State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries Forty Years after the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) Founded in 1979, the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) is a regional association of national and regional networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Asia actively engaged in promoting food sovereignty, land rights and agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture, participatory governance, and rural development. ANGOC member networks and partners work in 10 Asian countries together with 3,000 CSOs and community-based organizations (CBOs). ANGOC actively engages in joint field programs and policy discussions with national governments, intergovernmental organizations (IGOs), and international financial institutions (IFIs). The complexity of Asian realities and diversity of CSOs highlight the need for a development leadership to service the poor of Asia—providing a forum for articulation of their needs and aspirations as well as expression of Asian values and perspectives. ANGOC is a member of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN), Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), Indigenous Peoples’ and Community Conserved Areas and Territories (ICCA) Consortium and the International Land Coalition (ILC). Land Watch Asia (LWA) is a regional campaign to ensure that access to land, agrarian reform and sustainable development for the rural poor are addressed in national and regional development agenda. The campaign involves civil society organizations in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines. LWA aims to take stock of significant changes in the policy and legal environments; undertake strategic national and regional advocacy activities on access to land; jointly develop approaches and tools; and, encourage the sharing of experiences on coalition-building and actions on land rights issues. ANGOC is the regional convenor of LWA. ANGOC can be reached at: 33 Mapagsangguni Street Sikatuna Village, Diliman 1101 Quezon City, Philippines P.O. Box 3107, QCCPO 1101, Quezon City, Philippines Tel: +63-2 351 0581 Fax: +63-2 351 0011 Email: [email protected] Website: www.angoc.org Facebook: www.facebook.com/AsianNGOCoalition State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries Forty Years after the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries: Forty Years after the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Edited by : Antonio Quizon and Nathaniel Don Marquez Production team : Nathaniel Don Marquez, Denise Hyacinth Joy Musni, Marianne Jane Naungayan, Timothy Salomon, Joseph Onesa, Lennie Rose Cahusay Layout and design : Gerard Jerome Dumlao Cover Artwork : Christine Mae B. Santos ISBN: 978-971-8632-54-3 Citation: Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) and Land Watch Asia (LWA). 2019. State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries: Forty Years after the World Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. Quezon City: ANGOC. This knowledge product is published by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) with support from the International Land Coalition (ILC). This publication is part of the project, “Sustainable, Reliable and Transparent Data and Information towards Responsible Land Governance,” and is generously supported by ILC’s Strategic Partners and Donors. The views presented in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Land Coalition (ILC), its strategic partners, and donors. Commitment Based Initiatives (CBIs) are multi-country initiatives that bring together members of the ILC to develop partnerships and common strategies on one or more of ILC’s 10 commitments to people-centred land governance. State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries Contents Foreword 6 Land Watch Asia Land Monitoring Working Group 9 Regional Summary: Land Governance and Tenure Rights in Eight Asian Countries 12 Empowering the poor and marginalized through land reform: CSO Land Reform Monitoring Report in Bangladesh 2018 84 CSO land reform monitoring report in Cambodia 2018 105 Economic Growth at the Expense of Land Rights?: CSO Land Reform Monitoring Report in India 2018 123 Navigating the uneven policy terrain: CSO Land Reform Monitoring Report in Indonesia 2018 134 Monitoring of land resources and opportunities for improving agrarian reform in Kyrgyzstan: Land Watch Kyrgyzstan Monitoring Report 2018 158 Protecting the poor as modernity marches on: CSO Land Reform Monitoring Report in Nepal 2018 186 Breaking up the hold of the few to provide land for the many: Land Watch Pakistan Monitoring Report 2018 201 Governance of agricultural lands, ancestral domains, and aquatic resources in the Philippines: CSO Land Reform Monitoring Report in the Philippines 2018 222 Bangkok Declaration on WCARRD@40 254 Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) 5 Foreword In 2010, the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) and the Land Watch Asia (LWA) campaign initiated the Land Reform Monitoring Initiative to contribute to the process of building capacities of civil society organizations (CSOs) in undertaking monitoring of land tenure and access to land for evidence-based advocacy. Using the information generated and gathered, country and regional reports are used by LWA to initiate multi-stakeholder dialogues and thereby influence the land policy formulation and monitoring of implementation processes within countries – thus contributing to efforts towards ensuring tenurial security for smallholder producers in rural areas. For 2018, Land Monitoring Reports in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, Kyrgyz Republic, Nepal, Pakistan, and Philippines, were prepared to: l provide an overview of the current policy and legal environment on access to land and tenurial security for the rural poor; l describe the current status and emerging issues on access to land rights and land access affecting the rural poor; l describe and assess the transparency in land governance and public to land-related information; and, l identify strategic opportunities for advancing land rights for the rural poor. The particular focus of the 2018 country reports is to highlight the state of land governance and public access to land data in the eight Asian countries. It links with the Commitment-Based Initiative on “transparent and accessible information” – one of the ten thematic areas on People- Centred Land Governance (PCLG) of the International Land Coalition (ILC). The regional summary and abridged country land monitoring reports in this publication were discussed and finalized through eight (8) in-country consultations and two (2) regional workshops. We thank the ILC for providing support for such processes through the regional initiative “Sustainable, Reliable and Transparent Data and Information towards Responsible Land Governance” coordinated by ANGOC. This publication is the product of a collaborative effort among the authors of the country studies, and of the various organizations and individuals who provided data and contributed to the analysis of the reports in the country and regional dialogues. 6 State of Land Rights and Land Governance in Eight Asian Countries We acknowledge the writers and lead agencies for each of the country reports: l Bangladesh: Abul Barkat and Gazi Mohammad Suhrawardy of the Human Development Resource Centre (HDRC) and the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD); l Cambodia: Cham Soeun, Keo Bora, and Il Oeur of Analyzing Development Issues Centre (ADIC) and STAR Kampuchea; l Indonesia: Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA); l India: Barna Baibhab Panda of Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) and G.N. Reddy, Satyanarayana, M. Somasekhar, M. Kumar Raju, B. Madhavi, Arun Arasan, Vishnuvardhan, and Dileep of South Asia Rural Reconstruction Association (SARRA); l Kyrgyzstan: Sairagul Tazhibaeva and Elvira Maratova for the National Union of Water Users Association (NUWUA), Kyrgyz Association of Forest and Land Users (KAFLU), and Rural Development Fund (RDF); l Nepal: Jagat Basnet and Nisha Neupane of the Community Self Reliance Center (CSRC); l Pakistan: Society for Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE); and, l Philippines: Roel Ravanera of Xavier Science Foundation (XSF), Dave de Vera of Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), Marita Rodriquez of NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR), and Anthony Marzan and Maricel Almojuela-Tolentino of People’s Campaign for Agrarian Reform Network, Inc. (AR Now!), Timothy Salomon of Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC). ANGOC and LWA express our special gratitude to Antonio “Tony” Quizon for meticulously and substantially reviewing the papers, hemming them coherently for a regional summary, and for steering the overall editing of this regional report. We thank Marianna Bicchieri, Regional Land Tenure Officer of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (FAORAP) and Tam Hoang, Partners Advisor of the UN Human Settlements Programme Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (UN-Habitat ROAP), for providing feedback on the initial drafts of the papers. We express our appreciation