1. Interactive Governance of Land and Water:
A Policy Reform Agenda for 21st Century Challenges in Southeast Asia
Shivakumar S,
Malcolm Childress,
SiuSue Mark
March 2017
Presented at the Land and Poverty Conference, World Bank

2. Overview Land-Water Interface Impact of Colonial Regimes
Land-Water Governance Issues (Post-Colonial Era)
Is Access to Water Sources a Right?
Can Water Entitlements Be Respected through a Permit System?
Impact of Poor Land-Water Governance on Farming Communities
Land Grab vs. Water Grab;
Loss of Access for Riverbed Farming & Fishing Areas;
Sand Mining, Dams, + Water Diversion
Modernization of Agriculture (include/exclude customary rights)
Emergence of Governance and Nexus Frameworks
Nexus Thinking
Conclusions
Moving Forward

3. Land-Water Interface ASEAN features: Total population 625 million
IP/EM persons million
Living along coasts/rivers/lake million
Aquatic and rice-fish cultures dominate
Small-scale farming and fisheries imply land and water dependence

4. Land-Water Interface ASEAN features (Con’t):
Customary rights exist both in land and water – served as basis for livelihoods.
Land tenure/use influence water availability and quality (and vice versa).
Secure and adequate access to water vital for agricultural productivity, forestry, and fisheries.

5. Land-Water Interface: Current Challenges in Mekong Region
Resilience of traditional land-water systems are threatened by new actors (e.g., large-scale agriculture, aquaculture, hydropower, urban take-offs) and natural disasters caused by climate change (tsunami, floods, etc.)
Result: Growing competition for fertile land and freshwater resources.
Dwindling groundwater resources, deteriorating river basins, and a plateau in productivity levels.

6. Land-Water Interface AGGRAVATING FACTORS
Conversion of food crop land for non-agricultural uses
Expanding agro-fuel needs
Climate change
Land degradation (at a rate of around 20% in the past 25 years)
Increasing disputes/conflicts over land and water
Competition for trans-border water resources

7. Impact of Colonial Regimes
Colonial views:
Land = productive resource; and
Rivers = engineering challenge
Land-based economies created through taxation and separation of land from water resources
Embankments and dikes needed to fix the course of water and render land more permanent
Myanmar and Cambodia are a good example of this. British regime was more intereste in collecting taxes … .. And Khmer Rouge changed course of water flow.

8. Land-Water Governance Issues (Post-Colonial Era)
Access to and use of water as part of regional geo-politics (e.g., construction of dams leaving downstream communities in distress)
Need for protection & recognition of customary practices, rights to land & water.
Land and water policies are independently governed (less integration of food security and energy concerns)

9. Is Access to Water Resources a Right?
Water is a UN recognized socio-economic right (2003) and human right (2010) but efforts to enhance water rights-based approaches are piecemeal
Is Access to Water Resources a Right?
Secure land tenure essential to gain access to water!
Rights to water linked to food security and respect for poor/disadvantaged groups
Water use regulated through permits, land tenure conferred

10. Respecting customary access and water entitlements through a permit system?
Administrative permits are often unfair to poor and marginalized sections
A land-water interface challenges the permit system and respects customary practices
Government’s regulatory role should serve as leverage, protecting core minimum water entitlements

11. Impact of Poor Land-Water Governance on Farming Communities and Livelihoods
Land Grab results in Water Grab too!
Large-scale land allocations not only ignore customary land tenure BUT ignores customary water rights.
Is water a right, a commodity to be purchased, or a public good?
Issues to consider:
Tenure security and impact on access to water resources.
Are current governance systems able to promote sustainable and equitable large-scale agricultural investments in land-water?
Does introduction of new water regimes (particularly during periods of scarcity) further alienates land rights?
In every country we examin ed – we found that neglect of customary tenure IMPACTs on access to water. This was the case in Laos, Cambodia and even Thailand.

12. Reclaiming land for productive purposes requires water
Better land and water management – based on customary practices - needed to reverse land losses, land degradation and increase productivity.
Small-scale land and water management methods can restore productivity in barren and degraded land and improve groundwater recharge

13. Impact of Poor Land-Water Governance on Farming and Livelihoods
Examples as to how communities suffer
Riverbed farming
Rural development programs create disconnected land-water management systems and discourage seasonal farm methods.
Local governments favor investors.
Fishing communities
Loss of access to fishing areas (and inland fish lots).
Extensive changes in course of rivers, erosion of river banks
Mangrove ecosystems threatened.

14. Impact of Poor Land-Water Governance on Farming Communities and Livelihoods (cont’d)
Sand Mining, Dams, and Water Diversion
Large-scale land conversion causes frequent drought-flood cycles or declining productivity
Hydropower projects implemented before environmental and social impacts fully assessed
Uncoordinated development and poor basin management pose major risks to local communities and investors

15. Irrigation reservoirs offer improved land, water
management opportunities BUT neglect of customary
tenure and mismanagement can reduce productivity
and cause conflicts between users and government
agencies
(e.g. Kyauktaw, Rakhine State in Myanmar)
Flooding of villages
Damage to property & livelihoods
No fishing permitted in reservoir
Lost production potential
Water not released on time for farmers
Lost production potential

16. Emergence of Governance and Nexus Frameworks
The Nexus Thinking
Conceived by World Economic Forum in 2011 to promote better use of resources to ensure basic rights to food, water, and energy security
Involves integrating water security with agriculture, energy and climate concerns
Would help better transition societies towards greener economies and sustainable development

17. Emergence of Governance and Nexus Frameworks
Land and water rights in the context of modernizing agriculture
Promotion of agribusiness: resources better utilized by attracting capital and increasing agricultural productivity
Family farming and community water management: backbone of rural livelihoods; dynamic, responsive to change and able to meet rural needs
Landscape approaches and integration of agriculture and forestry: effective land management for optimized use of natural resources

18. vs. vs. vs. vs. Land-Water: Development Debates Subsistence rights
Food markets
vs.
Subsistence rights
Water rights
Water markets
vs.
Fossil fuels
vs.
Renewable energy
Carbon markets
vs.
Climate justice

19. Conclusions
Methods for developing and using river-basin land must be prioritized by national and regional governance bodies
The profile of land and land-tenure issues in river basin management must be raised.
Water-development strategies must take into account land tenure and use plans

20. Moving Forward Ideas for constructive change
Reforms to stem uncertainty in land-water arena
Single system for land and water resource management (instead of administrative bodies working in silos)
Integrated, coherent approach to integrate customary land and water claims within formal systems
Multi-faceted approach to tackling governance challenges, based on understanding of relationships and processes in local, national, and regional arenas, and rights/use issues
Systemic, adaptive processes to protect and recognize land-water interface within a long-term national development program that sustains environmental services and resources

21. Thank you! 