Land consultations too short, CSOs warn

Land consultations too short, CSOs warn

By Sandar Lwin   |   Monday, 24 November 2014

Civil society groups have called on the government to give them more time to respond to a draft national land-use policy, saying that planned consultations due to end at the end of the month have been too rushed.

Farm workers planting in Aung Chan Thar village, Kayah State, on June 3, 2013. (Kaung Htet/The Myanmar Times)

They have urged the government to conduct wider public consultations before finalising the policy, which some have criticised as being too pro-business.

However, they have also described the consultations as an improvement on past practice, when agriculture-related policies and bills were introduced without any effort to gather public feedback.

The government-drafted policy was released in mid-October and consultations are taking place in all states and regions this month. Feedback from these meetings, as well as any public submissions received, will be considered when finalising the draft, according to officials involved in the process.

But civil society groups say the draft has not been widely circulated among stakeholders and the lack of time made it difficult to get feedback from all groups, particularly smallholder farmers, who will be most affected by the policy. While the policy is available on the ministry's website, internet penetration outside urban areas is extremely low.

"A period of just three or four weeks is too limited to consult with people in rural areas. It would be better to extend the period until at least the end of December," said U Shwe Thein, chair of the Land Core Group, a network of more than 50 local and international organisations pushing for land administration reform. "Only if that happens can we say that meaningful public consultations have taken place."

He warned that a failure to consult farmers could result in the policy exacerbating Myanmar's widespread land conflicts. "Many more disagreements and unfair cases could develop," he said.

U Win Myo Thu, director of EcoDev Myanmar, an environmental conservation and land rights group, said the 93-page policy was too long for all stakeholders to digest in six weeks.

"I planned to send my own analysis paper of the draft [to the government] but I have just browsed it and not read it thoroughly yet," he said. "I think more time is needed to finalise the policy."

A spokesperson for the Food Security Working Group (FSWG), a network of more than 80 local and international NGOs, agreed that the consultation period should be longer.

"It is too difficult for people to digest such a long policy and produce good ideas," a spokesperson said last week.

The policy was drafted by the Land Use Allocation and Scrutiny Committee (LUASC) led by U Win Tun, the minister for environmental conservation and forestry, under a process started in mid-2013.

A national workshop to finalise the draft will be held in the first week of December, after which the policy will be sent to cabinet for approval.

Committee member U Aye Maung Sein declined to comment on the civil society consultation request when contacted by The Myanmar Times last week.

U Shwe Thein said he believed this workshop should be pushed back to February, with feedback accepted until the end of the year and then analysed during January. He said it was also important that the consultations were not just for show and that all feedback was properly recorded and considered.

"In addition to public servants, outside experts, civil society representatives and ethnic leaders should be allowed to participate in the process of analysing feedback."

The policy will be used as the basis for a national land law to be submitted to parliament, most likely during 2015. A separate consultation process will be conducted for the law.

Other land-related laws, including the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law – both introduced in 2012 – will be amended to conform with the new legislation, according to the government.

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/land-consultations-too-short-csos-warn/