Chinese Investment into Tissue-Culture Banana Plantations in Kachin State, Myanmar
Authors: Daniel Hayward, U Ko Lwin, Yang Bin, and U Htet Kyu
Date: 30 November 2020
[summary]
In the last decade, Myanmar’s Kachin State has seen a boom in tissue-culture banana plantations driven by cross-border Chinese investors. This Case Study compiles field research and publicly available knowledge about the scale of the production and its economic, social and environmental consequences. The study provides a detailed snapshot of the investment model and key actors in Kachin State, the methods of land access, landscape outcomes, and experiences of plantation workers.
Land conversion to banana plantations has dramatically increased in recent years, covering an estimated 170,000 ha across Kachin State in 2019 according to civil society and local government sources. In the same year, official export figures to China reached almost 734,000 tons. The high potential return of banana over a short period of time explains the rapid expansion of the crop and the related rush to acquire land. For this purpose, Chinese investors have established intricate business networks, including links to the State government, military, and militia groups to access land. Banana plantations are commonly set up in places with contested land rights, including conflict areas and lands vacated by Internally Displaced People. Although a range of formal and informal fees are applied, it is likely that many exporters find ways to avoid official tax payments under the cover of the opaque investment environment in which they operate. In response to widening concerns and debate over the social, environmental, and land rights issues surrounding banana plantations, the Kachin State government has begun to draft legislation to manage more effectively banana plantation investments and negative outcomes. The report provides recommendations to better regulate the business in the short and medium term.
Read and download the full publication here!
Posted: 7th January 2021 by Coordinator
Land Use Policy (Vol. 99) | Land tenure security for women: A conceptual framework
In this recently published article (open access), Cheryl Doss and Ruth Meinzen-Dick have developed a conceptual framework to analyze women’s land tenure security. The article identifies the multiple dimensions of women’s tenure security and outlines the key factors that influence women’s tenure security across different contexts.
Abstract: While strengthening women’s land rights is increasingly on national and international agendas, there is little consensus on how to understand women’s tenure security. Analyses of women’s land rights often use very different definitions of land rights, from formal ownership to women’s management of plots allocated to them by their husbands. This paper identifies aspects of women’s tenure that should be included in indicators. It then provides a conceptual framework to identify the various dimensions of women’s land tenure security and the myriad factors that may influence it. To be able to compare women’s tenure security in different places, we need information on the context, the threats and opportunities facing tenure security, and the action arena that includes both the people who play a role in promoting or limiting women’s tenure security and the resources used in doing so.
Keywords: women’s land rights, legal pluralism, gender, property rights
Reference: Doss, C., & Meinzen-Dick, R. (2020). Land tenure security for women: A conceptual framework. Land Use Policy, 99, 105080
You can find the article here.
Last Updated: 7th January 2021 by Coordinator
Videos | Land Tenure Facility: Stories of Resilience 2020
Stories of Resilience 2020
The Land Tenure Facility annual learning exchange had to take place online, late 2020. The 2020 learning exchange focussed on community resilience and land rights progress across 13 Tenure Facility-supported projects in 12 different countries. A series of short videos by the Tenure Facility partners and projects have now been shared online, documenting the impacts of COVID-19 on indigenous and local communities, as well as their partners’ responses to the pandemic.
Watch the videos here!
Last Updated: 7th January 2021 by Coordinator
Blog Prindex | Five things to know about land property rights in East Asia and the Pacific
Five things to know about land property rights in East Asia and the Pacific
Blog post on the Land Portal website, by Ryan Flynn
In 2020 Prindex – the first ever global measure of land and property rights – released its full 140-country dataset. The results are sobering. Almost 1 billion people around the world feel it is likely or very likely that they will lose their land or home within the next five years. Here are five things Prindex data can tell us about land and property rights in the region:
Read more about these issues in the full blog post. Visit the Land Portal website here!
Posted: 11th December 2020 by Coordinator
HIC | 21st Issue of Land Times published
The Housing and Land Rights Network of Habitat International Coalition has published the 21st issue of Land Times. This issue of is rich in positions, perspectives, progress and proposals of civil society in the Middle East/North Africa and the wider world. At least two related themes run in parallel throughout: Land as a source and means of subsistence, and the spirit of resistance amid world’s crises against the consequent loss of land as a threat to human needs and, consequently, human rights related to habitat.
Read the issue here!
Last Updated: 11th December 2020 by Coordinator
IIED | Protecting Indigenous lands: lessons from Chile
In this article by IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development), the Chilean NGO Observatorio Ciudadano shares their story on how they are supporting Indigenous Peoples to combine Human Rights Impact Assessments with investment chain mapping to hold international mining companies accountable. The article shows how these two tools are complementary and help to explain which rights are being violated, which actors are involved, increasing the chance of making an impact.
Read more about the case study here. This case study is part of IIED’s work to assist communities to seek legal redress for land rights violation
Image top of page: The Colla are pastoralists who migrate with their livestock through the high Andean valleys (Photo: Gerardo Berrocal ADKIMVN/Observatorio Ciudadano, CC BY 4.0)
Posted: 11th December 2020 by Coordinator
IIED and CCSI | Technical support on land-based investments for governments and civil society in low- and middle-income countries
The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) are pleased to offer technical support on issues related to land-based investment. This new initiative covers multiple sectors including investments in agriculture, extractives, forestry, infrastructure and renewable projects.
Tailored support is available to governments, civil society organizations,and other relevant actors working at the regional, national and local levels. Activities may include:
• training, learning, and multi-stakeholder collaborations on particular opportunities, challenges or good practice;
• support on policy development and implementation, regulatory assessments, legislative drafting or institutional reform; and
• technical and advisory support on specific land-based investment projects.
Technical support is provided by IIED and CCSI, with complementary expertise from additional partners where beneficial.
Read the full call here!
Posted: 11th December 2020 by Coordinator
Delft University of Technology | Assistant and Associate Professor of Urban Studies
Deadline: 8 January 2021
The Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment has two NEW positions available:
Assistant Professor of Urban Studies (part time/full time) and an Associate Professor of Urban Studies (part time/full time)
The successful candidates will join the Urban Studies section at the department of Urbanism in the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. This section studies the interactions between people and their social and built environments, and the effects of urban design on their behaviour. In the context of growing spatial inequalities in urban regions, Urban Studies focusses on better understanding the patterns, causes and consequences, and remedies regarding these growing inequalities in an interdisciplinary and international setting. They investigate both the effects of spatial inequalities on the behaviour, well-being, and interactions of (individual) people, and how people influence the socio-spatial structures and the built environment around them.
These new academic posts are an exciting opportunity to co-develop and contribute to the teaching and research program in Urban Studies. The expected balance between teaching-research-management is 40%-40%-20%. The candidates are expected to set up independent research within the research programme of Urban Studies and to establish links with urban design and urban planning. The candidates are also expected to supervise PhD students, and publish research in high-impact peer reviewed journals. The successful candidates will actively seek to acquire funding (from national and European Research Councils, Horizon 2020, or comparable) for research projects and will lead and carry out collaborative projects with colleagues. The candidates will contribute to the faculty teaching programme (particularly courses in the Urbanism department), develop their own teaching materials, supervise students on all levels of university education, and acquire a University Teaching Qualification (if needed) within an agreed period.
For the overall balance in the section, we especially welcome applications from female academics and academics from minority groups.
Further job information and online application at:
https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/details/?jobId=1634&jobTitle=Assistant%20Professor%20in%20Urban%20Studies (Assistant Professor)
https://www.tudelft.nl/over-tu-delft/werken-bij-tu-delft/vacatures/details/?jobId=1631&jobTitle=Associate%20Professor%20in%20Urban%20Studies (Associate Professor)
Posted: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
Follow the Food Research Project Kenya | Inclusive Agribusiness Contribution to Local Food and Nutrition Security
Follow the Food Research Project Kenya | Inclusive Agribusiness Contribution to Local Food and Nutrition Security (Policy Brief)
Author: James Wangu (Utrecht University)
Date: March 2020
Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya grapples with the problem of food and nutrition insecurity. In light of these circumstances, several smallholders’ targeted inclusive business (IB) initiatives by the Kenyan government and development agencies have been implemented, and others are underway across the country.
The rationale behind inclusive agribusiness is that smallholders are unable to participate in and benefit from commercial value chains owing primarily to production means inadequacies and low productivity. Inclusive businesses promise to foster a win-win outcome for both smallholder and businesses. Despite the increased popularity among governments, donors and other development stakeholders, little is known about the impact of inclusive business on local communities. The studies in this brief highlight a discrepancy between the aim of the agribusiness and the local needs.
Inclusive agribusiness initiatives that aim to enhance smallholder food security through increased income should be accompanied by policies that targets the poor social services, particularly health, education and skills training, which tend to compete with food security. Moreover, land use and access to land resources such as irrigation are critical for smallholder food security. Business actors should ensure that where farmers are operating with small portions of farm plots, it is important that they are able to keep a proportion of their plots for own consumption next to the cash crop.
Read the policy brief here!
Last Updated: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
CCSI | Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture
Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture
Next Training: June 15-25, 2021
Location: Online
Deadline for application: March 31, 2021 (acceptance on rolling basis!)
Fee: USD $500, freely available to participants from Non-profit organizations and Government officials from low- and middle-income countries. Please check carefully on the website if you fall in one of these categories.
The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture provides an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities of agricultural investments. The program is designed to equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to address some of the key challenges posed by international investments in agriculture, and to encourage a rich dialogue about practices from around the globe.
Last Updated: 8th December 2020 by Coordinator
Mekong Region Land Governance Project – Chinese Investment into Tissue-Culture Banana Plantations in Kachin State, Myanmar
Chinese Investment into Tissue-Culture Banana Plantations in Kachin State, Myanmar
Authors: Daniel Hayward, U Ko Lwin, Yang Bin, and U Htet Kyu
Date: 30 November 2020
[summary]
In the last decade, Myanmar’s Kachin State has seen a boom in tissue-culture banana plantations driven by cross-border Chinese investors. This Case Study compiles field research and publicly available knowledge about the scale of the production and its economic, social and environmental consequences. The study provides a detailed snapshot of the investment model and key actors in Kachin State, the methods of land access, landscape outcomes, and experiences of plantation workers.
Land conversion to banana plantations has dramatically increased in recent years, covering an estimated 170,000 ha across Kachin State in 2019 according to civil society and local government sources. In the same year, official export figures to China reached almost 734,000 tons. The high potential return of banana over a short period of time explains the rapid expansion of the crop and the related rush to acquire land. For this purpose, Chinese investors have established intricate business networks, including links to the State government, military, and militia groups to access land. Banana plantations are commonly set up in places with contested land rights, including conflict areas and lands vacated by Internally Displaced People. Although a range of formal and informal fees are applied, it is likely that many exporters find ways to avoid official tax payments under the cover of the opaque investment environment in which they operate. In response to widening concerns and debate over the social, environmental, and land rights issues surrounding banana plantations, the Kachin State government has begun to draft legislation to manage more effectively banana plantation investments and negative outcomes. The report provides recommendations to better regulate the business in the short and medium term.