Myanmar: Why a Land Law Change Is Sparking Fears of Mass Evictions

Nov 19, 2018 | Ben Dunant, Frontier Myanmar
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Government paperwork would have you believe that a third of Myanmar’s landmass, totalling almost 50 million acres, is “vacant”, “virgin” or “fallow”. This is ostensibly idle land and its potential for generating food and revenue for the country is being wasted. As foreign investment declines and the domestic economy slows, unproductive land is a luxury that Myanmar seemingly cannot afford. However, the maps and land registers that sit in the dusty local offices of the Department of Agricultural Lands Management and Statistics are radically at odds with the facts on the ground.