Environment (being reorganised and extended)
Much of the material in this section will be copied to the new sections in preparation on Atmosphere, Climate Change, Development, Forests, Land, Water, Wetlands....
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The global environment
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The impact of human activities on the global environment
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Violation of environmental and human rights
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Smash & Grab: Conflict, Corruption and Human Rights Abuses in the Shrimp Farming Industry |
| Date of publication: | | June 2003 |
| Description/subject: | | "...Shrimp farming has led to serious conflict over land rights and access to natural resources. Resulting social problems include increased poverty, landlessness, and reduced food security. In Ecuador, a single hectare of mangrove forest has been shown to provide food and livelihood for ten families, while a prawn farm of 110 hectares employs just six people during preparation and a further five during harvest. Globally, tens of thousands of rural poor in developing countries have been displaced following the impact of shrimp farming on traditional livelihoods. For instance, 20 thousand fisher-folk in Sri Lanka's Puttalam District migrated following declines of fish catches following the advent of shrimp farming.
Wealth generated by exporting farmed shrimp rarely trickles down to the communities affected by the industry. Corruption, poor governance and greed have resulted in powerful individuals making vast sums of money from shrimp farming with little regard for the basic human rights of the poor communities living in shrimp farming areas. "It is another example of resource-use conflict in which the poor and vulnerable are suppressed by a powerful elite intent on making quick profits, whilst turning a blind eye to the abuses that result" said Dr Mike Shanahan of EJF..."
Examples from Burma |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Environmental Justice Foundation |
| Format/size: | | pdf (2399K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 23 June 2003 |
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The environment of Burma/Myanmar
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Environmentalists of Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Japan Expo honour for veteran environmentalist |
| Date of publication: | | 03 October 2004 |
| Description/subject: | | "A VETERAN environmentalist, U Ohn, has been named as one of 100 Earth-Loving Persons’ whose activities will be featured during the World Exposition next year in Japan.
U Ohn, 77, told Myanmar Times last week he had been chosen for his involvement in reforestation projects at Mt Popa in central Myanmar and in the mangrove forests of the Ayeyarwaddy Delta.
U Ohn undertook the projects as general secretary of the Forest Resource Environmental Development and Conservation Association, Myanmar’s first non-government environmental organisation, which he helped to found in 1966. |
| Author/creator: | | Ba Saing |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Myanmar Times |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 09 October 2004 |
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Description of the environment of Burma/Myanmar
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Forests
See the separate section on Forests
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Land
For land confiscation and land degradation, see also the separate section on Land, several sections on land confiscation under Human Rights and Land Alienation under Agriculture
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The ecoregions of Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Chin Hills-Arakan Yoma montane forests (IM0109) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 11,500 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact..... "The Chin Hills-Arakan Yoma Montane Rain Forests [IM0109] are globally outstanding for bird richness, partly because they acted as a refugia during recent glaciation events. This ecoregion still harbors many taxa characteristic of the Palearctic realm and a diverse assemblage of subtropical species distributed across its elevational gradients. Much of the southern Chin Hills remains biologically unexplored.
Location and General Description:
This ecoregion represents the montane moist forests along the length of the Chin Hills and Arakan Yomas mountain ranges along the west coast of Myanmar. The Koeppen climate zone classifies this ecoregion in the tropical wet climate zone (National Geographic Society 1999)..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Eastern Himalayan alpine shrub and meadows (PA1003) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Montane Grasslands and Shrublands...
Size: 46,800 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact.....
"The Eastern Himalayan Alpine Shrub and Meadows [PA1003] represent the alpine scrub and meadow habitat along the Inner Himalayas to the east of the Kali Gandaki River in central Nepal. Within it are the tallest mountains in the world-Everest, Makalu, Dhaulagiri, and Jomalhari-which tower far above the Gangetic Plains. The alpine scrub and meadows in the eastern Himalayas are nested between the treeline at 4,000 m and the snowline at about 5,500 m and extend from the deep Kali Gandaki gorge through Bhutan and India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, to northern Myanmar.
The Eastern Himalayan Alpine Shrub and Meadows [PA1003] ecoregion supports one of the world's richest alpine floral displays that becomes vividly apparent during the spring and summer when the meadows explode into a riot of color from the contrasting blue, purple, yellow, pink, and red flowers of alpine herbs. Rhododendrons characterize the alpine scrub habitat closer to treeline. The tall, bright-yellow flower stalk of the noble rhubarb, Rheum nobile (Polygonaceae), stands above all the low herbs and shrubs like a beacon, visible from across the valleys of the high Himalayan slopes.
The plant richness in this ecoregion sitting at the top of the world is estimated at more than 7,000 species, a number that is three times what is estimated for the other alpine meadows in the Himalayas. In fact, from among the Indo-Pacific ecoregions, only the famous rain forests of Borneo are estimated to have a richer flora. Within the species-rich landscape are hotspots of endemism, created by the varied topography, which results in very localized climatic variations and high rainfall, enhancing the ability of specialized plant communities to evolve. Therefore, the ecoregion boasts the record for a plant growing at the highest elevation in the world: Arenaria bryophylla, a small, dense, tufted cushion-forming plant with small, stalkless flowers, was recorded at an astonishing 6,180 m by A. F. R. Wollaston (Wollaston 1921, in Polunin and Stainton 1997)..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Irrawaddy moist deciduous forests (IM0117) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 53,400 square miles...
Conservation Status: Vulnerable.....
Introduction:
"Like many of the region's lowland forests, the Irrawaddy Moist Deciduous Forests [IM0117] ecoregion has been intensively cultivated and its forests converted over hundreds of years. As a consequence, most of the region's biodiversity has been extirpated, and because of political forces over the past few decades very little current information on the biodiversity status of this ecoregion is known.
Description
Location and General Description
This ecoregion is located within the Irrawaddy River Basin, the catchments of Bago Yoma, and the foothills of Rakhine Yoma. The soils belong to the Irrawaddian series, which consists of the fluvial sands with terrestrial and aquatic vertebrate fossils. Silicified wood fossils are found among ferruginous, calcareous, and siliceous concretions, with quartz pebbles. The Irrawaddian rocks are distinct from other Tertiary rock groups. Their occurrence reaches up to the Kachin State in the north and in Chindwin districts in Sagaing division. The southern distribution is down to Rangoon..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Kayah-Karen montane rain forests (IM0119) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 46,100 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact.....
Introduction:
"The Kayah-Karen Montane Rain Forests [IM0119] ecoregion harbors globally outstanding levels of species richness. Among the ecoregions of Indochina, it ranks second for bird species richness and fourth for mammal species richness. The world's smallest mammal, Kitti's hog-nosed bat (Craseonycteris thonglongyai), equal in mass to a large bumblebee, resides in the limestone caves of this ecoregion. Because the ecoregion remains unexplored scientifically, especially the parts that lie in Myanmar, it probably will yield more biological surprises.
Description
Location and General Description
This ecoregion includes the northern part of the Tenasserim Mountain Range, which forms the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Much of the region consists of hills of Paleozoic limestone that have been dissected by chemical weathering. The overhanging cliffs, sinkholes, and caverns characteristic of tropical karst landscapes are all present in this ecoregion. Large patches of limestone forest are associated with the tropical karst. The flora and fauna here is distinct and includes several endemic species. Because complex habitats are little explored, it is likely that they contain undescribed endemic species..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Myanmar coastal rain forests (IM0132) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 25,700 square miles...
Conservation Status: Vulnerable.....
Introduction:
"The Myanmar Coastal Rain Forests [IM0132] are a diverse set of climatic niches and habitats that include flora and fauna from the Indian, Indochina, and Sundaic regions. Though low in endemism, this ecoregion has a tremendous species diversity. However, the forests have been increasingly destroyed to make way for agriculture, and poaching has become the dominant threat to the remaining wildlife populations.
Description
Location and General Description
This ecoregion represents the lowland evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forests of the western side of Arakan Yoma and Tenasserim ranges along the west coast of Myanmar. A small area extends into southeast Bangladesh. It falls within the tropical wet climate zone of the Köppen climate system (National Geographic Society 1999)...." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests (IM0303) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Coniferous Forests...
Size: 3,700 square miles...
Conservation Status: Critical/Endangered.....
Introduction:
"The Northeast India-Myanmar Pine Forests [IM0303] ecoregion is one of only four tropical or subtropical conifer forest ecoregions in the Indo-Pacific region. All of these ecoregions contain less biodiversity than the forests that surround them. However, they contain processes and species unique to these ecosystems. This ecoregion contains moderate levels of biodiversity but remains largely intact, providing opportunities to conserve and protect this ecoregion's biodiversity into the future.
Description
Location and General Description
These forests are found in the north-south Burmese-Java Arc. The Arc is formed by the parallel folded mountain ranges that culminate in the Himalayas in the north. Moving south are the mountain ranges of Patkoi, Lushai Hills, Naga Hills, Manipur, and the Chin Hills. The outer southwestern fringe of mountain ranges forming the Arc is the Arakan Yomas, the southern continuation of the folded mountain ranges branching off from the Himalayas. Geologically the ecoregion has gley and black slates. Dark-colored serpentine and gabbro also are found interstratified within the shales..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Northern Indochina subtropical forests (IM0137) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | " Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 168,700 square miles...
Conservation Status: Vulnerable...
Introduction:
The Northern Indochina Subtropical Forests [IM0137] are globally outstanding for their biological diversity; this ecoregion has the highest species richness for birds among all ecoregions in the Indo-Pacific region and ranks third for mammal richness. The ecoregion sits astride a major zoogeographic ecotone, where the northern Palearctic and the southern Indo-Malayan faunas mix, allowing langurs to mix with red pandas and muntjac and musk deer to mingle. It is also a crossroads for the south Asian and east Asian floras as well as some ancient relicts that have found refuge here during the turbulent and variable geological past...
Description:
Location and General Description
This large ecoregion extends across the highlands of northern Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam and also includes most of southern Yunnan Province. A complex network of hills and river valleys extends south of the Yunnan Plateau into northern Indochina to include the middle catchments of the Red, Mekong, and Salween rivers. Mountains in this area are composed of intrusive igneous rocks or Paleozoic limestone and approach but seldom exceed 2,000 m, and major river valleys lie at 200-400 m elevation.
The climate throughout northern Indochina is summer monsoonal. Precipitation averages 1,200 to 2,500 mm per year, depending on location, and almost all of this consists of summer rain fetched from the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea during April to October. From November to March, westerly subtropical winds drawn from continental Asia create dry conditions. These are moderated by easterly rain in southern Vietnam (WWF and IUCN 1995). Mean temperatures vary with elevation, but the spring premonsoon period is the hottest time of the year, and January is the coldest. Frost is known from the higher elevations, but it is infrequent..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Northern Triangle subtropical forests (IM0140) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 20,800 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact...
Introduction"
"The Northern Triangle Subtropical Forests [IM0140] are one of the least explored and scientifically known places in the world. The region's remote location, limited access, and rugged landscape have kept scientific exploration at a minimum. Yet what is known about these forests still ranks them as globally outstanding in their biological diversity. There are at sixty-five endemic mammals known from this ecoregion, but more probably await discovery. In 1997 a new species of small deer, the leaf muntjac, was discovered high in the mountains. This ecoregion remains one of the few places in the Indo-Pacific region where conservation action can be done on a proactive rather than reactive basis.
Description
Location and General Description
Floristically, Kachin State in northern Myanmar is one of the most diverse regions in continental Asia (WWF and IUCN 1995), but it is also one of the least explored. In 1997 a WCS team went into the region, the first in more than fifty years, since the early explorations of Kingdon-Ward (1921, 1930, 1952). Therefore, our assessment of the biodiversity in this region probably is highly underestimated; it probably harbors many more species than are now attributed to it.
The mountains trace their origins to the geological period when the collision between the Deccan Plateau and the Laurasian mainland created the Himalayas. The mountains extend as offshoots from the eastern Himalayas in four parallel ranges. The westernmost Sangpang Bum Range forms the Indo-Myanmar boundary, and the easternmost Goligong (Gaoligong) Shan demarcates the Myanmar-China border. In general, the elevation exceeds 1,500 m, but the peaks rise steeply to more than 3,000 m. The Chindwin, Mali Hka, and Mai Hka rivers originate in these mountains and converge in the lower reaches to form the Irrawaddy River..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Northern Triangle temperate forests (IM0402) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Temperate Broadleaf and Mixed Forests...
Size: 4,100 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact...
Introduction:
"The Northern Triangle Temperate Forests [IM0402] ecoregion lies in the extreme northern area of the Golden Triangle of Myanmar. The region is scientifically unexplored, and the biological information, especially of its flora, is still based on the early, pioneering exploration done by Kingdon-Ward (1921, 1930, 1952). There have been no detailed scientific surveys in this area since then, and current assessments of its biodiversity probably are underestimated. In all probability this ecoregion harbors many more species than are now attributed to it. Satellite imagery indicates that the ecoregion is still largely clothed in intact forests and presents a rare opportunity to conserve large landscapes that will support the ecological processes and the biodiversity within this eastern Himalayan ecosystem.
Description
Location and General Description
The mountains originated more than 40 million years ago, when the collision between the drifting Deccan Plateau and the northern Laurasian mainland created the Himalayan Mountains, including these mountains in the Golden Triangle. Therefore, the mountains are young and unweathered; the terrain is rugged and dissected, with north-south-oriented ranges that reach south, toward the central plains of Myanmar. The peaks along this range rise steeply to attain heights of more than 3,000 m. The Chindwin, Mali Hka, and N'mai Hka rivers originate in these mountains and flow south to converge in the lower reaches to form the Irrawaddy River..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Southern Asia: Along the coasts of India, Myanmar, Malaysia, and Thailand - Indo-Malayan (IM1404) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Mangroves...
Size: 8,200 square miles...
Conservation Status: Critical/Endangered...
G200: No..
Introduction:
"The Myanmar Coastal Mangroves [IM1404] are some of the most degraded or destroyed mangrove systems in the Indo-Pacific. The sedimentation rate of the Irrawaddy River is the fifth highest in the world. This is largely because of the deforestation that has occurred throughout central Myanmar. The mangroves have also been overexploited from forestry, agriculture, aquaculture, and development projects. The wild species have been severely reduced but hang on in isolated pockets...
Description:
Location and General Description:
Myanmar Coastal Mangroves [IM1404] ecoregion is found in the Irrawaddy delta. The mouth of the Irrawaddy River was some 170 miles inland near Prome 300,000 years ago. On the islands of Twante, Myaungmya, and Bassein, lateritic ridges stood above the water. The delta is composed largely of alluvium, and a large area is occupied by volcanic rocks...." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Southern Asia: Myanmar and India, into Bangladesh - Indo-Malayan (IM0131) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Introduction:
The Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin Rain Forests [IM0131] has the highest bird species richness of all ecoregions that are completely within the Indo-Pacific region. (The only ecoregions that have more birds are the Northern Indochina Subtropical Forests [IM0137] and South China-Vietnam Subtropical Evergreen Forests [IM0149] that extend into China.) Except the pioneering explorations of Kingdon-Ward (1921, 1930, 1952) and Burma Wildlife Survey made by Oliver Milton and Richard D. Estes (1963), few scientific surveys have been made in this ecoregion. Once exception has been the recent Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Smithsonian Institution's reptile survey in northwestern Myanmar. Therefore these rugged mountains' biodiversity remains largely unknown...
Description:
Location and General Description
This large ecoregion represents the semi-evergreen submontane rain forests that extend from the midranges of the Arakan Yoma and Chin Hills north into the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh, the Mizo and Naga hills along the Myanmar-Indian border, and into the northern hills of Myanmar. It divides the Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy valleys, through which two of Asia's largest rivers flow. Some areas in this ecoregion receive more than 2,000 mm of rainfall annually from the monsoons that sweep in from the Bay of Bengal..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests (IM0163) |
| Date of publication: | | 2001 |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 37,600 square miles...
Conservation Status: Relatively Stable/Intact.....
Introduction:
"The Tenasserim-South Thailand Semi-Evergreen Rain Forests [IM0163] cover the transition zone from continental dry evergreen forests common in the north to semi-evergreen rain forests to the south. As a consequence, this ecoregion contains some of the highest diversity of both bird and mammal species found in the Indo-Pacific region. The relatively intact hill and montane forests form some of the best remaining habitat essential to the survival of Asian elephants and tigers in the Indo-Pacific region. However, the lowland forests are heavily degraded, and many lowland specialists such as the endemic Gurney's pitta survive in a few isolated reserves...
Description:
Location and General Description
This ecoregion encompasses the mountainous, semi-evergreen rain forests of the southern portion of the Tenasserim Range, which separates Thailand and Myanmar, and the numerous small ranges of peninsular Thailand. This ecoregion also includes the extensive lowland plains that lie between the peninsular mountains and until recent decades supported extensive lowland forest. The southern margin of this ecoregion is defined by the Kangar-Pattani floristic boundary (Whitmore 1984), which separates Indochina from the Malesia.
Annual precipitation increases southward as the length of the dry season and the magnitude of premonsoon drought stress declines. The southern mountain ranges receive rain from both the northeast and southwest monsoons so that, unlike in mountain ranges further north, there is no significant rainshadow. The Köppen climate system places this ecoregion in the tropical wet climate zone (National Geographic Society 1999)..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim Moist Forests (29) |
| Description/subject: | | "This region contains Indochina�s largest block of moist forest, one of its richest plant diversities, and its largest number of mammals. This Global 200 ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Tenasserim-South Thailand semi-evergreen rain forests; Kayah-Karen montane rain forests.
If you're interested in Asian mammals, you should visit the Kayah-Karen/Tenasserim Moist Forests. For here live tigers, Asian elephants, gaurs, and clouded leopards--species that conjure images of dense, gloomy forests. Other species, such as the Fea�s muntjak -- a small deer with prominent, vampire-like canine teeth -- are rarely found anywhere outside of these forests. In the evenings a host of different bats, ranging in size from small to tiny, will begin to flit through the sky feasting on the large variety of insects, while white-bellied rats scurry across the ground..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Lake Inle (190) |
| Description/subject: | | "Stand on the Shan Plateau, and you'll see mountains everywhere, stretching far and wide. Under your feet lies rocky soil rich with silver, rubies, and sapphires. But the real gem here is Lake Inle. One of Myanmar's few freshwater lakes, Inle contains many unique species of fish.
Lake Inle lies 2,952 feet (900 m) above sea level on the Shan Plateau, an extensive region of high mountain ranges crisscrossed by streams and the mighty Salween River. Inle is a shallow mountain lake that contains several islands and is fed by mountain streams..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Naga-Manupuri-Chin Hills Moist Forests (34) |
| Description/subject: | | "This ecoregion is one of the richest areas for birds and mammals in all of Asia. This Global 200 ecoregion is made up of these terrestrial ecoregions: Northern Triangle subtropical forests; Mizoram-Manipur-Kachin rain forests; Chin Hills-Arakan Yoma montane forests; Meghalaya subtropical forests; Northeast India-Myanmar pine forests..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Salween River |
| Description/subject: | | "The Salween River originates in the eastern highlands of the Tibetan Plateau and flows through valleys that are at first steep and narrow, then increasingly broad as the river approaches the tropical lowlands. Eventually it enters the Andaman Sea in eastern Myanmar.
The 2815 km long Salween river runs parallel to the mighty Mekong River for much of its course and forms part of the border between Myanmar and Thailand. When it flows through Yunnan, it is known as the Nujiang river.
About 140 fish live in this river (approximately one-third endemic species) with Minnows (Cyprinidae) being the most diverse group of fish. The area is also home to the world's most diverse turtle community, with between 10 and 15 genera of turtles represented, many of which are riverine species.
For most of its route the river is of little commercial value, and it passes through deep gorges and is often called China's Grand Canyon. It is home to over 7,000 species of plants and 80 rare or endangered animals and fish. Unesco said this region "may be the most biologically diverse temperate ecosystem in the world" and designated it a World Heritage Site in 2003.
The Salween is the longest undammed river in mainland Southeast Asia..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Southeastern Asia: Central Myanmar (formerly Burma) - Indo-Malayan (IM0205) |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Dry Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 13,600 square miles...
Conservation Status: Critical/Endangered...
G200: No.....
Introduction:
"The Irrawaddy Dry Forests [IM0205], like the surrounding moist deciduous forests, have been under intensive conversion pressure for hundreds of years. However, until recently most of its large mammal fauna, such as the tiger, still persisted in the degraded forests. Only recently has the larger mammal fauna been hunted to the brink of extinction in this ecoregion. The little protection afforded this ecoregion has hindered conservation efforts.
Description
Location and General Description
This ecoregion falls in the dry zone of central Myanmar. The region has a harsh climate and is extremely dry. The average rainfall is about 650 mm per year. Rains start in mid-July and last until October. There are rarely more than fifteen days of rain per year. When rainfall does occur, it falls in torrential showers. In addition to rains, the dry zone is subject to southerly winds during the summer, resulting in wind erosion of the topsoil..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
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| Title: | | Southeastern Asia: Southern Myanmar. - Indo-Malayan (IM0116) |
| Description/subject: | | Biome: Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests...
Size: 5,900 square miles...
Conservation Status: Critical/Endangered...
G200: No...
Introduction:
"In 1929 the Burma Game Manual stated its guiding principle: "A countryside devoid of wildlife is uninteresting and unnatural, and life under such conditions can adversely affect the national character." Therefore, invaluable natural and national assets had to be saved from destruction. This has not happened in large portions of Myanmar, especially the fertile lands of the Irrawaddy freshwater swamp forest. Most of the ecoregion's original forests, and subsequent wildlife such as Asian elephants and tigers, have been destroyed. Protection of the last remaining bits of habitat and restoration ecology will be key elements of returning this ecoregion to its natural state.
Description
Location and General Description
The Irrawaddy River flows into the Bay of Bengal, and its delta is made up of mangroves and freshwater swamp forests of this ecoregion. This ecoregion is an extremely fertile area because of the riverborne silt deposited in the delta. The southern portion of the ecoregion transitions into the Myanmar Coastal Mangroves [IM1404] and is made up of fanlike marshes with oxbow lakes, islands, and meandering rivulets and streams.
Topographically the region is primarily flatlands. The western part of the region is bounded by the Rakhine (Arakan) Yomas, with the highest elevation at about 1,287 m to the north, tapering down to the south to 428 m...." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | World Wildlife Fund (WWF) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
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The flora of Burma/Myanmar
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Flora of Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Biodiversity and Protected Areas - Myanmar |
| Date of publication: | | 1999 |
| Description/subject: | | Major Category: Natural Resources Management
Sub Category: biodiversity/protected areas
conservation
sector policies/programmes---BACKGROUND:
Country profile;
Biodiversity---
BIODIVERSITY POLICY---
BIODIVERSITY LEGISLATION:
State law;
International conventions---
CATEGORIES OF PROTECTED AREAS---
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS:
State management;
NGO and donor involvement;
Private sector involvement---
INVENTORY OF PROTECTED AREAS---
CONSERVATION COVER BY PROTECTED AREAS---
AREAS OF MAJOR BIODIVERSITY SIGNIFICANCE---
TOURISM IN PROTECTED AREAS---
COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION---
GENDER---
CROSS BOUNDARY ISSUES:
Internal boundaries;
International borders;
Cross border trade---
MAJOR PROBLEMS AND ISSUES |
| Author/creator: | | Clarke, J.E. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Regional Environmental Technical Assistance 5771 - Poverty Reduction & Environmental Management in Remote Greater Mekong ubregion (GMS) Watersheds Project (Phase I) |
| Format/size: | | html, 23 pages |
| Date of entry/update: | | 18 August 2003 |
|
| Title: | | The Ferns of Burma Vol: XLVI |
| Date of publication: | | May 1946 |
| Description/subject: | | Burma, with rainfalls in its various districts of 20 to 225 inches from June to October and with habitats from sea level up to 18,000 feet, has a very rich fern flora. The country is so located that many fern of both the China-Himalayan and the Malayan regions occur in the country. This article, originally published in the Ohio State Journal of Science in May 1946, catalogues over 400 different ferns belonging 104 genera discovered in the period up to the Second World War. The writer, Frederick Garrett Dickason, personally collected over 325 kinds of ferns in various parts of Burma which were on display in the Herbarium of Judson College in Rangoon where he taught for many years. A useful map accompanies the article. |
| Author/creator: | | Frederik Garrett Dickason |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Ohio State University and The Ohio Academy of Science |
| Format/size: | | pdf (2.32 MB) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs2/ferns.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 27 June 2006 |
|
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Threats to the flora of Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Khoe Kay: Biodiversity in Peril |
| Date of publication: | | July 2008 |
| Description/subject: | | Executive Summary:
"A team of Karen researchers from the Karen Environmental and Social Action
Network has undertaken this study to begin documentation of the rich
biodiversity of Khoe Kay, a bend in the Salween River that is part of their
homeland. They also want to document and expose the severe threats faced by this
stretch of the Salween, both from large dams and ongoing militarization.
Using methods of their own culture, as well as those used in university research, they have found that Khoe Kay is studded with both plant and animal diversity, with 194 plant species and 200 animals identified.
Forty-two of these species are considered endangered, being found in IUCN's Redlist, the CITES Appendices, or both. Thus, conservation of the area will protect many globally important resources.
Endemic and unknown species are also represented, with eight endemic fish species of particular interest. Also, many of the plants and animals unknown to Western science are used by the Karen for food and medicine, providing opportunities for further research. Furthermore, several entire taxa, such as mollusks, spiders and fungi, have been treated very lightly if at all in this report, so the reader is encouraged to undertake further study with assistance from KESAN.
Lying on the riverine border of Thailand and Burma, the area is relatively untrammeled. Teak trees dominate, and therefore Khoe Kay provides a window into the biodiversity of the entire region prior to industrial development.
Threats from proposed large dams and militarization may seriously degrade Khoe Kay. With dams, the main concerns are greenhouse gas emissions, loss of fisheries, cumulative effects of several cascading dams, and flow changes and sedimentation. Militarization of the area is also increasing, having already resulted in the loss of one severely endangered Sumatran Rhinoceros." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Karen Environmental and Social Action Network |
| Format/size: | | pdf (5.9MB - original; 4.7MB - burmalibrary version) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs6/2008_009_24_khoekay-b.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 07 February 2009 |
|
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Human activity in the environment of Burma/Myanmar
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Preservation of the environment in Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Accessible Alternatives: Ethnic Communities' Contribution to Social Development and Environmental Conservation in Burma (Burmese) |
| Date of publication: | | September 2009 |
| Description/subject: | | ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံသဘာဝပတ္ဝန္းက်င္အလုပ္အဖြဲ႔ (စက္တင္ဘာ ၂ဝဝ၉)...ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ သဘာဝပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ အလုပ္အဖြဲ႔ (BEWG) အေၾကာင္း… အစီရင္ခံစာ အက်ဥ္းခ်ဳပ္… ေနရာအမည္မ်ားႏွင့္ ေငြေၾကး အေခၚအေဝၚမွတ္စုမ်ား … ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံေျမပံုႏွင့္ ျဖစ္ရပ္မွန္ေလ့လာမႈေဒသမ်ား … နိဒါန္း … ရခိုင္ျပည္နယ္… ေျမလွန္ပစ္ျခင္း။ ဒီေရေတာမ်ား ဖ်က္ဆီး ပစ္ျခင္းႏွင့္ ေဒသခံကမ္းရိုးတမ္း လူမႈ အသုိက္အဝန္းမ်ား အေပၚ သက္ေရာက္ မႈမ်ား။ သဘာဝပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ႏွင့္ စီးပြားေရးဖြံၿဖိဳး တိုးတက္မႈ လုပ္ငန္းကြန္ယက္ (NEED-Burma)… တရုတ္ ေရနံရွာေဖြ တူးေဖာ္ျခင္း ၿခိမ္းေျခာက္မႈကို ခံေန ရေသာ မိရိုးဖလာ ေရနံတြင္းတူးသူမ်ား… အာရ္ရကန္ ေရနံေစာင့္ၾကည့္ ေလ့လာေရးအဖြဲ႔ (AOW)… ကခ်င္ျပည္နယ္ ကခ်င္ ရိုးရာ တုိင္းရင္းေဆး လုပ္ငန္း အစီအစဥ္၊ သဘာဝပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ထိန္း သိမ္းျခင္းႏွင့္ ဝင္ေငြဖန္တည္းျခင္း အတြက္ အခြင့္ အလမ္းမ်ားဖန္တီးျခင္း။ ပန္ကခ်င္လူမႈအသိုက္အဝန္း ဖြံ႔ၿဖဳိးတိုးတက္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ (PKDS)… ဟူးေကာင္း ခ်ိဳင့္ဝွမ္း က်ားထိန္းသိမ္းေရး နယ္ေျမရွိ ကခ်င္ျပည္သူမ်ား အခန္းက႑၊ ကခ်င္ ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရး လုပ္ငန္းကြန္ယက္အဖြဲ႔ (KDNG) … ကရင္ျပည္နယ္ အတြင္းရိွ။ သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ကာကြယ္ေစာင့္ ေရွာက္ျခင္း။ ဌာေန တုိင္းရင္း သားမ်ား အသိပညာ ႏွင့္ အသက္ေမြးဝမ္းေက်ာင္းမႈ၊ သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ထိန္းသိမ္းေသာ လူမႈအသိုက္အဝန္းတစ္ခု ကိုေလ့လာျခင္း၊ ကရင္သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ႏွင့္ လူမႈေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈ ကြန္ယက္ (KESAN) … ျမန္မာႏိုင္ငံ သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ အလုပ္အဖြဲ႔ ကရင္ျပည္ နယ္ ေျမာက္ ဘက္ျခမ္း အတြင္း အစားအစာ လံုၿခံဳမႈ ႏွင့္ ေဒသခံ ျပည္သူမ်ား ရင္ဆိုင္ ေျဖရွင္းျခင္း နည္းလမ္းမ်ား အေပၚၿခိမ္းေျခာက္မႈမ်ား။ ကရင္သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ ႏွင့္ လူမႈေရး လႈပ္ရွားမႈ ကြန္ယက္ (KESAN)… ပဲခူးတိုင္း။ ေရႊက်င္ၿမိဳ႔နယ္အတြင္း ေရႊတူးေဖာ္ျခင္း။ ေျမကမာၻအခြင့္အေရး(EarthRights International)… ႏွစ္ျမဳပ္ပစ္လိုက္ျခင္း - တာဆန္းေရကာတာ ႏွင့္ ေဒသခံ ရွမ္းလူမႈအသိုက္ အဝန္းႏွင့္သဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္အေပၚ သက္ေရာက္မႈ။ ရွမ္းသဘာဝ ပတ္ဝန္းက်င္ထိန္းသိမ္းေရး အဖြဲ႔ (Sapawa)… မူးယစ္ေဆးဝါး တိုင္းျပည္ တည္ေဆာက္ျခင္း ႏွင့္ သႏာၱေက်ာက္တန္း ေဖာက္ခြဲျခင္း။ ညံ့ဖ်င္းသည့္ ႏိုင္ငံေတာ္က ေက်ာေထာက္ ေနာက္ခံ ျပဳ ထားေသာ ဖြံၿဖိဳး တိုးတက္ေရး လုပ္ငန္း စီမံခ်က္မ်ားႏွင့္ လားဟူ ျပည္သူမ်ားအေပၚ သက္ေရာက္မႈမ်ား။ လားဟူအမ်ိဳးသား ဖြံ႔ၿဖိဳးတိုးတက္ေရးအဖြဲ႔ (LNDO)… |
| Language: | | Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ |
| Source/publisher: | | Burma Environmental Working Group (BEWG) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (5.46MB) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 12 February 2012 |
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| Title: | | Accessible Alternatives: Ethnic Communities' Contribution to Social Development and Environmental Conservation in Burma (English) |
| Date of publication: | | September 2009 |
| Description/subject: | | CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ...About BEWG ...
Executive Summary...
Notes on Place Names and Currency...
Burma Map & Case Study Areas ...
Introduction .....
Arakan State:
Cut into the Ground: The Destruction of Mangroves and its Impacts
on Local Coastal Communities (Network for Environmental and
Economic Development - Burma)...
Traditional Oil Drillers Threatened by Chinaâ�â¢s Oil Exploration
(Arakan Oil Watch).....
Kachin State:
Kachin Herbal Medicine Initiative: Creating Opportunities for Conservation
and Income Generation (Pan Kachin Development Society) ...
The Role of Kachin People in the Hugawng Valley Tiger Reserve
(Kachin Development Networking Group) .....
Karen State:
Environmental Protection, Indigenous Knowledge and Livelihood
in Karen State: A Focus on Community Conserved Areas
(Karen Environmental and Social Action Network) ...
Threats to Food Security and Local Coping Strategies in Northern
Karen State (Karen Environmental and Social Action Network) ...
Gold Mining in Shwegyin Township, Pegu Division
(EarthRights International) .....
Shan State:
Drowned Out: The Tasang Dam and its Impacts on Local Shan
Communities and the Environment (Shan Sapawa Environmental
Organization) ...
Building up of the Narco-State and Reef Blasting:
Failed State-Sponsored Development Projects and their Impacts on the
Lahu People (Lahu National Development Organization) |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Burma Environmental Working Group (BEWG) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (2.3MB - OBL version; 7.3MB - original) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.kesan.asia/Resources/bewg_report.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 04 December 2009 |
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| Title: | | The Green Monks |
| Date of publication: | | February 2006 |
| Description/subject: | | Despite political restrictions, monks in Burma are a force to preserve nature...
"Buddhist monks have always been a potent force for political and social change in Burma, from protesting against colonialism to providing basic education. Over the past decade, some monks have even begun to promote environmental conservation. While environmentalist monks are fairly common in Thailand and Cambodia, in Burma they are little known and little studied. For my undergraduate thesis, I studied several aspects of these environmentalist monks, and I feel it is safe to conclude that they work mostly in a decentralized fashion and that political, ecological, and cultural factors unique to Burma limit the role they can play..." |
| Author/creator: | | Dominic Nardi |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | "The Irrawaddy" Vol. 14, No.2 |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 01 May 2006 |
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Threats to the environment of Burma/Myanmar
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Deforestation
See the separate Forests section (in preparation) and the sub-section on Deforestation below
Individual Documents
| Title: | | China plundering natural resources in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | 07 July 2010 |
| Description/subject: | | China was variously described as plunderer and arch destroyer of Burma’s natural resources on the 38th World Environment Day today, by local people and environmental activists.Mindless logging and rampant mining in northern Burma by China for over two decades has led to widespread deforestation, pollution of rivers and land with Mercury used in gold mining. There is now varied ecological dysfunction that the country has to contend with.
060510-timber |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Kachin News Group (KNG) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 20 September 2010 |
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| Title: | | Rainforests Facing a New Challenge |
| Description/subject: | | Logging is back in Kachin State under a new mask. Logging no longer will be the illegal business in one of the world's biggest green regions that houses most of the teaks left on earth. Logging this time has returned into the region with bigger ambition and the safer shield under the title of agro-forestry development projects.
For decades, deforestation in Kachin State was traditionally carried out by agricultural farming industry of the local people and Asia's one of the longest civil wars in the nation. High speed massive illegal logging was introduced to the region only by logging companies from neighbouring Yunnan Province only after China's economy started roaring in 1990s. And it remarkably escalated in 1998 when China banned logging in its nation after facing serious floods in their home land. Forests in northern Burma were dwindling quickly in early 2000 and Kachin State became a hottest target for all the international watchdogs. But, finally, loggers have found a new and safest way to continue their business with a higher speed. |
| Author/creator: | | Phyusin Linn |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | UNPO |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 22 September 2010 |
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Metal mining and other extractive operations
Individual Documents
| Title: | | China plundering natural resources in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | 07 July 2010 |
| Description/subject: | | China was variously described as plunderer and arch destroyer of Burma’s natural resources on the 38th World Environment Day today, by local people and environmental activists.Mindless logging and rampant mining in northern Burma by China for over two decades has led to widespread deforestation, pollution of rivers and land with Mercury used in gold mining. There is now varied ecological dysfunction that the country has to contend with.
060510-timber |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Kachin News Group (KNG) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 20 September 2010 |
|
| Title: | | Environmental governance of mining in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | January 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | Conclusion -- local participation and respected insiders:
If there is one certainty of fair and effective local participation in
environmental governance, it is that there is no universal monolithic
system of rules, regulations and processes simply awaiting implementation
and practice. Just as disparate copper-mining operations can differ vastly,
so too do local potentialities for environmental governance participation
(Medowcroft 2004; and, for a contrasting account, Leone and Giannini
2005). There are, however, two consistent features of effective local
participation in environmental governance: it must involve local people
and have, to some degree, cooperation and support from relevant
institutions and stakeholders. That is, it’s a multi-stakeholder affair,
and moreover one that presupposes the recognition of the right to
organise.
Environmental conflict resolution is a tool for recourse and for
building common purpose’ between stakeholders (O’Leary et al.
2004:324). Scholars note the importance of understanding the many
varieties of environmental conflict resolution interventions as complex
systems embedded in even larger complex systems’ (O’Leary et al.
2004:324). In other words, the wider spatial, temporal, economic,
social, cultural and political contexts of the specific environmental
conflict resolution are relevant for building common purpose between
stakeholders. In Burma, conflict resolution is undertaken quite
differently from dominant Western models. EarthRights International
conducted research for five years on traditional methods of conflict
resolution and its relationship to resource-based conflict at the
local level in Burma. That research resulted in Traditions of Conflict
Resolution in Burma (Leone and Giannini 2005), which argues that
conflict resolution in Burma is based more on interpersonal respect
and a tradition of local respected insiders’ than on assumptions of the
objectivity of third-party outsiders’. Whereas official administrative
and court-based proceedings provide a level of comfort and trust to
the Western sensibility, these are the very institutions and processes
that might cause local villagers in Burma to feel uncomfortable and
distrustful. The report contends that the prospects for peace and earth
rights protection’ hinge on this respected insider model, adding that
such respected insider practices may serve as models for communitybased
natural resource management’ (Leone and Giannini 2005:1–2).
Effective local participation in environmental governance in Burma
will necessarily involve a unique tradition-based paradigm developed
by local Burmese themselves.
While third-party outsiders are less likely to gain genuine traction
in communities in Burma, this is not meant to undermine the need
for objective third-party EIAs and environmental monitoring at largescale
mining operations such as Monywa. Rather, it simply indicates
the unique needs that must be considered for fair and effective local
participation in environmental governance of mining in Burma. While
administrative and judicial proceedings can make the average Burmese
villager uncomfortable, the same cannot be said for the rule of law and
justice (which are largely absent in Burma), which will be accepted
wholly by the average Burmese, particularly by those whose human
rights have been violated.
As Tun Myint (2003) has suggested, the successes and failures of
environmental governance are determined largely by how natural
resources are used and managed at the local level. This chapter
approached a genuine inquiry into the state of environmental governance
of mining in Burma motivated by a genuine concern for the natural
environment and the people of Burma who depend on it. It interpreted
current environmental governance of mining natural resources in Burma
as largely inadequate, weak and ostensibly favourable to corporate
interests over the public interest and the natural environment. Burma’s
economic, social, cultural, political and environmental future depends
on changing this. |
| Author/creator: | | Matthew Smith |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | 2006 Burma Update Conference via Australian National University |
| Format/size: | | pdf (144K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 30 December 2008 |
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| Title: | | Spaces of extraction -- Governance along the riverine networks of Nyaunglebin District |
| Date of publication: | | January 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | "Contemporary maps prepared by the State Peace and Development
Council (SPDC) place most of Nyaunglebin District in eastern Pegu
Division. Maps drawn by the Karen National Union (KNU), however,
place much of the same region within the western edge of Kaw Thoo
Lei, its term for the free state’ the organisation has struggled since 1948
to create. Not surprisingly, the district’s three townships have different
names and overlapping geographic boundaries and administrative
structures, particularly in remote regions of the district where the SPDC
and the KNU continue to exercise some control. These competing
efforts to assert control over the same space are symptomatic of a broader
concern that is the focus here, namely: how do conflict zones become
places that can be governed? What strategies and techniques are used
to produce authority and what do they reveal about existing forms
of governance in Burma? In considering these questions, this chapter
explores the emergence of governable spaces in Shwegyin Township,
which comprises the southern third of Nyaunglebin District (Figure
11.1)..." |
| Author/creator: | | Ken MacLean |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | 2006 Burma Update Conference via Australian National University |
| Format/size: | | pdf (357K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 30 December 2008 |
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| Title: | | Grave Diggers: A report on Mining in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | 14 February 2000 |
| Description/subject: | | A report on mining in Burma. The problems mining is bringing to the Burmese people, and the multinational companies involved in it. Includes an analysis of the SLORC 1994 Mining Law.... 'Grave Diggers, authored by world renowned mining environmental activist Roger Moody, was the first major review of mining in Burma since the country's military regime opened the door to foreign mining investment in 1994. Singled out for special attention in this report is the stake taken up by Canadian mining promoter Robert Friedland, whose Ivanhoe Mines has redeveloped a major copper mine in the Monywa area in joint venture enterprise with Burma's military regime. There are several useful appendices with first hand reports from mining sites throughout the country. A series of maps shows the location of the exploration concessions taken up almost exclusively by foreign companies in the rounds of bidding that took place in the nineties. |
| Author/creator: | | Roger Moody |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Various groups |
| Format/size: | | pdf (1.4MB) html |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.miningwatch.ca/en/grave-diggers-report-mining-burma
http://www.miningwatch.ca/sites/miningwatch.ca/files/Grave_Diggers.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 09 September 2010 |
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Militarisation
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Diversity Degraded - Vulnerability of Cultural and Natural Diversity in Northern Karen State, Burma |
| Date of publication: | | December 2005 |
| Description/subject: | | Executive Summary: "In traditional Karen society, knowledge and culture are closely linked to the natural
environment. This report examines the effects of the longstanding civil war on Karen
communities' cultural and natural environment with specific focus on the diversity of
cultivated and collected plant species. The information for this case study is based
on a survey done in an ethnic Karen village in Mu Traw District, Northern Karen State,
Burma. The case study provides a general overview of the community with a detailed look at
the local knowledge-based farming systems. The traditional Karen rotational farming
system is described in detail including selection of land and crops to be cultivated,
the seasonal calendar, techniques of seed conservation and planting, together with
spiritual beliefs that are connected to the agricultural practices. The report also
outlines the importance of non timber forest products (NTFP) in food security and in
women's traditional work.
The results of this case study clearly shows that the civil war, which has been raging
for almost sixty years between the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) and
the Karen National Union (KNU), is the primary reason for the loss of both traditional
culture and biodiversity in Karen State. The fighting has caused tremendous human
rights abuses imposed by the Burmese military regime who have adapted the strategy
of targeting civilians in order to gain control over the ethnic insurgents. The local
people have been relocated or forced to live as Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in
the forest, far from their former villages and farmlands. This has resulted in massive
population influxes into formerly uninhabited forest areas and has thereby led to the
loss and degradation of forests and biological diversity. Relocation into areas less
suitable for farming and the unsettled life of IDPs caught in conflict areas have
disrupted the traditional agricultural practices. As a result, the food security of local
Karen communities is threatened because many traditional seed varieties and wild
edible plant species have been lost. The culture of Karen society also suffers because
of its close connections and relationships to the environment and agricultural practices.
Many aspects of Karen culture and local knowledge have already been lost." |
| Language: | | English, Karen |
| Source/publisher: | | Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (2.6MB-OBL version-English; 6.38 - Karen) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.kesan.asia/index.php/publication-and-media/reports/finish/4-reports/31-diversity-degrade... |
| Date of entry/update: | | 19 November 2009 |
|
-
Multiple threats
Individual Documents
| Title: | | The Threat to Burma’s Environment |
| Date of publication: | | 17 September 2010 |
| Description/subject: | | More than 20 mega-dams are being constructed or planned on Burma’s major rivers, including the Salween and Irrawaddy, by multinationals without consulting local communities, a wide range of NGOs charged in a statement Friday. In addition, the group charged, mining, oil and gas projects are creating severe environmental and social problems.
Several papers are to be delivered on Sept. 18 in an all-day seminar in Bangkok on the impact and consequences of overseas investment in large-scale projects in Burma that say as many as 30 companies from China alone are investing in dam projects on the two rivers. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Asia Sentinel |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=125 |
| Date of entry/update: | | 20 September 2010 |
|
| Title: | | China plundering natural resources in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | 07 July 2010 |
| Description/subject: | | China was variously described as plunderer and arch destroyer of Burma’s natural resources on the 38th World Environment Day today, by local people and environmental activists.Mindless logging and rampant mining in northern Burma by China for over two decades has led to widespread deforestation, pollution of rivers and land with Mercury used in gold mining. There is now varied ecological dysfunction that the country has to contend with.
060510-timber |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Kachin News Group (KNG) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 20 September 2010 |
|
| Title: | | Kachin state, waiting for an ecological disaster |
| Date of publication: | | 31 December 2008 |
| Description/subject: | | Kachin State in northern Burma is sitting on a powder keg of an ecological disaster. From impending dam related devastation to the rape of the environment in terms of incalculable damage to the flora and fauna has rendered the state extremely vulnerable. Rampant felling of trees and the wanton killing of myriad wildlife for filthy lucre for export to China has led to a serious situation which is far from being addressed. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Kachin News |
| Format/size: | | html, pdf (252.26 KB) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.kachinnews.com/commentary/689-kachin-state-waiting-for-an-ecological-disaster-commentary... |
| Date of entry/update: | | 20 September 2010 |
|
| Title: | | Identifying conservation issues in Kachin State |
| Date of publication: | | January 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | Conclusion:
"Kachin State is rich in natural resources. Its location near resourcehungry
China and its rule by people in need of hard currency has
resulted in the unsustainable exploitation of its natural resources. In
addition, the complex governance system makes management of these
resources difficult. This research has attempted to reflect the situation
of the many voiceless people in Kachin State. A pragmatic approach
is required to work together with all stakeholders. An opportunity
should be opened for the active participation of local stakeholders in
managing their resources not only for current but future generations.
Regardless of the country’s political situation, international assistance
for conservation in Myanmar is needed urgently. Such aid is required
not for the support of undemocratic practices, but to help the people
of Myanmar, who deserve to manage their environment through the
country’s democratisation process." |
| Author/creator: | | Tint Lwin Thaung |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | 2006 Burma Update Conference via Australian National University |
| Format/size: | | pdf (117K) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar/pdf/whole_book.pdf
http://epress.anu.edu.au/myanmar/pdf_instructions.html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 31 December 2008 |
|
| Title: | | Smash & Grab: Conflict, Corruption and Human Rights Abuses in the Shrimp Farming Industry |
| Date of publication: | | June 2003 |
| Description/subject: | | "...Shrimp farming has led to serious conflict over land rights and access to natural resources. Resulting social problems include increased poverty, landlessness, and reduced food security. In Ecuador, a single hectare of mangrove forest has been shown to provide food and livelihood for ten families, while a prawn farm of 110 hectares employs just six people during preparation and a further five during harvest. Globally, tens of thousands of rural poor in developing countries have been displaced following the impact of shrimp farming on traditional livelihoods. For instance, 20 thousand fisher-folk in Sri Lanka's Puttalam District migrated following declines of fish catches following the advent of shrimp farming.
Wealth generated by exporting farmed shrimp rarely trickles down to the communities affected by the industry. Corruption, poor governance and greed have resulted in powerful individuals making vast sums of money from shrimp farming with little regard for the basic human rights of the poor communities living in shrimp farming areas. "It is another example of resource-use conflict in which the poor and vulnerable are suppressed by a powerful elite intent on making quick profits, whilst turning a blind eye to the abuses that result" said Dr Mike Shanahan of EJF..."
Examples from Burma |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Environmental Justice Foundation |
| Format/size: | | pdf (2399K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 23 June 2003 |
|
| Title: | | Breaking the Silence |
| Date of publication: | | 15 March 2002 |
| Description/subject: | | Paper submitted to
the forty-sixth session of the Commission on the Status of Women March 4-15, 2002 by
Women's League of Burma (WLB). "...The aim of this paper is to highlight some of the root causes of poverty and environmental
degradation in Burma, and show how this has affected women and to give examples of how women are organizing themselves
to survive and create an enabling environment for political and social change, and for gender equality..." |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Women's League of Burma (WLB) |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.asiasource.org/asip/breaking.cfm |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
| Title: | | Paradise Lost? |
| Date of publication: | | September 1994 |
| Description/subject: | | Environment and Freedom of Expression in Burma. In the past decade, there has been a growing international consensus over the fundamental relationship between the universal values of "human rights", "environmental rights" and "development rights". "The Myanmar Tourism Policy is based on preservation of cultural heritage, protection of natural environment, regional development and generation of foreign exchange earnings." |
| Author/creator: | | Martin Smith |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Article 19 |
| Format/size: | | pdf (174K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
| Title: | | The Biodiversity Hotspots - Indo-Burma pages |
| Description/subject: | | Encompassing more than 2 million km² of tropical Asia, Indo-Burma is still revealing its biological treasures. Six large mammal species have been discovered in the last 12 years: the large-antlered muntjac, the Annamite muntjac, the grey-shanked douc, the Annamite striped rabbit, the leaf deer, and the saola. This hotspot also holds remarkable endemism in freshwater turtle species, most of which are threatened with extinction, due to over-harvesting and extensive habitat loss. Bird life in Indo-Burma is also incredibly diverse, holding almost 1,300 different bird species, including the threatened white-eared night-heron, the grey-crowned crocias, and the orange-necked partridge. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Conversation International |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 22 September 2010 |
|
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Oil and gas pipelines
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Pipeline Nightmare (English and Burmese) |
| Date of publication: | | 07 November 2012 |
| Description/subject: | | "Shwe Pipeline Brings Land Confiscation, Militarization and Human Rights Violations to the Ta’ang People.
The Ta’ang Students and Youth Organization (TSYO) released a report today called “Pipeline Nightmare” that illustrates how the Shwe Gas and Oil Pipeline project, which will transport oil and gas across Burma to China, has resulted in the confiscation of people’s lands, forced labor, and increased military presence along the pipeline, affecting thousands of people.
Moreover, the report documents cases in 6 target cities and 51 villages of human rights violations committed by the Burmese Army, police and people’s militia, who take responsibility for security of the pipeline.
The government has deployed additional soldiers and extended 26 military camps in order to increase pressure on the ethnic armed groups and to provide security for the pipeline project and its Chinese workers. Along the pipeline, there is fighting on a daily basis between the Burmese Army and the Kachin Independence Army, Shan State Army – North and Ta’ang National Liberation Army in Namtu, Mantong and Namkham, where there are over one thousand Ta’ang (Palaung) refugees.
“Even though the international community believes that the government has implemented political reforms, it doesn’t mean those reforms have reached ethnic areas, especially not where there is increased militarization along the Shwe Pipeline, increased fighting between the Burmese Army and ethnic armed groups, and negative consequences for the people living in these areas,” said Mai Amm Ngeal, a member of TSYO.
The China National Petroleum Corporation and Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise have signed agreements for the Shwe Pipeline, however the companies have not conducted any Environmental Impact Assessments or Social Impact Assessments. While the people living along the pipeline bear the brunt of the effects, the government will earn an estimated USD$29 billion over the next 30 years.
“The government and companies involved must be held accountable for the project and its effects on the local people, such as increasing military presence and Chinese workers along the pipeline, both of which cause insecurity for the local communities and especially women. The project has no benefit for the public, so it must be postponed,” said Lway Phoo Reang, Joint Secretary (1) of TSYO.
TSYO urges the government to postpone the Shwe Gas and Oil Pipeline project, to withdraw the military from Shan State, reach a ceasefire with all ethnic armed groups in the state, and address the root causes of the armed conflict by engaging in political dialogue." |
| Language: | | English, Burmese/ ျမန္မာဘာသာ |
| Source/publisher: | | Ta’ang Students and Youth Organization (TSYO) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (English, 2MB-OBL version; 6.77-original; 1.45-Burmese-OBL version) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.palaungland.org/wp-content/uploads/Report/S%20P%20N%20Report/Pipeline%20Nightmare%20report%20in%20English%20version%20(Final).pdf (original)
http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs14/Pipeline_Nightmare-bu-op--red.pdf (full report in Burmese)
http://www.palaungland.org/wp-content/uploads/Report/S%20P%20N%20Report/Immediate%20Release%207%20N... (Summary in Burmese)
http://www.palaungland.org/wp-content/uploads/Report/S%20P%20N%20Report/For%20Immediate%20Release%2... (Summary in Thai)
http://www.palaungland.org/wp-content/uploads/Report/S%20P%20N%20Report/2012-11%20Shwe%20Pipeline%2... (Summary in Chinese) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 07 November 2012 |
|
| Title: | | Total Denial Continues - Earth rights abuses along the Yadana and Yetagun pipelines in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | May 2000 |
| Description/subject: | | "Three Western oil companies -- Total, Premier and Unocal -- bent on exploiting natural gas , entered partnerships with the brutal Burmese military regime. Since the early 1990's, a terrible drama has been unfolding in Burma. Three western oil companies -- Total, Premier, and Unocal -- entered into partnerships with the brutal Burmese miltary regime to build the Yadana and Yetagun natural gas pipelines. The regime created a highly militarized pipelinecorridor in what had previously been a relatively peaceful area, resulting in violent suppression of dissent, environmental destruction, forced labor and portering, forced relocations, torture, rape, and summary executions. EarthRights International co-founder Ka Hsaw Wa and a team of field staff traveled on both sides of the Thai-Burmese border in the Tenasserim region to document the conditions in the pipeline corridor. In the nearly four years since the release of "Total Denial" (1996), the violence and forced labor in the pipeline region have continued unabated. This report builds on the evidence in "Total Denial" and brings to light several new facets of the tragedy in the Tenasserim region. Keywords:, human rights, environment, forced relocation, internal displacement, foreign investment. ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: forced resettlement, forced
relocation, forced movement, forced displacement, forced migration, forced to move, displaced |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Earthrights International |
| Format/size: | | pdf (6MB - OBL ... 20MB - original) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.earthrights.org/files/Reports/TotalDenialCont-2ndEdition.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
| Title: | | Total Denial - A Report on the Yadana Pipeline Project in Burma |
| Date of publication: | | 10 July 1996 |
| Description/subject: | | "'Total Denial' catalogues the systematic human rights abuses and environmental degradation perpetrated by SLORC as the regime seeks to consolidate its power base in the gas pipeline region. Further, the report shows that investment in projects such as the Yadana pipeline not only gives tacit approval and support to the repressive SLORC junta but also exacerbates the grave human rights and environmental problems in Burma.... The research indicates that gross human rights violations, including summary executions, torture, forced labor and forced relocations, have occurred as a result of natural gas development projects funded by European and North American corporations. In addition to condemning transnational corporate complicity with the SLORC regime, the report also presents the perspectives of those most directly impacted by the foreign investment who for too long have silently endured the abuses meted out by SLORC for the benefit of its foreign corporate partners." ...Additional keywords: environment, human rights violations. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | EarthRights International (ERI) and Southeast Asian Information Network (SAIN) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (310K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
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Pollution (various sources)
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Poisoned Waters |
| Date of publication: | | September 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | "Chemical pollution and silt are killing Burma’s beautiful Inle Lake... Inle Lake, one of the country’s major tourist attractions, is terminally ill and its fishermen have fallen on bad times. The lake’s surface is shrinking dramatically. As its surface inexorably drops, the pollution of its water rises. The fish are dying and entire species are threatened with extinction..." |
| Author/creator: | | Kyi Wai |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | "The Irrawaddy" Vol 15, No. 9 |
| Format/size: | | html |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www2.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=8466 |
| Date of entry/update: | | 29 April 2008 |
|
| Title: | | Valley of Darkness - gold mining and militarization in Burma's Hugawng valley |
| Date of publication: | | 09 January 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | Executive Summary: "The remote and environmentally rich Hugawng valley in Burma's northern Kachin State has been internationally recognized as one of the world's hotspots of biodiversity. Indeed, the military junta ruling Burma, together with the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, is establishing the world's largest tiger reserve in the valley. However, the conditions of the people living there have not received attention. This report by local researchers reveals the untold story of how the junta's militarization and self-serving expansion of the gold mining industry have devastated communities and ravaged the valley's forests and waterways.
The Hugawng valley was largely untouched by Burma's military regime until the mid-1990s. After a ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) and the junta in 1994, local residents had high hopes that peace would foster economic development and improved living conditions. However, under the junta's increased control, the rich resources of Hugawng valley have turned out to be a curse.
Despite the ceasefire, the junta has expanded its military infrastructure throughout Kachin State, increasing its presence from 26 battalions in 1994 to 41 in 2006. This expansion has been mirrored in Hugawng valley, where the number of military outposts has doubled; in the main town of Danai, public and private buildings have been seized and one third of the surrounding farmland confiscated. Some of the land and buildings were used to house military units, while others were sold to business interests for military profit.
In order to expand and ensure its control over gold mining revenues, the regime offered up 18% of the entire Kachin State for mining concessions in 2002. This transformed gold mining from independent gold panning to a large-scale mechanized industry controlled by the concession holders. In Hugawng valley concessions were sold to 8 selected companies and the number of main gold mining sites increased from 14 in 1994 to 31 sites in 2006. The number of active hydraulic and pit mines had exploded to approximately 100 by the end of 2006.
The regime's Ministry of Mines collects signing fees for the concessions as well as 35% - 50% tax on annual profits. Additional payments are rendered to the military's top commander for the region, various township and local authorities as well as the Minister of Mines personally. The junta has announced occasional bans on gold mining in Kachin State but as this report shows, these bans are temporary and selective, in effect used to maintain the junta's grip on mining revenues.
While the regime, called the State Peace and Development Council or SPDC, has consolidated political and financial control of the valley, it has not enforced its own existing (and very limited) environmental and health regulations on gold mining operations. This lack of regulation has resulted in deforestation, the destruction of river banks, and altering of river flows. Miners have been severely injured or killed by unsafe working practices and the lack of adequate health services. The environmental and health effects of mercury contamination have yet to be monitored and analyzed.
The most dramatic effects of this gold mining boom, however, have been on the social conditions of the local people. The influx of transient populations, together with harsh working conditions, a lack of education opportunities and poverty have led to the expansion of the drug, sex, and gambling industries in Hugawng valley. In one mining area it was estimated that 80% of inhabitants are addicted to opium and approximately 30% of miners use heroin and methamphetamines. Intravenous drug use and the sex industry have increased the spread of HIV/AIDS. Far from alleviating these social ills, local SPDC authorities collect fees from these illicit industries and even diminish efforts to curb them.
The SPDC continually boasts about how the people of Kachin State are benefiting from its border area development program. The case of Hugawng valley illustrates, however, the fundamental lack of local benefit from or participation in the development process. The SPDC is pursuing its interests of military expansion and revenue generation at the expense of social and environmental sustainability
This report documents local people speaking out about this destructive and unsustainable development. Such bravery should be encouraged and supported.".......The main URL for this document in OBL leaqds to a 1.5MB version, obtained by passing the original through ocr software. The original and uthoritative version can be found as an alternate link in this entry. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Kachin Development Networking Group (KDNG) |
| Format/size: | | pdf (3.77MB - original and authoritative; 1.5MB - ocr version) |
| Alternate URLs: | | http://www.eldis.org/assets/Docs/24720.html |
| Date of entry/update: | | 09 September 2010 |
|
| Title: | | At What Price? Gold Mining in Kachin State, Burma |
| Date of publication: | | November 2004 |
| Description/subject: | | Contents:-ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS;
MAP;
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY;
INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY;;
BACKGROUND;
UNEARTHING BURMA;
ENVIRONMENT AND MINING LAWS;
THE LAND OF THE KACHIN;
GEOGRAPHY & BIODIVERSITY;
HISTORY;
GOLD IN THE KACHIN HILLS;
CONCESSION POLICY;
ROLE OF THE KIO;
FOREIGN INVESTORS;
CHINA;
GOING FOR KACHIN GOLD: MINING TECHNIQUES;
PLACER MINING;
PANNING;
BUCKET DREDGES;
SUCTION DREDGES;
HYDRAULIC MINING;
GOLD ORE;
OPEN-CAST MINES;
SHAFT MINES;
CHEMICALS IN THE MINING PROCESS;
DANGER: MERCURY;
ALTERNATIVES TO MERCURY;
CYANIDE LEACHING;
CASE STUDIES OF MINING AREAS IN KACHIN STATE;
HUKAWNG;
MALI HKA;
N’MAI HKA;
HPAKANT;
GOLD AND THE ENVIRONMENT3;
AFTER THE GOLD RUSH: TAILINGS AND ACID MINE DRAINAGE;
LAND REHABILITATION;
THE RIVER ECOSYSTEM;
GOLD AND ITS SOCIAL IMPACT;
SEEKING WORK, SEEKING GOLD;
ENDANGERING MINERS;
MINING AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS;
RECOMMENDATIONS... APPENDICES: IVANHOE MINES LTD.; EXAMPLES OF MERCURY AND METHYLMERCURY POISONING; CASES OF CYANIDE POLLUTION; AGREEMENT BETWEEN MYITKYINA TPDC AND NORTHERN STAR MINERALS TRADING AND PRODUCTION CO. |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | Images Asia Environment Desk, Pan Kachin Development Society |
| Format/size: | | pdf (3.4MB) 66 pages |
| Date of entry/update: | | 21 December 2004 |
|
| Title: | | CURRENT STATUS OF PESTICIDES RESIDUE ANALYSIS OF FOOD IN RELATION WITH FOOD SAFETY |
| Date of publication: | | 30 January 2002 |
| Description/subject: | | FAO/WHO Global Forum of Food Safety Regulators
Marrakech, Morocco, 28 - 30 January 2002
"Being a developing agricultural country at least in a foreseeable future, Myanmar is inevitable the use of pesticides in agriculture food production although other parallel efforts of non-chemical nature are being endeavoured in pest control strategies. Although there is a low pesticide consumption rate in Mayanmar, the present data indicates the urgent need of a cautious control in the use through coordination and cooperation of various government agencies and the people themselves. In addition, agricultural pesticides use in the country is expected to be increased with the abrupt change of cropping pattern for high rice production and extension of various crops grown areas.
The use of agro-chemical on food crops is estimated about 80% of the total. At that time the use of organo-chlorine insecticides (oc's) is decreasing but the percentage of those pesticides is total (about 10%) is still high. The use of pyrethroids is increasing..." |
| Author/creator: | | Mya Thwin, Thet Thet Mar |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | FAO, WHO |
| Format/size: | | html,pdf (27.14 KB) |
| Alternate URLs: | | ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/004/ab429e.pdf |
| Date of entry/update: | | 03 June 2003 |
|
-
Laws and policies related to the environment of Burma/Myanmar
-
Environmental governance in Burma/Myanmar
Individual Documents
| Title: | | Environmental governance in the SPDC’s Myanmar |
| Date of publication: | | January 2007 |
| Description/subject: | | Conclusion:
"With its continuing political instability, war and repression, Burma
stands to lose much of its remaining natural resources at an alarming
rate. The military regime’s protection and conservation of natural
resources and the environment as a national endeavour’ has been
couched in progressive language. The drafting and implementation
of its National Environmental Policy is, however, yet to produce
appropriate institutional mechanisms. Any strategic environmental
engagement with the military regime will have to bear in mind that a
fruitful result for sustainable environmental governance in Burma, and
consequently in the ASEAN and Mekong regions, will depend on the
existence of good governance practice in a broader sense. Transparency,
accountability, rule of law, an independent judiciary system and
mechanisms to include local participation in environmental decision
making are essential for good governance practices. Burma lacks most
of these elements, although there are some limited possibilities for local
participation, as can be seen from the success of the UNDP’s projects.
Therefore, until and unless national reconciliation is reached and
political differences are resolved among all concerned parties, Burma’s
environmental future will be held hostage by political instability. It is
desirable that the short-term successes of the projects discussed in this
chapter lead to the rescuing of the hostage.
It is crucial that the leaders of the SPDC regime realise that the
existence of human civilisation depends inevitably on the harmonious
relationship between society and the environment. The common finding
of scientists who study the reasons behind the survival and collapse of
earlier civilisations is that those civilisations collapsed due to a lack of
vision and a lack of institutional arrangements to achieve a balanced
relationship between society and the environment (Hodell et al. 1995;
Weiss and Bradley 2001; Haug et al. 2003). The great lesson that the
SPDC generals can learn from the collapse of states in the past is that
the meaningful development of a society and the continuing existence
of a civilisation depend on human ideas, capacities and political
freedom within that society. Burmese society is endowed with ideas and
capacities; what is lacking is political freedom for citizens to exercise
their ideas and capacities. If current political deadlocks continue to
deny citizens the political freedom to chart their own livelihoods and
self-governance into the future, Burma’s civilisation and its continued
existence in the modern context will be at risk. This assessment of
environmental governance under the SPDC would have to conclude
that the primary responsibility for charting better environmental
governance in Burma lies in the hands of the SPDC generals." |
| Author/creator: | | Tun Myint |
| Language: | | English |
| Source/publisher: | | 2006 Burma Update Conference via Australian national University |
| Format/size: | | pdf (149K) |
| Date of entry/update: | | 30 December 2008 |
|
|
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