Forest policy in Burma/Myanmar

expand all
collapse all

Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: 4,210 results (May 2016)
Source/publisher: FAO via Google
Date of entry/update: 2012-07-19
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
more
expand all
collapse all

Individual Documents

Description: "မြန်မာနိုင်ငံအနှံ့အပြားတွင် မှီတင်းနေထိုင်ကြသည့် လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းများသည် ၎င်းတို့၏ အသက်မွေးဝမ်းကြောင်း၊ အစားအစာ လုံခြုံမှု၊ ယဉ်ကျေးမှု နှင့် အမျိုးသား လက္ခဏာများအတွက် သစ်တောများကို ဓလေ့ထုံးတမ်းဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ကိုင်ပိုင်ဆိုင်ခွင့် စနစ်များဖြင့် စီမံခန့်ခွဲကြသည်။ သို့သော် သစ်တော ဥပဒေနှင့် သစ်တောနည်းဥပဒေများတွင် ဓလေ့ထုံးတမ်းဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ကိုင် ပိုင်ဆိုင်ခွင့်များကို လုံလောက်စွာ အသိအမှတ် ပြုထားခြင်းမရှိပါ။ မူဝါဒ၊ ဥပဒေနှင့် အလေ့အကျင့်များတွင် ဓလေ့ထုံးတမ်းဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ကိုင်ပိုင် ဆိုင်ခွင့်များကို အသိအမှတ်ပြုရန် အလွန်အရေးပါသည်။ ထို့သို့ပြုလုပ်ခြင်း အားဖြင့် လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းများအနေဖြင့် စီးပွားရေးဖွံ့ဖြိုး တိုးတက်မှု၊ ရာသီဥတု ပြောင်းလဲမှုများကို လျှော့ချရန် နှင့် သင့်တင့်စွာပြုမူနေထိုင်နိုင်ရန်၊ နှင့် ဇီဝမျိုးကွဲများကို ထိန်းသိမ်းရန်အတွက် အသက်တမျှအရေးပါသည့် သစ်တောများကို ကာကွယ်ခြင်းနှင့် ရေရှည်တည်တံ့ခိုင်မြဲစေရန်စီမံ ခန့်ခွဲမှုများကို ဆက်လက်ပြုလုပ်နိုင်မည် ဖြစ်သည်။ ၁၉၉၄ သစ်တောဥပဒေကို ၂၀၁၈တွင် ပြင်ဆင်ခဲ့ပြီး၊ ယခုအခါ သစ်တောနည်း ဥပဒေသစ်နှင့် ပက်သက်၍ ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းရေးဖြစ်စဉ်ကို ပြုလုပ်လျှက် ရှိသည်။ နည်းဥပဒေများသည် ဥပဒေကို မည်သို့အကောင် အထည်ဖော်မည်ကို ရှင်းလင်းဖော်ပြပေးသည်။ သစ်တောဦးစီးဌါနနှင့် ၎င်း၏ စီစဉ်သူအဖွဲ့တို့သည် တိုင်းနှင့်ပြည်နယ် (၁၄) ခုတွင် ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းမှုများကို ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။ အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်း များမှလည်း ဒေသခံ လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံပြီး ဥပဒေကို ပြန်လည် သုံးသပ်ခြင်းနှင့် နည်းဥပဒေများအတွက် အကြံပြုခြင် းများပြု လုပ်ရန်အတွက် ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းမှုများ ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည်။ ဤအကြံပြု ချက်များပါဝင်သည့် အစီရင်ခံစာကို သစ်တောဥပဒေနှင့် နည်းဥပဒေကို အသေးစိတ်စီစစ်ခြင်း၊ သစ်တောဦးစီးဌါနမှ ပြည်နယ်နှင့်တိုင်းများတွင် ပြုလုပ်ခဲ့သည့် ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းပွဲများ၏ ဆွေးနွေးချက်မှတ်တမ်းများ၊ အရပ်ဖက်အဖွဲ့အစည်းများနှင့် ကယား၊ချင်း၊ရှမ်း၊ကရင်၊ ကချင်ပြည်နယ်နှင့် တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းများရှိ လူ့အဖွဲ့အစည်းများမှ တင်ပြလာသည့် အကြံပြုချက်များ နှင့် CHRO၊ RECOFTC ၊ SHANAH ၊ KMSS-Loikaw နှင့် OneMap အပါအဝင် ပညာရှင်များနှင့် တွေ့ဆုံမေးမြန်းမှုများအပေါ်တွင် အခြေခံပြု စုထားသည်။ ဤအစီရင်ခံစာတွင် ဓလေ့ထုံးတမ်းဆိုင်ရာ လုပ်ကိုင်ပိုင်ဆိုင်ခွင့်များကို ပိုမိုကောင်းမွန်စွာ အသိအမှတ်ပြုနိုင်ရန်နှင့် ဆွေးနွေးညှိနှိုင်းမှုဖြစ်စဉ် တလျှောက်တွင် တောင်းဆိုခဲ့သည့်ပြုပြင်ပြောင်းလဲရေးများကို ပြုလုပ်နိုင်ရန် အတွက် လိုအပ်သည့် သစ်တောဥပဒေနှင့် သစ်တောနည်း ဥပဒေများဆိုင်ရာ အဓိကအကြံပြုချက်များကို အနှစ်ချုပ်တင်ပြထားသည်။..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Mekong Region Land Governance
2019-12-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-10-10
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 2.82 MB
more
Description: "Protected Areas are important tools for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Myanmar possesses 39 protected areas and 21 of these areas are declared as ecotourism sites. The study area, Lawkananda Wildlife Sanctuary is a designated ecotourism site and is strategically located on the bank of Ayeyarwady River and in Bagan Area. The main objective of the study is to identify and evaluate the economic benefits of study area in term of non-consumptive values. Willingness-to-pay for park’s entrance fee is analyzed by Contingent Valuation Method. Return-to-Zero Regression method is used to explore the influence characteristics on willingness-to-pay. The Spatial Statistics tools are applied to predict the existence-value of study park. The main findings are (i) the park has consumer surplus for entrance fee, (ii) the most influenced characteristics of visits on willingness-to-pay is Research Purpose, and (iii) the park is situated as the key dominant habitat hot spot. The researcher believes that this contribution will value to various stakeholders.....ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Firstly, I am most gratitude to Professor Dr. Khin Naing Oo, Rector of Yangon University of Economics, and Professor Dr. Tun Aung, Pro-Rector of Yangon University of Economics for their kindly permission to conduct this study and to submit this paper. I am really thankful to Professor Dr. Thida Kyu, Director of Development Studies Programme, Yangon University of Economics for her keen interest and support to carry out my study. I express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Dr. Ni Lar Myint Htoo, Professor from Department of Economics, Yangon University of Economics, for her guidance throughout the study. This study could not be undertaken without support and encouragements of my supervisor, Dr. Kalya Kyaing (Consultant – National Specialist on Economics, Asia Development Bank). Thus, I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to her. Then I would like to extend my sincere thanks to Daw Win Min Than (Retired Lecturer) and Dr. Naw Htee Mue Loe Htoo (Lecturer from Department of Economics, Yangon University of Economics) for their enthusiastic teaching and knowledge sharing on Environmental and Natural Resource Economics. I would like to express my special thanks to all professors, associated professors and lecturers for imparting of a great variety of knowledge and concepts of development during the study period of two years under EMDevS Programme. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to all library staffs from Yangon University of Economics. I also offer my thanks to U Shwe Htay Aung (Warden of Lawkananda Wildlife Sanctuary) and Daw Kay Khine Oo (Assistant Lecturer, Yezin Agriculture University), who helped me to obtain required data and satellite images. I would like to appreciate to Professor Dr. Win Tint (Retired Pro-Rector of Taungoo University), Professor Dr. Win Maung (Chairman, Myanmar’s Environment Institute) and Professor Dr. Htun Ko (Head of Department of Geography, University of Yangon) who shared their knowledge and advised me for this study..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Yangon University of Economics
2017-08-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-05-07
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 2.56 MB
more
Sub-title: A conflict-sensitivity analysis
Description: "The aim of this paper is to provide a conflict-sensitivity analysis of forest governance in Myanmar to inform all stakeholders involved in the negotiations of the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade Voluntary Partnership Agreement (FLEGT VPA) in Myanmar. Drawing on several case studies from across the country, this report seeks to provide an overview of how different types of conflict are related to forest governance, and how the positive and negative impacts of forest governance reforms in Myanmar might be considered to help inform a “conflict-sensitive” approach to the FLEGT VPA process in Myanmar. Myanmar is in the middle of a complex, precarious, and lengthy process of trying to negotiate peace after six decades of internal armed conflict. At the same time, it is in transition from military rule to a more democratic form of governance. A key issue in the democratic transition and peace process are questions about the future governance of Myanmar’s valuable natural resources, including teak, rosewood, and other valuable timber species that are predominately found in conflict-affected areas of the country. Within this context, any discussions about governance arrangements for natural resources, such as a VPA, risk unintentionally exacerbating deep-rooted grievances. Additionally, the tensions and conflict dynamics in the country will, by nature, influence the process of negotiating the VPA. Recognising this two-way interaction between conflict and the VPA process is at the crux of a conflict-sensitive approach. This paper proposes the development of a simple tool, referred to here as a “conflict risk analysis”, to help the stakeholders involved in the VPA process identify, monitor, and mitigate potential risks and opportunities of the process on key conflict and peace issues related to the VPA. As a starting point for discussion, we propose the following four key issues to be monitored: • Participation – to what extent do all groups have an opportunity to participate in the VPA process? Are any stakeholders excluded? • Communication – Is the process accountable, transparent, and clearly communicated, and is the process building greater trust between stakeholders? • Gender – to what extent are women participating meaningfully in the VPA consultation, negotiation and decision-making processes? Are their needs taken into account? • Community empowerment – to what extent do the process and outcomes of the VPA empower communities and civil society, especially marginalised communities including conflict-affected communities, for more inclusive, representative, and participatory forest governance? Why is this important? Participation, communication, gender and community empowerment are all factors that, if not managed well, could lead to increased tension. Lack of transparency around the process and the decisions being made could lead to lack of trust in the process and other governance processes. However, if managed well, these factors could contribute significantly to building more positive relationships between the different ethnic communities, local and national government, the private sector and armed actors. By regularly monitoring these risk factors, the Interim Task Force (ITF) or Multi-Stakeholder Group (MSG)1 can avoid exacerbating conflict tensions, mitigate risks and support moving towards peace and reconciliation. Inclusive participation of civil society and ethnic communities, based on transparent two-way communication flows, will be key to achieving this. To put the FLEGT VPA process in context in Myanmar, this paper also takes a wider look at forest governance and illegal logging in Myanmar. It identifies several key issues – such as the political economy of timber, illegal logging, community land and forest rights – that need to be addressed to ensure that the governance of forest resources helps contribute to peace. The paper suggests that all stakeholders should take care to ensure that the VPA process does not get too far ahead of the peace process and political dialogue currently under way in Myanmar, in order to avoid adverse impacts. A peacebuilding approach could look to achieve incremental governance improvements that can enhance the lives of forest-dependent communities through inclusive multi-stakeholder dialogues (such as through the platforms envisaged for a VPA process) and by increasing community participation, in addition to the formal structures of the political dialogue. The meaningful participation of women, youth, and rural stakeholders from all ethnicities will be key to this. Looking beyond the peace process, the paper identifies several key areas or governance reforms in Myanmar’s forestry sector. The paper draws on five short case studies to highlight specific challenges – including insecure land tenure, illegal logging, and challenges in operating community forestry in conflict-affected areas – faced by communities affected by forest governance weaknesses, as well as community-level approaches to address them. The paper stops short of issuing firm recommendations as, ultimately, it will be for the stakeholders involved in the VPA process to determine the scope and ambition of the VPA in Myanmar – including the extent to which they wish to use the VPA to introduce governance reforms that can contribute to peace. However, by highlighting certain issues that are important to peacebuilding efforts in Myanmar, it is our intention to support those stakeholders in setting that ambition, and showing concrete ways in which such ambitions could be approached..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: International Alert (London)
2017-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-27
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 701.47 KB
more
Description: "Political and economic reconfigurations can have large and unpredictable effects on a country's deforestation dynamics. Four major transitions—war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, centralized to decentralized political authority, and economic deregulation may have profound environmental consequences. For example, Indonesia's transition from “centralist authoritarianism to decentralized patronage politics” (Sindre 2014) is associated with increased deforestation (Stibig et al. 2014), and the Soviet Union's dissolution amplified environmental problems in Central Asia (Freedman & Neuzil 2015). The appropriation of forest resources to establish and maintain political patronage networks following democratization in Kenya and the establishment of peace in Cambodia led to accelerated deforestation (Le Billon 2000; Klopp 2012). Myanmar is undergoing all 4 transition types, and other countries are likely to undergo equivalent transitions in the future (e.g., Colombia, Cuba). Anticipating the likely environmental effects of political–economic transitions can inform proactive policy measures that minimize the risk of negative environmental outcomes. Abrupt transitions (e.g., coups d’états) preclude prior assessments. The gradual nature of Myanmar's transitions, however, provides opportunity for proactive debate and analysis (Webb et al. 2012, 2014; Lim et al. 2017). From 1962 to 2011, Myanmar had a highly centralized, authoritarian state and a command‐and‐control economy relatively isolated from global markets. From 2011 to 2015, there was some political and economic liberalization, followed by openly contested elections in 2015 and further reforms which led to the lifting of U.S. economic sanctions. An end to the civil war, which began in 1948, is a possibility following the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement between the government and major combatants. Myanmar's remaining forested area—over 29 million ha, approximately 44% of its total land area and the largest in mainland Southeast Asia (FAO 2015)—is in the globally important and highly threatened Indo‐Burma biodiversity hotspot (CEPF 2012; Hughes 2017). Successfully forecasting the effects of Myanmar's governmental and economic transitions on its forests is therefore key to development of new, integrated policy recommendations. Such recommendations will have greater legitimacy if derived from a transparent and formalized approach that yields expert consensus on priority issues. Horizon scanning harnesses the collective knowledge of experts to define emerging environmental and policy issues (Sutherland et al. 2011). However, it has not been applied in countries undergoing political and economic transitions. We analyzed emerging threats to forests in Myanmar with a horizon‐scanning approach to identify the most important issues likely to affect forests in Myanmar over 10 years (2016–2026). We conducted a national‐level synthesis of top priorities for research, policy, and interventions to conserve Myanmar's globally important forests and biodiversity while the country undergoes transition. Our findings are globally relevant because they provide a case study for transitions in other nations. Finally, we sought to demonstrate a novel and expanded application of horizon scanning for the conservation and development community..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: Society for Conservation Biology (Washington, D.C.)
2017-10-14
Date of entry/update: 2021-04-04
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
Format : pdf
Size: 202.99 KB
more
Description: "MYAUNGMYA-With the aim to reduce human-elephant conflicts in the Ayeyawady Region, plans are underway to form five Elephants Emergency Response Unit (EERU) which can control the wild elephants, according to the resources. Forest reserves in Pathein, Ngapudaw and Thabaung Townships in Ayeyawady Region are home to wild elephants. As their habitats shrink, wild elephants come close to human settlements in search of food and this leads to human-elephant conflicts. That’s why the killing rate of wild elephants increased. “ Myanmar Timber Enterprise in Ayeyawady Region is now forming EERU aiming to reduce the conflict between humans and wild elephants, to protect the wild elephants from poachers and to safeguard the private farms. The units are situated in Thitgadoe Ai Elephant camp in Pathein, Htatabin Elephant Camp in Ngapudaw Township, Thubuechaung Elephant Camp in Tharbaung Township, a camp bordering between Laymyatnar and Ingapu Townships and Thayarsan Elephant Camp in Kyangin Township,” said Tin Aung Win, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Irrigation and Environmental Conservation from Ayeyawady Region. He also said that Myanma Timber Enterprise planned to open more four elephant camps joining hands with the private aiming for public relaxation..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Eleven Media Group" (Myanmar)
2019-09-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Sub-title: A community forestry scheme introduced by the military junta has allowed some communities to preserve traditional livelihoods, but heavy-handed government control and bureaucratic delays have stymied potential progress.
Description: "WHEN CHARCOAL burners began casting covetous eyes over the mangrove forest next to coastal Kanyin Chaung village in Tanintharyi Region, its residents joined forces to protect a natural resource that had served their community for generations. The threat emerged in about 2005 and it worried the mainly ethnic Karen villagers, who had seen the destruction wrought by charcoal burners on mangrove forests in nearby coastal areas. Then the villagers had some good fortune. A retired professor from the University of Forestry and Environmental Science lived in a nearby village called Aout Thayet Chaung. He told them they could apply to manage the mangrove forest for 30 years under what’s known as the Community Forest Instructions, which were issued by the military government in 1995, the same year it released a Myanmar Forest Policy. As well as preserving a precious natural resource, the villagers hoped to turn their community forest into a sustainable form of income through a community-based tourism enterprise. However, a long wait lay ahead of them. “We started applying in 2007 but it took almost 11 years for us to be able to establish this as a community forest,” said U Zaw Win, secretary of the Kanyin Chaung community forest, in Tanintharyi’s Thayetchaung Township, near the regional capital, Dawei..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar"
2019-08-24
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-24
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ရဲ့ သက်ရှိဇီဝမျိုးစိတ်တွေကို ဘယ်လိုကာကွယ်ထိန်းသိမ်းကြမလဲ" ဆိုသည့် ခေါင်းစဉ်ဖြင့် ၁၀.၅.၂၀၁၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒီဗီဘီ ရုပ်သံသတင်းဌာန မှ ထုတ်လွှင့်ပြသသွားခဲ့သည့် ဒီဗီဘီ ဒီဘိတ် (ဒုတိယပိုင်း)။..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "DVB Debate"
2015-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "ကျွန်ုပ်တို့ရဲ့ သက်ရှိဇီဝမျိုးစိတ်တွေကို ဘယ်လိုကာကွယ်ထိန်းသိမ်းကြမလဲ" ဆိုသည့် ခေါင်းစဉ်ဖြင့် ၁၀.၅.၂၀၁၅ ရက်နေ့တွင် ဒီဗီဘီ ရုပ်သံသတင်းဌာန မှ ထုတ်လွှင့်ပြသသွားခဲ့သည့် ဒီဗီဘီ ဒီဘိတ် (တတိယပိုင်း)။..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "DVB Debate"
2015-05-10
Date of entry/update: 2019-08-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language:
more
Description: "Forests constitute the dominant ecosystem in Myanmar, with 44.2% of the country’s land area. Logging of natural forests in Myanmar, a major source of revenue, has been stopped since 2016 and the current priority of the country is to increase the forest plantations. A serious threat to Myanmar’s rich biodiversity has been reported to be unsustainable land use practices and uncoordinated development. The Forest Research Institute (FRI) in Myanmar has a pivotal role to play in fulfilling the research related to sustainable management of forest resources, contribute to the Forest Policy of Myanmar, and provide up-to-date information on forestry and environment related issues. In order to support various range of forest stakeholders, which include the relevant government departments, timber traders, timber industries, planters, and the general public, FAO is strengthening FRI capacities to produce high-quality and relevant research outputs that contribute to sustainable forest management. Without the support of a dynamic and productive FRI, the forestry sector in Myanmar will not be able to realize its potential to remain a key driver of national socio-economic development and the provision of forest ecosystem services that underpin agricultural production, rural livelihoods and resilience..."
Source/publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
2019-01-01
Date of entry/update: 2019-06-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 501.37 KB
more
Description: "While Burma?s ethnic states are blessed with a wealth of natural resources and biodiversity, they have been cursed by the unsustainable extraction and sale of those resources, which has fuelled armed conflict. Instituting a system of devolved federal management of natural resources can play a key role in resolving conflict and building a lasting peace in Burma. Despite some ceasefires on paper, Burma remains in a state of conflict. Ongoing offensives in Kachin and Shan states alone have left hundreds of thousands homeless. Fundamental calls for self-determination have gone unheeded in a lack of political dialogue to end decades of fighting. Military offensives into resource-rich ethnic areas have expanded Burma Army presence in plac - es previously controlled by de-facto ethnic governments. This has facilitated the rapid increase in the extraction and sale of natural resources in recent years. Resource projects have collected huge revenues for the army and the central government, but have not benefited local populations. Constitutional powers place natural resource ownership, control, and management fully in the hands of the central government. This report analyzes six key natural resources: forests, land, water, minerals, gems, and oil and gas. In each sector, a series of laws and practices prevent affected peoples from having a say in their own development: they cannot assess, provide input into, or censure the management of their natural resources. Ethnic women, particularly in rural areas, are doubly marginalized from natural resource governance. Centralised resource control is fanning the flames of discontent and anger . Resource projects are causing environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and loss of livelihoods, with unique impacts on women. Extracting and exporting raw, often non-renewable, resources is further inflicting an incalculable liability on future generations. Resources used to produce ener gy are consistently prioritised for export, contributing to the development of neighboring countries while resource-rich areas remain in the dark. People from across the country have staged protests and demonstrations, calling for an end to destructive resource exploitation and for constitutional rights to own, control, and manage their own resources. Ethnic political parties and armed groups are standing with the people in these demands. Devolved decision-making offers stronger accountability and representation at all levels of government, an opportunity for local input and control, benefits to local populations, and environmental sustainability. Burma does not need to start from zero in developing devolved governance structures. Local communities have managed lands, water, and forests with sustainable customary practices for generations, and de-facto governments have supported such practices with formal structures and laws..."
Source/publisher: Burma Environmental Working Group (BEWG)
2017-10-24
Date of entry/update: 2017-11-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English, Burmese (မြန်မာဘာသာ)
Format : pdf
Size: 2.43 MB
more
Description: "... The National Community Forestry Instruction (1995) provides communities the opportunity for 30 year licenses to manage state forests lands for natural forest protection, mixed agro-forestry and timber production systems. The Forestry Master Plan (2001) envisions around 920,000 ha to be handed to local Forest User Groups (FUGs) by 2030, about 1.36% of the total land area. A recent review of community forestry (CF) conducted in 2011 identified a range of constraints to allowing individual CFs to ?fulfil their potential”, and to scaling up the handover of CF to better meet the 2001 Forestry Master Plan targets. The review focused mostly on the institutional and technical impediments but also clearly identified the need for the scope of CF to shift from ?subsistence to enterprise” and integrate ?timber harvesting on a significantly larger scale”. Since 2008, FFI Myanmar and its partners have been actively supporting the establishment of CF as a tool for watershed protection, protected area buffer zone establishment and livelihood development. To date FFI has assisted over 50 communities with CF establishment, provided small grants and technical assistance to a further 30 CF groups, and conducted CF training for state and regional level civil society groups. FFI?s current strategic plan includes: i) The continued development of CF models to become self-funding, and ii) Evidence-based advocacy to streamline the CF application procedure. The long-term sustainability of CF in Myanmar may not be clear for some years, as even the oldest commercial CF trees are only 15 years old, but CF seems to offer considerable potential to provide a supply of timber and therefore generate substantial revenues for local communities. The current reforms in the Myanmar forest sector and the EU FLEGT initiative are providing an unprecedented opportunity to clarify community rights over CF timber and by doing so to promote the expansion and sustainability of CF. This report was prepared under an FFI project supported by the FAO/EU FLEGT Support Programme, which promotes the implementation of the FLEGT Action Plan by improving forest governance, providing technical assistance, and building capacity through funding projects in eligible countries..."
Source/publisher: Myanmar Conservation and Development Program (MCDP)
2014-10-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-19
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.93 MB
more
Description: "... This document reports on a study carried out to assess the value of the forest sector to Myanmar?s economy, in order to justify and identify niches for developing forest-based payments for ecosystem services (PES) and other mechanisms that can be used to generate financing for forest conservation. The study focuses on nine categories of forest ecosystem services that are of high importance in economic and human wellbeing terms, and for which sufficient data are available to enable monetary valuation: wood-based biomass and energy, wild foods, animal-based energy, watershed protection, coastal protection, carbon sequestration, maintenance of nursery populations and habitats, pollination and seed dispersal, and nature-based recreation and tourism. The study first assesses the baseline: it identifies the ecosystem services that are currently being generated by the forest sector, and estimates their economic value. It then models two possible policy and management futures: ?Forest Degradation”, under which forest lands and resources continue to be degraded and over-exploited; and ?Forest Conservation”, under which forests are used sustainably and conserved effectively according to the goals and targets laid out in the Forestry Masterplan..."
Creator/author: Lucy Emerton, Yan Min Aung
Source/publisher: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF), EU
2013-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.97 MB
more
Description: "... Myanmar?s forest and timber sector has been central to the country?s economy and society, particularly over the last century. Since the colonial era, timber has been a major export revenue earner to Burma/Myanmar and thus subject to much political debate (Bryant 1996). In addition to timber export revenues, the forests of Myanmar have always provided timber and non-timber forest products for domestic consumption as well as a range of environmental services including water catchment, habitat for flora and fauna, carbon storage, and soil nutrient recovery in rotational agriculture. Myanmar?s forests have contained some of the most valued timbers in the world ? particularly rosewoods and teak. Now, amidst unprecedented political reforms in Myanmar, the forest and timber sector is currently undergoing a process of reform. This is indicated by a number of policy changes, most significantly: 1. The 2014 Log Export Ban ? which has made it illegal to export unprocessed logs 2. The Government?s engagement in a Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) process with the European Union?s Forest Law Enforcement Governance and Trade (FLEGT) initiative, requiring transparency and compliance improvements that are mutually agreed upon between the government, the timber sector and civil society. This policy redirection is essential, although long overdue. Practical implementation is inevitably going to take time and face obstacles as powerful political-economic interests allied to the former military regime will seek to maintain their access to timber and land as well as control over revenue flows associated with the commercial utilisation of these national resources. Meanwhile the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Forestry (MOECAF) is under strong pressure from international timber traders to increase supply, more evidently recent pressure from China, and also missions from European and US timber sector representatives. This pressure is due to a combination of factors; growing demand around the world, declining supply of tropical hardwood from shrinking forests, and growing stringency around compliance concerning illegal sourcing. In order to respond to these pressures the authors have tried to clarify the status of the timber industry, the status of the forest resource including its management, and the challenges for reform..."
Creator/author: Thorsten Treue, Oliver Springate-Baginski, Kyaw Htun
Source/publisher: ALARM/DCA
2016-03-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 2.93 MB
more
Description: "... This report has been prepared by NEPCon1 on behalf of ETTF, with funding from the UK Government?s Department For International Development, DFID. The goal of evaluating forest and timber legality issues of Myanmar is to support the development of long term sustainability solutions of the forest and timber industry. With this report ETTF specifically wishes to pinpoint relevant challenges to the Myanmar timber industry with regard to the requirements of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR). One important question currently posed by stakeholders is: ?Will Myanmar be able to export timber to the EU considering the EUTR requirements and definition of legality”? Trade sanctions imposed on Myanmar were recently suspended, and focus is now being given to the potential for sustainable management of natural resources, including forests. The Myanmar government and timber industry are showing increased interest in improving the management of forest. Specifically, the Forest Department has invested in a number of staff trainings since 2011. After a recent visit by ETTF as part of a wider mission organised by the European Forest Institute and the EU Delegation in Bangkok, it is clear that there is a strong will to maintain the forests and develop the local industry. With this in mind the present project will aim to identify: 1. applicable legislation for forest management and transport of timber 2. potential gaps in current forest management practices in Myanmar between the legal framework requirements and actual practice 3. weaknesses in the existing legal framework (laws and regulations), that hinder effective verification of legality and identification of timber origin at the point of export The current report aims at providing an overview of potential risks of legal non-compliances in the forest sector in Myanmar, and also to provide inputs for how these risks can be managed and support the efforts to enable Myanmar to export legal and, on the long term, certified sustainable timber to the international markets. It should be underlined that this report does not provide any formal approval of the forest management practices, timber trade procedures, processing and trade systems of Myanmar. Based on the EU definition of forest sector legality, this report describes issues affecting the risk that timber from Myanmar has been harvested or traded illegally..."
Source/publisher: NEPCon, European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF)
2013-09-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.81 MB
more
Description: "... Extremely rapid growth in Chinese imports of ?redwood?, ?rosewoods? or ?Hongmu? timbers from Myanmar in the past two years is directly driving increased illegal and unsustainable logging, posing a real threat to governance, the rule of law and the viability Myanmar?s dwindling forests. EIA research shows that, based on current trends, the two most targeted Hongmu species in Myanmar - tamalan and padauk - could be logged to commercial extinction in as little as three years. With financial rewards for illegal loggers and timber smugglers dwarfing traditional incomes, and evidence of corruption facilitating illegal business, Myanmar?s domestic controls will be unable to effectively stem illegal trade. Myanmar urgently needs to engender legal reciprocity from strategic timber trade partners, particularly China, to ensure Myanmar?s forestry and trade laws are respected along its land border. In the absence of laws prohibiting illegal timber in China, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) presents the most immediate and effective mechanism to secure China?s respect for Myanmar?s forestry and trade laws. The Myanmar Government should seek CITES Appendix III protection for its at-risk Hongmu species ? Dalbergia oliveri / bariensis (tamalan) and Pterocarpus macrocarpus (padauk) - at the soonest opportunity to ensure trade is in line with sustainable exploitation of existing standing stocks. The CITES community should assist Myanmar in both instituting and enforcing CITES listings for these key species, and in seeking regional Appendix II listings by the 17th CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP17) in 2016. Enhancing the capacity of Myanmar?s existing CITES Management and Scientific Authorities will be an important element of this work...."
Source/publisher: EIA
2014-00-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-17
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.35 MB
more
Description: "This interim assessment, strategy, and road map (ASR) of Myanmar?s agriculture, natural resources, and environment (ANRE) sector highlights the Government of Myanmar?s plans for addressing priority needs and identifies—in a preliminary manner—possible areas of international assistance for the sector. The ASR will be periodically revised based on new information and reflecting the evolving development partnership with Myanmar..."
Source/publisher: Asian Development Bank (ADB)
2013-04-00
Date of entry/update: 2016-04-16
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 3.31 MB
more
Description: Table of Contents:- 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND MAJOR FINDINGS … 2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ... 3. NATIONAL FOREST STRATEGY, POLICIES AND REGULATIONS: 3.1 The Myanmar Selection System and Annual Allowable Cut; 3.2 Forest Law and Policy ; 3.3 Forest Land Categories; 3.4 Community Forestry; 3.5 Impact of Forest Law Enforcement on Local People... 4. DEMAND: DOMESTIC DEMAND AND WOOD EXPORTS: 4.1 Domestic Demand ; 4.2 Exports ... 5. TIMBER SUPPLY: DOMESTIC PRODUCTION AND WOOD IMPORTS: 5.1 Domestic Wood Production; 5.2 Plantation Production... 6. FOREST INDUSTRY: 6.1 Myanmar Timber Enterprise; 6.2 Non-MTE Harvesting; 6.3 Medium-Sized Companies and Traders; 6.4 Value-Added Processing... 7. ILLEGAL TIMBER TRADE AND MYANMAR STANDARDS, NATIONAL CODES, TIMBER CERTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION SYSTEMS: 7.1 Illegal Timber Trade; 7.2 Progress towards Standards, National Codes, Timber Certification and Verification Systems ... 8. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS : 8.1 Government; 8.2 Timber Processing Industry: Private Sector and Quasi-Private Sector; 8.3 Civil Society; 8.4 Bilateral Donor Programs... BIBLIOGRAPHY... APPENDIX 1: MYANMAR TIMBER EXPORT PROCESS .
Creator/author: Kevin Woods, Kerstin Canby
Source/publisher: Forest Trends for FLEGT Asia Regional Programme
2011-11-00
Date of entry/update: 2013-07-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 1.6 MB
more
Description: Working Paper No: APFSOS/WP/08 Forest Department, Ministry of Forestry, Myanmar Forestry Policy and Planning Division, Rome. Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok. "The scope of the study is to look at the main external and sectoral developments in policies, programmes and institutions that will affect the forestry sector and to assess from this the likely direction of its evolution and to present its likely situation in 2010. The study involves assessment of current status but also of trends from the past and the main forces which are shaping those trends and then builds on this to explore future prospects..."
Source/publisher: UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
1997-06-00
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
more