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."