Midcourse Manoeuvres: An Overview of Community Strategies and Remedies for Natural Resource Conflicts in India, Indonesia, and Myanmar

In the 1990s, many Asian countries embraced economic liberalization and speculative business interests in land began to replace the state’s control of land for developmental purposes. The growing demand for land by corporations and private investors has fuelled several regional land rush waves in Asia, bringing them directly in conflict with communities that require these lands for their occupations and survival.

The Midcourse Manoeuvres report series shares the findings of a three-year study to scope the nature, extent, and effects of land use change in three postcolonial Asian countries: India, Indonesia, and Myanmar.

The overall objective of the study is to understand how communities secure land and natural resources that are intrinsic to their basic human survival and livelihoods and to what effect. For researchers, activists, and organizations engaged in supporting communities facing impacts caused by land use change, these reports provide a useful baseline of community-level strategies used and remedies extracted in the three countries.

The study analyses primary and secondary data on land use approvals for mining, hydropower, industrial estates and plantations over the last thirty years. The research also elaborates on the range of laws and institutions that are directly relevant to land and environmental conflicts in each of the three countries. This information can provide illustrative examples and strategic viewpoints for groups contemplating or seeking remedies for live conflicts on the ground.

The study’s findings have been organized into separate reports with detailed case studies for each of the countries (India, Indonesia, and Myanmar) along with an overview report of the study’s methodology and findings across all three countries.