The preservation, development and sustainable use of agricultural land are of vital importance to ensure longterm food security in South Africa. These principles of food security as well as an integrated, inclusive rural economy underpin the core focus areas of the National Development Plan, Vision 2030 (NDP).

This Decision approves the adjusted and supplemented master plan on socio-economic development of Lao Cai province through 2020, with a vision toward 2030 with the following principal contents: 1. The master plan on socio-economic development of Lao Cai province must conform to the national socio-economic development strategy, the master plan on socio-economic development of the northern midland and mountainous regions and be in line with sectoral development master plans nationwide. 2.

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.

STATE OF MYANMAR’S FORESTS...
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MYANMAR-CHINA...
OVERLAND TIMBER TRADE...
EIA INVESTIGATIONS...
CHINA’S ROLE....."For at least two decades,
timber extracted from Myanmar’s precious frontier forests
in highly destructive logging operations has been flowing
into China unhindered. It is an illicit business worth hundreds
of millions of dollars a year, making it one of the single
largest bilateral flows of illegal timber in the world.
From the outside looking in, the cross-border trade

Myanmar’s forests are in trouble. Two recent reports reveal the rapid loss of tree cover over the past five years has been so severe Myanmar rank...Since 2010, Myanmar has lost more than 546,000 hectares (over 1.3 million acres) of forest on average each year, according to a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.

The chunk of forest lost annually is about the size of fellow ASEAN country Brunei, and over the past five years adds up to the size of Equatorial Guinea.

Forests worldwide are home to approximately 1.3 billion people and must cater to the multiple needs of people - from providing local goods and services (access to income, food, clean water, wood energy, construction materials, fertile soils, medicinal and cosmetic products, and recreation) to providing global goods and services (climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, hydrological and mineral cycles). It is a tall order because many of these needs compete with one another.

About 32 million ha, half of Myanmar’s land area, is classified as forest area. Most of the 20 million ha of other wooded land is fallow land used by villagers for shifting cultivation. About 20 to 25 million people out of a total population of 60 million are estimated to use forests as one of their sources of livelihoods.

There is a growing consensus that producer organizations are critically important for the sustainable use of natural resources. Representing the collective voices of farmers and forest-dependent people, indigenous groups and rural communities, producer organizations provide essential services to their members and are the building blocks of local democracy. Formal or informal, effective producer organizations identify and agree upon the means to manage their natural resources.

This report presents the water and climate adaptation plan (WATCAP) developed for the Sava river basin (SRB) as result of a study undertaken by the World Bank. The WATCAP is intended to help to bridge the gap between the climate change predictions for the SRB and the decision makers in current and planned water management investment projects that will be affected by changing climate trends.

The environment is deteriorating on a long-term basis in the Ejina River Basin in Inner Mongolia, China as a result of a water shortage. The shortage was caused by increased water use by industries and agriculture after 1992 along the upper part of the Ejina River. In 2002, the Chinese National Water Resource Agency instituted a water sharing plan which resulted in more water being released downstream to a region including the Kyoen Delta. The repartition will have an effect on vegetation increase in the Kyoen Delta area.

This document is hence organized not around the three types of challenges, but around five themes of governance, public finance issues, private sector-led economy, poverty and environment, and human capital, all crucial to achieving faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth. Chapter one provides the country context. Chapter two discusses the quality of governance, an overarching issue in Madagascar. It has a direct bearing on the pace, the inclusiveness and sustainability of growth.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Report preparation and contact persons:
1 What is the area of forest and other wooded land and how has it changed over time?
2 What is the area of natural and planted forest and how has it changed over time?
3 What are the stocks and growth rates of the forests and how have they changed?
4 What is the status of forest production and how has it changed over time?
5 How much forest area is managed for protection of soil and water and ecosystem services?