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 nontechnical 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).
Thank you for your kind
attention!!!!!