This document summarizes pilots and initiatives to recognize customary tenure in Myanmar's forestry sector. It outlines how the National Land Use Policy and forest laws recognize customary tenure. Pilots by USAID, Tetra Tech, the Forest Department, and Land Core Group aimed to test applying the Community Forestry Instructions to certify fallow lands and increase tenure security. Key achievements included considering community forests and analyzing how to better recognize customary tenure. National dialogues brought stakeholders together to discuss strengthening forest tenure rights. Lessons highlighted the need for longer-term commitment to fully recognize and protect customary tenure through legal and policy reforms.

1. Recognition of Customary Tenure:
Piloting for implementation of the National Land
Use Policy, MRLG and USAID pilots results
Forest Department (MONREC)
Land Core Group
30 May, 2018 Avani Riverside Hotel,Bangkok

2. Outlines of Presentation
• What is CT
• How NLUP recognize CT
• How Forest Laws recognize CT
• What pilots: (LTP, USAID, Tetra Tech) & (Forest Tenure, FD,
LCG)
• Key progress (success) and lessons learned

3. Land Tenure: the relationship – legal or
customary, as individuals or groups
• use rights: rights to use the land for grazing,
growing subsistence crops, gathering minor
forestry products, etc.
• control rights: rights to make decisions how
the land should be used including deciding
what crops should be planted, and to benefit
financially from the sale of crops, etc.
• transfer rights: right to sell or mortgage the
land, to convey the land to others through
intra-community reallocations, to transmit
the land to heirs through inheritance, and to
reallocate use and control rights.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y4307e/y4307e05.htm
Land
Tenure
Natural
resources
Economics
Political
Institutions
(laws,
rules)
Socials

4. Customary Communal tenure
• Customary land is land which is owned by
Indigenous communities and
administered in accordance with their
customs, as opposed to statutory tenure
usually introduced during the colonial
periods. Common ownership is one form
of customary land ownership.
• Customary land - Wikipedia
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customary
_land
• two main modalities of communal tenure.
1. Permanent communal tenure rights held
by indigenous communities in their
ancestral domain, where the state
permanently relinquishes for good its
rights to the land;
2. Delegated management, refers to
temporary communal tenure, wherein
the state maintains ownership of the land
but delegates management of the
resources on that land. This arrangement
is often renewable.
http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/am658e/am658e00.pdf

5. NLUP Guidelines for CT
1. Recognition by National Land Law (6c, 8a, 64, 70)
2. Participation in land management decision making (9d, 10b, 10c, 67,
75)
3. Participation in land conflict resolution (67)
4. Registration of CT before establishing land information management
system (17)
5. IDP land restitution in line with international good practices and
human standards (74, 38)
6. Consider CT in land classification, mapping & recording (68)
7. Protect from allocation CT to other land use (68, 69)
8. Monitoring the level of recognition and protection (78d-4)

6. Forest Policy
1995
Forest Law
1992
Community Forestry
Instruction
2016
• People participation in forest cultivation and
maintenance, and forest utilization activities
• Methods of increasing food production and and living
standards for shifting cultivator (Record & systematically
recognize shifting cultivation areas
90 days after notification for formation of reserved or
protected public forest is allowed to claim the rights of
affected local communities (Formation of Reserved &
Protected Public Forests)
•Consider CT in 2016 CFI

7. Objectives of Community Forestry
1. For Local Communities
a) To provide forest and tree related basic needs;
b) To enhance employment and income opportunities;
2. For sustainable forest resource management
a) To increase forest covered area in a sustainable manner and to ensure
sustainable utilization;
b) To promote participatory forest management system, and
c) To prevent from forest degradation and enhance environmental services

8. Areas and Types of land where Community
Forest can be established
Areas (Para 4)
(a) Forest estate, and lands at the disposal of the government.
(b) Lands managed by gov. organizations and lands owned by the private or NGOs.
Types (Para 5)
(a) Degraded natural forests;
(b) Areas with potential for local demands;
(c) village fuelwood plantations (FD established, DG permission);
(d) Areas where soil and water resources conservation is needed;
(e) Community managed natural forests;
(f) Customary communal forest lands.

9. 2018 Wildlife, Biodiversity and Natural Areas
Protection Law
8. Types of Natural Areas
a) Scientific Reserved
b) National Park
c) Marine National Park
d) Nature reserved
e) Wildlife sanctuary
f) Geographically significant area
g) Community conserved natural area
12. With the agreement of Ministry, DG of FD shall manage to provide appropriate
rights and benefits of affected local communities
13 With the agreement of Ministry, DG can permit -
(e) the community collaborated natural areas protection system
(f) establishment of CF, community based eco-tourism & community managed marine areas
management systems

10. USAID LTP CT Specific Intervention
Objective
• Testing CFI 2016 if the fallow land can be certified as part of CF areas as this could
be one way to secure CT
Actions:
• In normal CF application process, include a step to conduct participatory mapping
and then attach the participatory village map with different land use to CF
application form
• Request the open & close forest land as well as the fallow land as part of CF areas
• The Government did not accept to include the fallow land as part of CF

11. USAID LTP CT Specific Intervention
Key lessons:
• As described in the CFI 2016, neither fallow land or housing structure
which is not related to CF activities cannot be included in CF areas
• CFI 2016 cannot be applied to certify the fallow land which is the
shifting cultivation land customarily used by the ethnic nationalities
• These observations indicate that there is a need revision of CFI if it is
to be used for recognition of communal customary tenure.

12. MRLG Forest Tenure Project concept and
expected outcomes
Specific Objective
• To strengthen the land and natural resource tenure security of local communities in Myanmar through the
reform of forest policy, forest law and associated regulations
Expected Outcomes
• The capacity of Government staff on community led forest management and tenure rights is improved,
demonstrated by their ability to apply knowledge to address community rights by developing better policy
and law to support farmers and forest dependent peoples taking into particular account the situation of
women.
• Improved engagement between government (specifically MONREC-FD), civil society and communities leads
to increased cooperation between CSO and the government on the development of forest tenure reform in
Myanmar.
• Increased land resource tenure security of local communities at target pilot sites as a result of implementing
measures for the recognition and protection of customary tenure in line with key provisions stipulated in the
NLUP.

13. Key Achievements to dates
Key achievements from national level multi-stakeholder dialogues
• Consider community managed forest areas as one of reserved forest type
• Conduct an analysis how and to what level CFI is good enough to recognize and protect CT
• Use CFI in the existing forest estate, and an approach to create protected public forest and then following up with CF
establishment using CFI in the areas outside of existing forest estate tp safeguard CT in the short term. In the long term, run a
transparent and inclusive multi-stakeholder process to review forest policy, to develop bylaw and procedures for newly approved
natural areas protection law and upcoming forest law which is now being discussed at the upper house.
Key achievements from pilots
• Tanintharyi Pilot: Kamoethwe Kayin Community’s resource assessment research completed with key results highlighting the
functioning customary communal systems demonstrating potentialities for sustainable forest management.
• Mon Pilot: Phabaungtaung local communities start making decisions to safeguard the Phabaungtaung limestone caves from
limestone mining.
• Bago pilot: Decision to conduct a research on informal land tenure holders who depend their livelihoods on forest land and
resources from Bago forest estate. This implies addressing all informal land tenure issues with inclusion of the customary tenure
holders.

14. National Dialogue on Strengthening of Forest Tenure
Rights (11-5-2017 to 12-5-2017)

15. Second National on Workshop Strengthening Forest
Tenure Rights (22-5-2018 to 23-5-2018)

16. Key lessons to dates
• A warm, open, transparent and inclusive enabling environment maintained through a careful
facilitation at both regional and national level dialogue is essential to generate and maintain
confidence of real local communities to speak-out in a national level multi-stakeholder dialogue.
• There are “functioning community led/managed forest areas” in Myanmar like Kamoethwe which
need attention in the process of recognizing them as part of forest management system.
• There are certain recognitions of CT in current policy and legal framework in forestry sector.
However, there is a need to review them in order to increase the recognition and protection of CT.
• It is realized that this type of intervention requires longer term commitment from donors and
implementation partners in order to complete the whole process to recognize and protect
customary tenure in forestry sector, particularly forest policy and legal framework, and to ensure
effective implementation of the policies & laws. Two years project is not enough since a series of
multi-stakeholder dialogue is required to increase learning and transformation of key actors in
forestry sector towards CT recognition and protection.

17. Thank you for your kind attention!!!!!