This Situation Update describes events and issues occurring in Bu Tho Township, Hpapun District during the period between November 2014 to January 2015, including illegal logging, punishment, education, and livelihoods...

In C--- village, Pa Heh village tract, primary school students who did not pass the examinations were punished by their teacher who made them sit down and stand up 500 to 1,000 times...

Karen National Union (KNU) soldiers arrested two people found on a bamboo raft carrying logs which had been cut down on November 3rd 2014...

One of the world’s "biodiversity hotspots" is under siege, as a growing number of business interests
seek to cash in the "peace" in northern Burma’s Kachin State... A project is in progress to build a number of roads in Kachin State in return for huge logging concessions.
While improving and expanding the infrastructure in Kachin State is much needed, the impact of this deal on
the environment could prove to be disastrous...

Bis vor kurzer Zeit war Burma (Myanmar) das Land mit mehr intaktem Tropenwald als irgendein anderes Land auf dem südostasiatischen Festland. Es liefert das wertvollste Teakholz, das weltweit auf dem Markt ist - Holz aus den letzten primären Teakwäldern der Erde. Nachdem in den letzten Jahrzehnten die Primärwälder Indiens, Thailands und Kambodschas weitgehend geplündert wurden, sind seit einigen Jahren die Teakwälder Burmas an der Reihe.

WHEN soldiers in Myanmar raided a huge illegal logging site in Kachin, a war-torn northern state, they swooped upon a thousand ill-paid labourers imported from neighbouring Yunnan, a province in China. Some of the Chinese managed to flee into the jungle, surviving for days without food and water before escaping across the border. The unluckiest—more than 150 of them—were arrested and prosecuted. China barked at Myanmar in July, when a court in Kachin state handed most of them life sentences. They were soon pardoned and deported, but only after having spent six months in custody.

... 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.

This article on China's forest trade with Myanmar builds on an earlier study by the same authors: “Navigating the Border: An Analysis of the China-Myanmar Timber Trade” [link]. The analysis in this study moves on to identify priority issues along the market chain of the timber trade from the Yunnan-Myanmar border to Guangdong Province and Shanghai on China’s eastern seaboard.

This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during April 2012 in Ler Mu Lah Township, Mergui/Tavoy District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed 40-year-old G--- village head, Saw K---, who described abusive practices perpetrated by the Tatmadaw in his village throughout the previous four year period, including forced labour, arbitrary taxation in the form of both goods and money, and obstructions to humanitarian relief, specifically medical care availability and education support.

Lots of maps...Burma holds half of the remaining forest in mainland Southeast Asia. Having lost virtually all of their original forest cover, Burma's neighbors -- China, India, and Thailand -- rely increasingly on Burma as a source of timber. Most of the regional timber trade is illegal. (See The Regional Timber Trade in Southeast Asia.)

Map of cover in 1985

... Myanmar is a country of huge biodiversity importance that is undergoing major political change, bringing with it new international engagement. This includes access to international markets, which will likely spur investment in export-oriented agriculture, leading to increased pressures on already threatened ecosystems. This scenario is illustrated in the Ayeyarwady Delta, the country’s agricultural heartland sustaining high deforestation rates. Using the Delta as a model system, we use an integrated

This report covers several countries in Asia and Africa....."Myanmar contains some of the most significant
natural forests left in the Asia Pacific region,
host to an array of biodiversity and vital to the
livelihoods of local communities. Forests are
estimated to cover 48 per cent of the country’s
land. Yet other recent estimates put forest
cover at just 24 per cent.
These vital forests are disappearing rapidly. Myanmar has one
of the worst rates of deforestation on the planet, with 18 per

Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations.