Challenges and Opportunities in Promoting VGGT to Secure Tenure Rights of Family Farmers, AFA Issue Paper, Volume 7, Number 3, September 2015
Ma Win of a small village in Myanmar is anxious. An officer of the Forest Department has asked her and co-villagers to move out of the village, based on a piece of paper saying that the 700-acre land where they were staying, has been granted to the wife of a high ranking officer. Since 2000, she and co-villagers have been growing beans, lemons, pineapples, papaya and vegetables. From the nearby forests they have extracted fuel wood, medicinal plants and bamboo shoots. The villagers have long ago understood that the land was unclassified public forest. But now the officer said that the land had been reclassified as a wasteland and thus could be given to a private individual. If they leave, where will they go? Will her family survive? Today, some of the village leaders will be filing a complaint to the President. Will the President listen to their complaint? Will they be granted the right to stay in the village?
Published by AFA with support from the International Land Coalition (ILC)
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