Text Box: Destruction and Degradation of the Burmese Frontier Forests Text Box: # Text Box: elder people practice this knowledge and the workshop reminded us of this knowledge.” Some participants said that in the current situation, they couldn't replant trees in the forest, but each family could plant one or two trees in their garden to use for firewood. “In the forest, we need to stop logging and take the wood that is just enough for our household needs. We need to protect our forest from fire, so more trees can grow up and more animals will come back to the forest.” According to all interviews, local people want to practice their traditional livelihood peacefully. They can not suffer the oppression and discrimination by the military government anymore. Many people hope that a democratic government will come to Burma soon. A Karen civilian in Tantibin Township of Toungoo district, who was accused and tortured by SPDC soldiers in March 2003, expressed that “I am not the only person that the SPDC tortured. Many Karen civilians faced the brutal abuses from SPDC soldiers. As we are Karen civilians the SPDC always accuses and abuses us. We cannot suffer this anymore. We hope the dictatorship of Burma will step down. We need a democratic government very soon.” If the civil war in Burma ended, the villagers would be able to practice their traditional livelihoods and the forest will come back again because there will be no fear in people's lives In conducting this preliminary research KESAN sought out to find the people’s perspective on forest issues. Not only finding the status of Karen State's rainforests, but also determining the local peoples’ main concerns and their ideas for possible alternatives to resource management. Throughout the three districts that the research has covered, it has been found that the forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, leaving the majority of both the reserved and unreserved forests bare. Local communities are witnesses to a huge decline in fauna and flora in their forest areas. Water levels are decreasing and the small streams are drying up. The local climate has changed with a significant rise in local temperature. The ongoing civil war, commercial logging (both official and unofficial), uncontrollable migration and encroachment of the non-local poor into the forestland, routine setting of forest fires by the SPDC, charcoal production, and land confiscation by the SPDC to use for commercial mono-plantations, their military camps and to develop infrastructure (i.e. dams), are undeniably the main factors to blame. These factors are not only destroying the rainforests but also creating environmental and social problems that are completely ruining and eroding the traditional livelihood system of the local people. Farmers are forced to abandon their land, becoming daily labourers; many for the logging businesses. Their income is sporadic and provides so little wages that they can barely feed their family. Many youth are leaving to seek jobs in the cities and in Thailand, becoming exposed to problems such as drugs and human trafficking. These changes in the socio-economic structures of the local communities have had great affect on the traditional forest conservation practices of the Karen people. Once a system which purpose was to maintain the lives of the forests and its dwellers has now become greatly disrupted and abused. More and more people are disregarding their traditional knowledge in forest conservation; most have little choice. Traditional knowledge is increasingly becoming difficult to pass on from the elders to the younger generations. Despite all these problems, all is not lost. The research has gained some light of hope from the local people. The communities are aware of the problems and want to try and protect their forests. They already have environmental knowledge and know about sustainable forest conservation. They have traditional forest management systems with designated protected, cultivated, communal, and religious Text Box: Chapter 5 Conclusions and Recommendations By KESAN Text Box: