As such AFRA engages with the different programs within Land Reform, one of which is the Restitution Program. AFRA works primarily with three claimant groups, the Boschoek claimants, the Dukuduku claimants and the Gongolo claimants, each described briefly below.