INTRODUCTION

Seventy-five per cent of Burma's 54 million people live in rural areas. The country's economic structure depends on agriculture and farm-related activities that provide livelihoods to more than 65 per cent of the population. While most rural households are engaged in farming as operators or labourers, and agriculture accounts for over half of the country's gross domestic product, only about one-fifth of rural households currently run viable farms of at least five acres (Dapice 2009, p. 11). Despite Burma's highly fertile agricultural land, some 32 per cent of the population are deprived of adequate food, nutrition and essential non-food items, with poverty levels particularly higher in rural areas (UN Human Development Initiative 2009).

Farmers with no clear rights of land ownership face severe survival pressures in Burma. An estimated one-half to two-thirds of rural households are landless farmers or farm labourers. Farmers’ survival is further threatened when their land is confiscated. The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has implemented large-scale, arbitrary land confiscations in order to relocate civilian populations deemed supportive of armed opposition groups; to establish military bases in disputed areas by constructing or supporting new army battalions; to create infrastructure development projects such as the proposed Salween River dams; to facilitate natural-resource extractions such as the offshore Arakan Shwe Gas project; and to privilege interest groups such as military and foreign investors with commercial opportunities, in mining, logging and agriculture. The United Nations General Assembly has reported the broad negative cultural, social, environmental, and economic consequences of these confiscations (2006, p. 14).