Myanmar third-worst for deforestation rate, says UN

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.

Almost 2 percent of the country’s forest cover, based on 2010 levels, has been lost each year, or 8.5pc over the five years. Myanmar had the third-highest annual rate of forest reduction, just behind deforestation-plagued Brazil and Indonesia, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015, released on September 7...