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Panel presentation :
Southeast Asian upland economies and societies have rapidly transformed over the past twenty years. These changes have been characterized by the increasing commercialization of agricultural production and cyclical booms in cash crops, large-scale land acquisitions and in-migration. These dynamics have been accompanied, and in some cases are being driven by, the development of State-based regulations and an extension of the power of government institutions.
This panel discusses State interventions, laws and policies as well as administrative practices, as key elements of agrarian development processes. These interventions include; the regulation of traditional land use, the creation of new forms of land tenure and rules governing access to land and productive resources, and the development of infrastructure and policies to promote trade, foreign investment and in-migration.
Based on case studies from Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, the presentations in this panel analyze the ways in which governments at various levels have attempted to redistribute productive resources, the tensions and conflicts these interventions create or exacerbate with regard to access to and use of land, along with the compliance or resistance they are facing from communities and local élites. The panel examines the extent to which policies and laws have achieved their stated development objectives and looks at the differential impact of these interventions on local communities in various contexts. The coherence of State-led interventions related to agriculture, land use planning, natural resource management, trade and investment with other, broader human development frameworks is also discussed.
