The study was conducted in collaboration with local communities in examining whether Myanmar Auto Corporation Company(MAC) oil palm project has compiled with existing Myanmar laws, investigating the impacts of oil palm projects on environment and local communities as the ethnic minority groups who originally owned the land have claimed their losses. The study aims to investigate MAC’s intentions to gain additional financial benefits from the land allocation other than just oil palm production, to examine whether MAC has compiled with the conditions of their permit, Myanmar Government regulations, environmental legislation, and international human rights obligations, i.e. respect, protect and fulfil human rights, to resolve conflicts between MAC and local communities by documenting the impact of land confiscation to local communities to enable in supporting them to receive compensation for the loss of sustainable livelihoods and ancestral lands in accordance with their desire and other suitable rights.

Interviews with local people were done and the field conservation were also undertaken. The mixed methods including the individual interviews, focus group workshops, participatory tools, remote sensing technology and ground truth survey were used for this study. Though MAC has been granted a total of 133,600 acres including local community traditionally owned home gardens, taungya and lands that have been cleared for cultivation, the company has established about 3%(3315 acres) of total permitted lands. It can be clearly seen that a total of 13000 acres of forest has been destroyed after implementation of MAC oil palm plantation project in the area. According to local communities, a total of 16,000 acres of forests have been cleared, and so far about 13,000 tons of timbers have been extracted.

According to the international research findings, nonetheless, about a million tons of timbers can be harvested from lowland rain forests. It was found that MAC has extracted large amounts of timbers considerably more than the volume that has been previously estimated by local residents. Based on the results of interview with the company employees and the timber extraction workers and local communities’ experiences, it can be concluded that extracted timbers have been exported to international markets in collaboration with Yadanar Moe Pyae Tun Coltd and they advertised on Alibaba internet web page to export illegal timbers. This indicated the intention of MAC investment to earn benefits from logging other than oil palm planation in Myanmar.

MAC may have violated the existing Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Law and Rules (2012); environmental conservation law (2012) and related rules and regulations in land confiscation and implementation of the projects.MAC project activities did not meet neither the international standards nor country’s minimum standards to be followed by the investment companies. In addition, MAC may have violated the existing laws by means of not informing and organizing consultation meeting with local ethnic minorities , who are the original land owners, about project activities, confiscating the lands without compensation, not proclaiming the information concerning security fees to receive a permit and land revenue, not effectively implementing planned activities in accordance with the work plan, and not submitting environmental impact assessment(EIA) report.

MAC has failed to comply with the principles of free, prior and informed consent(FPIC) recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(UNDRIP).Regarding the land use changes, about 12% of forest area has been cleared as closed forest covered 54% of the area at the beginning and so far closed forest area has been reduced to 42%.Up to early 2018, a total of 16,000 acres of the forest areas has been decreased due to the timber extraction and establishment of oil palm plantation. As 64% of forest areas (11,393 acres out of 16,000 acres) has degraded into fallow land area, it can be concluded that these 11,393 acres were not solely cut for growing palm oil, but mainly for timber extraction. Major land use change occurred in the eastern part of the project area. As a consequence, the livelihoods of the local communities were affected as well as the species of medicinal plants and vegetables have been destroyed and wild animals have been disappeared.

Behind the Oilpalm (Myanmar)