Previously, the forest reserve land in the Hti Lon and Kyone Pa Ko areas had been owned and farmed by local people before being seized by rubber plantation owners.

U Kyaw Soe Hlaing, a Forest Department officer from Hlaing Bwe Township in Karen State said: “U Zaw Min gave a directive to department officers to return the lands that are occupied by rubber plantation owners back to local farmers. He issued the directive after attending a tree planting event at Hti Lon and Kyone Pa Ko forest reserve areas on 5th September.”
As a first step in the process of returning the land to the local farmers, the minister held a meeting with 30 farmers and forest department officials at Kyone Pa Ko village administrative department office on 16th October. The purpose of the meeting was to conduct a field survey and to make sure accurate land measurements were taken.

Saw Aung Thein, a farmers’ leader who attended the meeting said: “The farmers really appreciate the Chief Minister for giving this directive. However, farmers still have to wait and see when their lands will be returned. The farmers were told lands measurement would be carried out as a first step. Then the implementation process will be carried out step-by-step.”

Farmers produced documentary evidence that a businessman, U Myint Oo, had seized more than 700 acres of land from them and refused to acknowledge that they any rights to the land. This was confirmed by Forestry Department Officials.

U Myint Oo confirmed to Karen News that the Chief Minister had ordered the return of the land. He said: "The State Chief Minister summoned us for a meeting to return the land to local farmers – I have the right to work on only 50 acres.”
The land in the Kyone Pa Ko and Hti Lone forest reserve areas belongs to local residents and has been occupied by them for generations. Businesses seized the land for rubber plantations in 2010, which led to strained relations with locals.