Text Box: Destruction and Degradation of the Burmese Frontier Forests Text Box: # Text Box: cattle. Forests are very important in religious beliefs and practices. In the Taung Lweh village community, every year in May, a ritual ceremony is performed in a sacred part of the forest. Red and white cloth is wrapped around two big trees. No trees in the sacred forest may be cut down. This would lead to illness and death to the members of the community. Social and ecological impacts of deforestation on environment and local communities Farmers face the consequences of meteorological changes leading to droughts and floods. Flooding kills most of the rice. What is left of the rice is destroyed by a tiny green insect. Another problem is a small caterpillar that eats the leaves in the night-time and stays under the rice in the daytime. When the rice produces the seeds, small caterpillars cut through the branches of the seeds and eat them. During harvest time (dry season), when it starts raining, the seeds get wet, sprout, and grow again, which is another major problem. Since 1996, the situation has deteriorated. According to the villagers this was when deforestation led to changing climatic conditions. An average farm now produces 20 to 30 baskets of rice per acre, where it once produced 80 to 100 baskets of rice per acre. The nutritious qualities of the soil have deteriorated. “When we used the water from the river there was a lot of humus from the tree leaves and mud flowing with the water into the farm. This made the soil fertile”, villagers explained. “When the river dried up we had to depend on rain in the rainy season. So we do not get the fertile soil.” The diminished yields mean food shortages, and the people have problems to pay their taxes to the SPDC. Many farms were abandoned and people prefer to work as casual labourers in the logging and other enterprises to make their living. Logging is not the only problem. People cut bamboo, bamboo shoot, and firewood for commercial purposes. Another problem is the deterioration of health care due to the logging. “My mother knew traditional medicine. Villagers came to her to be cured of their diseases. I assisted her and when she died, I became traditional healer in Ta Uu Kee (Taung Lweh) village. I collect medicine from the trees in the forest. Some patients I can cure with this medicine. But some patients I can't cure with this medicine. I don't charge the patients and accept anything they would like to offer me. Sometimes they give me foods and sometime they give me money.” This traditional healer claimed that in the past he could find the medicine in the forest easily, but since the logging has started some medicine can not be found anymore. "I replant some medicinal plants and trees in my garden. Some disappeared medicine we now have to buy in the city." In Ta Uu Kee (Taung Lweh) village the elder is the only person who still uses traditional medicine. For many people traditional knowledge has been lost. They want western medicine, but it is very expensive. It is also extremely dangerous to have because the SPDC does not allow it, fearing that the medicine will be passed on to the Karen National Liberation Army (military wing of the KNU). Impacts on women In Doo The Htoo district the villagers have to deal with three different political groups: the KNU, the DKBA, and the SPDC. They are liable to have to do work for all three groups. Women and men have different roles for their work. One of the women in Kyakat Chaung (Ta R'weh Kee) village, Thaton Township, said that women have more work to do because their men are forced to serve as porters, security guards, and in other jobs for the Burmese Army; sometimes for 20 days a month. The remaining 10 days they are tired, sick, and bored to work on the farm. This changes the division of responsibilities traditionally shared by men and women. Although the Karen are family-based and involve both male and female input in most decisions and in cultivation practices, they are a matrilineal culture, thus the women are highly affected by changes in the forest. Both male and females have access to the

 

 

3

Logging has caused:

 

¨      a serious threat to local biodiversity. For example traditional healers find it increasingly difficult to find medicinal plants; this could lead to loss of indigenous knowledge.

¨      water shortages. The diminishing supply of water available for irrigation (which is more nutritious than rainwater) has led to declining rice yields in wet paddy cultivation.

This causes a downward ecological spiral, since villagers are forced by insufficient rice harvests to become casual labourers in logging operations and other enterprises.