Land Administration system in Myanmar San san htay Range officer, forest department Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation 12.6.2017

Responsibilities of various government agencies concerning with land administration

No Ministries/Department Responsibilities 4 MOALI, Department of Fishery Fishery, fishery water, aquaculture area, fresh water fishery areas 5 Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC), Forest Department, Forestry Sector: Forest Reserved Forest, Protected Public Forest Areas, Protected Area Systems and and Botanical Gardens 6 MONREC, Mining Sector Protected Mine Land, Gem Stone Land and other mineral resources 7 Ministry of Construction (MOC) Residential Urban Land under Housing Department Primary roads as per Main Road Law Human settle areas

No Ministries/Department Responsibilities 8 Ministry of Transportation and Communication Railroad areas, Riverine area, bank area, and strand area 9 Ministry of Energy and electricity Oil field areas 10 City Development Committee-CDC of Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw city development council Land under the management of the CDCs, land of Private owned, Grants, Lease, Permits and land disposable by state, land and assets held by various government departments, revenue free land and religious land areas within the City Development area. 11 Ministry of Culture Cultural Heritage Zones and Protected Heritage Zone

Background of Land Management in Myanmar About 19% of land is used for agriculture, a quarter of which is irrigated (WDI, 2012). Around 42% of its land area is covered by the remaining forests as logging has caused widespread deforestation over the last 20 years (FRA 2015). About 70 percent of the population resides in rural areas. The Agriculture sector, including the livestock and fisheries subsectors, employs 61.2% of the total labour force and earns 20% of total exports (Myint. T, 2011, May. Z. P, 2015). Myanmar’s current land administration is characterized by overlapping laws and weak land classification. There is also lack of clarity in land administration system especially in the demarcation of powers and responsibilities among various government agencies (Myint. T, 2011, FSWG and LCG, 2012, May. Z. P, 2015, MCRB 2015).

As land-administration agencies are fragmented, there is lack of clear judicial authority and sectoral approaches to land management and administration. The timelines and accruate of spatial data, espeically land use spatial data are still very limited. As a result, land related data/information is inconsistent, obsolete, incomplete, or inadequate with little to no expenditure on updating systems. Insufficient coordination between agencies has resulted in conflicting and inefficient land use. Different government authorities/organisations have the mandate to regulate different types of land. It is also unclear what the current land classification system

Forestry Sector Reserve Forests Protected Public Forests Protected Areas Myanmar is well endowed with forests and other natural resources. Forests cover about 42% of the total land area. Forest exploitation is controlled by law, but the government allows rural communities to use various forest products (except protected plants and animal species).

Forest policy and Laws Forest Policy (1995) Forest Law (1992) Forest Rule(1995) Protection of Wildlife and Wild Plants and Conservation of Natural Areas Law (1994) Protection of Wildlife and Protected Areas Rule (2002) National Environmental Policy (2012) National Forest Comprehensive Plan ( from 2001-2012 to 2030-2031) Forestry Sector Comprehensive Development Plan (2011-2012 to 2030-2031) National Forestry Master Plan(NFMP) (2001-2002 to 2030-2031) District Level Forest Management Plan

OneMap Myanmar Project OneMap concept started together with National Land Use Policy Formulation Process in 2013. Background Information A significant absence of shared land information in terms of standards, quality, compatibility, accessibility and usability especially for non- technical users and citizens. Resolving these problems is increasingly urgent due to growing grievances and development initiatives . A Platform to unify and present all government-held, land-related spatial data for use by government and the public. Firstly officially introduced in August 2014 A Series of Consultation with Multi-stakeholders to start implementation

Why is OneMap so important for the management of land and natural resources? Myanmar is facing very critical issues related to land Managing land and natural resources is complex. Transparent access to good information and data is critical for decision makers and citizens But access to key data is still very limited because of different reasons. For example, some data : Do not exist yet Are outdated Are inaccessible Are inaccurate Are still in paper format, etc. OneMap project helps to develop a central online database, where all data relevant to land, are accessible to users (government and citizens). Myat su mon

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