1) The document discusses social forestry issues in Myanmar, including the large area of forest cover and populations that depend on forests for subsistence through practices like shifting cultivation. 2) It notes challenges like poverty and lack of alternative livelihoods that contribute to shifting cultivation, and efforts by the government to promote alternatives like agroforestry and community forestry. 3) The document analyzes land tenure policies and changes being made to provide more secure land rights and management opportunities to forest communities through practices like long-term land leases.

1. A Brief Overview on Social
Forestry Issues of Myanmar
The Sixth Conference of the ASEAN Social Forestry Network

2. Introduction
 The estimated forest cover of Myanmar is 52 million ha
 32 million ha is covered with closed and degraded
forests
 About 2 million families earn their living by shifting
cultivation affecting 20 million ha (FD, 2014)
 These lands are vulnerable and in the absence of
rehabilitation
 Myanmar acknowledge interdependency of forest and
people and planning to implement social forestry
programs to substitute shifting cultivation
 The question is whether the imposition is appropriate
and acceptable to forest dwellers

3.  Poverty rate of Myanmar must be reduced to 16%
 76% of Myanmar’s total population lived in the rural
area and are mostly poor
 Food insecurity exists in socio-economically least
developing areas of the country
 Most of them depend on forest for their livelihood
 Thus, social forestry becomes a very promising
strategy in rural areas
 The framework needs to ensure sustainable
livelihood of forest dwellers and environmental
protection
Problem Statement

4. Purpose
• To provide a framework for discussion and further
research for the promotion and development of
social forestry on a large scale
• To inform managers and policymakers in their
dealings with various stakeholders

5.  The existence of shifting cultivation in Myanmar is a
compound effect of the following causes:
 Ethnic groups and local people have traditionally rely
on shifting cultivation as subsistence agricultural
practice
 Topographic condition does not allow enough land
resource to develop permanent cultivation
 Little or no alternative opportunity to substitute
shifting cultivation with more promising land use
system
 Due to population growth and poverty, there is no
option expect shifting cultivation which needs very
little investment
Shifting Cultivation: Causes

6.  FD is implementing integrated land use practices as a
development solution to eradicate shifting cultivation:
 Initiating agroforestry by growing long term crops
together at the cultivation phase
 Developing CF practices
 Facilitating development of contour bund plantations
 Encouraging to participate in establishing forest
plantations
 Mix-planting of trees and long term agricultural crops
 Measures to develop possible income generation
opportunities
 Encouraging to manufacture and utilize green manure
 Extension about the adverse impacts of shifting
cultivation
Shifting Cultivation: Alternatives

7.  No simple solution to the problem because there is no
clearly defined National Land Use Policy
 Different Ministries enact different policies and laws with
little or no collaboration
 Up to the 2012, the MOECAF did not formally recognize
settlements and all kinds of cultivation inside the RFs
 Ministry of Home Affairs might formally recognize some
and informally recognize others
 Ministry of Agriculture may formally recognize the
cultivation areas inside the RFs
 Thus, allocation of access to land and land related
opportunities are very diverse and complicated
Land Tenure

8.  Government of the Union of Myanmar is developing Draft
National Land Use Policy to deliver sensible land
management and good governance
 It includes commitment to formal reorganization of local
customary law and legitimate customary land use
 It is part of strategy to promote poverty eradication, social
justice and equity, aiming at sustainable development
 Thus tries to address land use rights, tenure governance
and security, gender issues, land conflict resolution,
environmental protection and conservation, law
harmonization, etc.
Changes in Land Use Policy

9.  In 2013, FD made an inventory regarding forest dwellers
 From that data, it categorized two different groups
 Total villages with more than 50 households is 1604 which
occupies land use of 330,984 ha
 5,141 villages with less than 50 households occupies
407,152 ha
 Systematic relocation of less than 50 villages with buffer
zones
 FD will totally abrogate the areas of village area, religious
and communal area and paddy fields
 Permit long term land leases for horticultural and long
term agricultural crop lands
 Concerning to farm lands, FD will follow CFIs and establish
agroforestry based community forests
Changes in Land Use Practices

10.  Livelihood of forest dwellers will be more secured
 Land resources will also be best managed and protected
 The decentralization of land use and land tenure will
become significant key to achieving the general aim of
sustainable development
 Official recognition of long term land lease consolidate
scattered and resource depleting form of land use
 Equitable policies of land reform will be a promising
strategy to reduce poverty
 Participation of women will be improved
 Networks between community forestry user groups are
planning to establish up to national level
Management Opportunities

11.  Development intervention is too fast giving little time for
the forest dwellers to understand and accept the reasons
behind changes
 Imposing development solutions on forest dwellers has
the danger of resulting in inappropriate or unacceptable
to the community
 It is a big challenge to train all forest dwellers
 Unintentionally encourage more encroachments inside RF
 Unequal relationship always exists between the oppressed
and the oppressor groups
 FD might face constraints in getting concrete data
representing the contribution and linkages of integrated
land use changes with sustainable development and good
governance
Possible Management Constraints

12. Governance of Community Forests
• World Bank argues that poverty reduction depends on
improvements in institutions and policies
• Good governance contributes achieving the goal of
poverty eradication and dominates today’s development
agenda
• A research is made to explore relationship between three
pillars of good governance (PROFOR) and success of CF
• 11 relevant components from three pillars which
represent fundamentals of forest governance were used
as key variables

13. • Model Summary of components e
a. Predictors: (Constant), Component 3.2
b. Predictors: (Constant), Component 3.2, Component 3.1
c. Predictors: (Constant), Component 3.2, Component 3.1, Component 3.3
d. Predictors: (Constant), Component 3.2, Component 3.1, Component 3.3,
Component 1.4
e. Dependent variable: Success of CF
Model R R Square Adjusted R
Square
Std. Error of
the Estimate
1 .501a .251 .245 .435
2 .615b .378 .368 .398
3 .670 c .449 .436 .376
4 .722d .521 .506 .352
Findings

14. Up-scaling Community Forestry
• Myanmar Forest Policy 1995 acknowledge interdependency of
forest and people
• It has been 20 years since Myanmar practice CF
• The aim was to fulfill local communities’ subsistence needs,
and unsurprisingly leads to the lack of incentives
• To provide economic development and forest protection
impacts in rural areas, a change is urgently needed
• World Bank (2013) reveals a shift in forest sector by putting
poverty alleviation and sustainable economic development on
equal footing with conservation
• Commercialization may lead to successful integration of forest
trees and agricultural crops to meet multiple demands of
most disadvantaged groups

15. Conceptual Framework
Communicate and Share knowledge
Fair
Investment
Capacity
Development
Enterprise-
oriented
CommercializationLocally
Controlled
Forestry
Network
Market Opportunities/
Constraints
Enabling
Conditions
Policy
Recommendation
Successful
Commercialization
Government
Private
Sector
CSO
Secure
Commercial
Forest
Right
CFUGs
Basic Needs
Surplus

16. Preliminary Findings
• It did not show obvious contribution of CF to community
livelihoods
• Inequitable opportunity for different CFUGs (Accessibility,
knowing how to explain, etc. are main criteria)
• Location-specific commercial opportunities have been found
in communal forests
• Potential for Bamboo in Southern Shan State and Magwe
Division, Thanakha (Hesperethusa crenulata) and Zi (Ziziphus
jujuba) in Magwe Division
• Growing demand for semi-finished and finished products of
these species provide new opportunities
• Wa-u and Gyin are the most economically feasible crops in the
face of climate change

17. Conclusion
• Review strategy options for future CF initiatives to be
developed and improved, and CFUGs become viable
• To ensure development over the long term, initiatives
should ensure equal participation and mutual
understanding
• Forest policy regarding CF should concordance with
broader development policies
• FD has to facilitate local institutional building
• Forest dwellers should be supported to share
experiences and learn by themselves
• This will increase the capacity of the people and leads to
perceptional changes