TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Deforestation rates tables and charts
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"According to the U.N. FAO, 48.3% or about 31,773,000 ha of Myanmar is forested, according to FAO. Of this 10.0% ( 3,192,000 ) is classified as primary forest, the most biodiverse and carbon-dense form of forest. Myanmar had 988,000 ha of planted forest.

Change in Forest Cover: Between 1990 and 2010, Myanmar lost an average of 372,250 ha or 0.95% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Myanmar lost 19.0% of its forest cover, or around 7,445,000 ha.

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.

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?

#039;Capitalizing on Conflict' presents information illustrating how trade in timber, gems,
and gold is financing violent conflict, including widespread and gross human rights
abuses, in Burma. Although trade in these “conflict goods” accounts for a small
percentage of the total global trade, it severely compromises human security and
undermines socio-economic development, not only in Burma, but throughout the
region.
Ironically, cease-fire agreements signed between the late 1980s and early 1990s

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.

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.

... 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.

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.

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.