MONGABAY MYANMAR ENVIRONMENTAL

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Myanmar’s ‘green princess’ is a humble activist on a
mission
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/01/myanmars-
green-princess-is-a-humble-activist-on-a-mission/)
BY JENNIFER RIGBY (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/JENNIFER-RIGBY/)
11 JANUARY 2017
Devi Thant Cin lives on one of the most prestigious roads in Myanmar, just a
few feet from the famous Shwedagon Pagoda and next to the tomb of the
country’s…

The Myanmar snub-nosed monkey: discovered and
immediately endangered
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/the-myanmar-
snub-nosed-monkey-discovered-and-immediately-
endangered/)
BY SEAN MOWBRAY (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/SEAN-
MOWBRAY/) 4 OCTOBER 2016
Though discovered by scientists in 2010, researchers have yet to get a clear
image of the Myanmar snub-nosed monkey due to its inaccessible high
mountain habitat. Photo courtesy of FFI,…

Illegal Myanmar teak importation widespread to EU,
investigation finds
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/illegal-
myanmar-teak-importation-widespread-to-eu-
investigation-finds/)
BY JOHN C. CANNON (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/JOHN-C-
CANNON/) 19 OCTOBER 2016
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released allegations Tuesday
about what it says is the illegal importation of Burmese teak from Myanmar to
the EU. In a two-month undercover investigation, staff…
Deforestation puts lives on the line in rural
Myanmar
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/deforestation-
puts-lives-on-the-line-in-rural-myanmar/)

BY DAVID DOYLE (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/DAVID-DOYLE/),
JENNIFER RIGBY (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/JENNIFER-RIGBY/) 12
SEPTEMBER 2016
On a still, heavy afternoon in September, with monsoon clouds massing lazily
in the sky, the threat of the elephants seems far away. But U Sein Than, a 50-
year-old rice…
Sweden sets legal precedent with prosecution of
Myanmar teak trader
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/sweden-sets-
legal-precedent-with-prosecution-of-myanmar-teak-
trader/)
BY MIKE GAWORECKI (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/MIKE-
GAWORECKI/) 15 NOVEMBER 2016
A Swedish court upheld a ruling today that finds an importer of teak from
Myanmar to be in violation of the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) — setting a
legal precedent…

‘The ones we named are all dead now’: dolphins and
fishers struggle to survive in Myanmar
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/06/the-ones-we-
named-are-all-dead-now-dolphins-and-fishers-
struggle-to-survive-in-myanmar/)
BY KAYLA WALSH (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/KAYLA-WALSH/) 13
JUNE 2017
Fishermen in the Irrawaddy River have been fishing cooperatively with
dolphins for generations. Photo: Alex Diment. Drifting down the moonlit
Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River in Myanmar, gangs of fishermen drop car…

Fire on the Salween: Dams in conflict zones could
threaten Myanmar’s fragile peace process
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/fire-on-the-
salween-dams-in-conflict-zones-could-threaten-
myanmars-fragile-peace-process/)
BY DEMELZA STOKES (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/DEMELZA-
STOKES/) 1 DECEMBER 2016
Leh Paw, an ethnic Karen woman taking refuge in Htee Htay Khee village
speaks with Mongabay in November. Photo by Demelza Stokes. “I just get
poorer and poorer,” Leh Paw,…

Demand for elephant skin driving up poaching in
Myanmar (warning: graphic images)
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/06/demand-for-
elephant-skin-driving-up-poaching-in-myanmar-
warning-graphic-images/)
BY SHREYA DASGUPTA (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/SHREYA-
DASGUPTA/) 6 JUNE 2017
A new elephant poaching “crisis” is emerging in Myanmar, WWF announced
yesterday. In addition to targeting wild elephants for their tusks, poachers are
now killing elephants for their skin. The…

‘An optimistic place to start’: Myanmar enacts
national logging ban
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/08/an-optimistic-
place-to-start-myanmar-enacts-national-logging-
ban/)
BY MORGAN ERICKSON-DAVIS
(HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/MORGAN-ERICKSON-DAVIS/) 3
AUGUST 2016
Rumors that have been building for months have come to fruition, with
Myanmar announcing a national logging ban effective immediately. Although
temporary, conservationists are lauding the ban, which will run…

Denmark prohibits companies from selling Myanmar
teak on European Union markets
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/03/denmark-
prohibits-companies-from-selling-myanmar-teak-on-
european-union-markets/)
BY MIKE GAWORECKI (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/MIKE-
GAWORECKI/) 20 MARCH 2017
Denmark last week placed an injunction on all Danish companies that prohibits
them from selling teak imported from Myanmar on European markets. The
ruling comes after evidence that Danish timber…
‘We are revolutionaries’: Villagers fight to protect
Myanmar’s forests
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/09/we-are-
revolutionaries-villagers-fight-to-protect-myanmars-
forests/)
BY KATIE ARNOLD (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/KATIE-ARNOLD/) 23
SEPTEMBER 2016
U Ye Aung spent most of his adult life in a war zone. For over 60 years his
village of Kalaikyi served as the frontline in one of Myanmar’s longest…

A fight to control chainsaws in Myanmar could turn
the tide on illegal logging
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/a-fight-to-
control-chainsaws-in-myanmar-could-turn-the-tide-
on-illegal-logging/)
BY ANN WANG (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/ANN-WANG/),
GENEVIEVE BELMAKER (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/GENEVIEVE-
BELMAKER/) 4 MAY 2017
ALAUNGDAW KATHAPA NATIONAL PARK, Myanmar – Pyar Aung still
remembers the first time he saw a chainsaw. It was a German-made number
being used by one of the logging companies operating…

No logging ban for Myanmar despite reported
announcement
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/no-logging-
ban-myanmar-despite-reported-announcement/)
BY MORGAN ERICKSON-DAVIS
(HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/MORGAN-ERICKSON-DAVIS/) 9 MAY
2016
Late last month, news reports heralded a new move by the Myanmar
government that would ban the logging of all hardwood in the country.
However, it now appears that the…

Myanmar’s forests face myriad problems as logging
ban continues
forests-face-myriad-problems-as-logging-ban-
continues/)
BY JENNIFER RIGBY (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/JENNIFER-RIGBY/)
29 SEPTEMBER 2016
YANGON – Myanmar’s forests are rich. They are rich in variety, in natural
resources, and in wildlife. But they are also rich in danger. “Myanmar’s forests
are more in crisis…

Illegal logging ‘ravaging’ Myanmar’s Indawgyi Lake
Wildlife Reserve
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/illegal-logging-
ravaging-myanmars-indawgyi-lake-wildlife-reserve/)
BY BRENT CRANE (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/BRENT-CRANE/) 16
NOVEMBER 2016
KACHIN STATE, Myanmar – At Indawgyi Lake in Myanmar’s northern Kachin
State, morning shorebirds flutter lazily above the water hyacinths, fishermen
take long siestas after noon and, at night, fireflies float about in…

Attacks on journalists in Myanmar highlight
complications, dangers for the media
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/attacks-on-
journalists-in-myanmar-highlight-complications-
dangers-for-the-media/)
BY MONGABAY.COM (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/ONGABAY-COM/)
15 DECEMBER 2016
The murder of a Burmese reporter investigating illegal logging and the
roadside beating of another, both in Myanmar earlier this week, have raised
new fears about media safety in the…
New drone analysis highlights conservation
challenges in Myanmar
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/new-drone-
analysis-highlights-conservation-challenges-in-
myanmar/)
BY ANN WANG (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/ANN-WANG/) 30
NOVEMBER 2016
YANGON, Myanmar – Conservation work in Myanmar has been met with
various challenges such as limited funding, an unstable political situation and
poor management plans for forest reserves. Now, a…

Stone, Sand, Water: the key ingredients changing
the Salween landscape
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/stone-sand-
water-the-key-ingredients-changing-the-salween-
landscape/)
BY DEMELZA STOKES (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/DEMELZA-
STOKES/) 21 DECEMBER 2016
Tun Lin, the 36-year-old security guard who mans the door to the Linno cave –
home to four species of bat. Photo by Demelza Stokes. Tun Lin has a unique…
Journalist murdered while investigating illegal
logging in Myanmar
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/journalist-
murdered-while-investigating-illegal-logging-in-
myanmar/)

BY MONGABAY.COM (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/ONGABAY-COM/)
13 DECEMBER 2016
A journalist was murdered while investigating illegal logging and timber
smuggling in Myanmar, reports the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On
Tuesday, Soe Moe Tun, a local reporter with Daily…
Myanmar struggles to fight the crimes of illegal
logging
(https://news.mongabay.com/2017/11/myanmar-
struggles-to-fight-the-crimes-of-illegal-logging/)
BY ANN WANG (HTTPS://NEWS.MONGABAY.COM/BY/ANN-WANG/) 1
NOVEMBER 2017
YANGON, Myanmar – It has been a good year for U Tint Khaing, the assistant
director of the Forest Department overseeing action in Yangon. His team
seized an estimated 1,500…

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s=MYANMAR) 3
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Mongabay Series: Global Forests
Myanmar’s ‘green
princess’ is a
humble activist on
a mission
Commentary by Jennifer Rigby on 11 January 2017
Thant Cin, the great-
granddaughter of Burma’s last
royal family, King Thibaw and
Queen Supalayat, is considered
one of Myanmar’s first
environmentalists and works to
fight deforestation and
environmental degradation in the
Southeast Asian nation.

Devi Thant Cin lives on one of
the most prestigious roads in
Myanmar, just a few feet from the
famous Shwedagon Pagoda and
next to the tomb of the country’s
last queen, but her humble home
is more difficult to find than you
would expect. As well as being an
environmental activist – possibly
Myanmar’s first, and certainly one
of its most prominent – Thant
Cin is also a princess. She is the
great-granddaughter of Burma’s
last royal family, King Thibaw and
Queen Supalayat. They were
deposed and exiled by the British
colonialists in 1885, just over 130
years ago.
She is the founder of the
environmental activist
organizations Global Green
Group (3G) and the Myanmar
Green Network.
Despite having lived the life of a
commoner, Thant Cin still
considers it her royal duty to look
after the interests of the Burmese
people by fighting to protect the
environment.

She lives not in a palace but in a
modest two-story, half wooden,
half concrete house in Yangon.
But Thant Cin finds it funny that
people are surprised by this.
“I have lived here for 50 years,”
she said simply. “It was given to
my grandfather for religious
purposes, to look after the tomb
[of Queen Supalayat].”
She shares the house with two
other royally descended families,
and her attitude toward the house
is indicative of her approach
toward her glittering genealogy.
For Thant Cin, royalty – even
remembered royalty, like her own
– is more about duty than
palaces.
“What I do is as important as who
I am,” she said. By all measures,
her chosen contributions have
been significant.
Thant Cin, 69, is a leading light in Myanmar’s
fledgling green movement
continues/). In a country where the focus is on

much-needed development of the economy
rather than protecting its resources, the work of
environmentalists like her is vital.
‘Green princess’
She’s been dubbed “Myanmar’s
green princess” by filmmaker Alex
Bescoby, who is making a
documentary about her family
called “Burma’s Lost Royals
(http://www.grammar-
productions.com/#section-
projects).” Thant Cin isn’t afraid
to use her heritage to get her
message across; at least once
people have already started
listening.
“I don’t want people to come and
look at me like in a zoo, to see
the last descendants,” she said. “I
want them to accept me and
allow me to talk to them based on
my work.”
It’s an impressive body of work,
built up in challenging
circumstances, including the risks
of being an activist of any kind
during the dark decades of
military rule in Myanmar (also

known as Burma). Things are
improving now: the country began
to emerge from its isolation in
2011, when the military handed
over power to a military-backed
civilian government. In November
last year, in the first free
elections for decades, the people
voted in democracy hero Aung
San Suu Kyi.
Devi Than Cin in her home in Myanmar
recently. Photo by Jennifer Rigby

But Thant Cin remembers the
difficult years all too well. She
lost her job because she took part
in a protest. Her father was
imprisoned for his activism. And
there didn’t seem to be any focus
on the environment.
She dismisses questions about
whether her work is dangerous,
adamant that the far greater
danger is what lies ahead if the
world doesn’t wake up to
environmental threats.
But despite her bravado, it is still
a risky area to work for
environmentalists and journalists.
According to the non-profit Global Witness
(https://www.globalwitness.org/en/reports/dangerous
ground/), in 2015 alone two people in Myanmar were
killed defending the land or the environment. Though
that pales in comparison to the 50 killed in Brazil in
the same year or even the 12 deaths in neighboring
Thailand, both environmental activism and journalism
remain highly risky. In December, Burmese journalist
Soe Moe Tun
(https://www.mekongeye.com/2016/12/16/attacks-on-
journalists-in-myanmar-highlight-complications-
dangers-for-the-media/) – who was reporting on
illegal logging in the northwest of the country – was

found dead by the side of a highway in Monywa,
Sagaing region. Police believe the Eleven Media
Group reporter was beaten to death.
Sensitive topic
Passions run high when it comes
to environmental issues in
Myanmar: it’s a high-stakes,
expensive game for the
businesses who want to develop
the country’s rich natural
resources, and many of the sites
being eyed for development are
located in areas long plagued by
ethnic conflict – areas where the
authority of the central
government does not always
reach. Thant Cin is not
frightened.
“I have to be an activist because
we are all living on this planet.
We aren’t separate from the
environment. If we cut down the
trees, drain the oceans, the
mountains, the air – it is all
connected, because we are living
on earth,” Thant Cin said. “In
Myanmar we have flood disasters
every year now – why? It’s

because we had 70 percent
[forest coverage] many decades
ago, and now it’s all industry. And
so far, there are barely any rules
and regulations for the
environment.”
According to the UN’s Food and
Agriculture Organization
(http://www.fao.org/myanmar/news/detail-
events/en/c/408987/), Myanmar lost
nearly 15 million hectares of forest and
other wooded land between 1990 and 2015.
Since 2010, it has lost half a million
hectares of forest every year – an area
about the size of Brunei.
That means there are just 29 million hectares of
forest in Myanmar today
continues), so just less than half of Myanmar is
still covered in forest, according to the FAO.
Much of it is at risk due to rampant illegal
logging, despite a government-instituted logging
ban.
A multi-faceted
strategy

In the face of these challenges,
Thant Cin’s strategy has been
three-fold, and centered on
raising awareness. In a country
which only officially opened its
Ministry of Environmental
Conservation in 2011, it’s a good
place to start.
Her initial strategy in the early
2000s was to write about
environmental issues, and in 2007
she launched her own – which
was Myanmar’s first and, still only
– Burmese-language
environmental magazine, “Aung
Pin Lae.”
It was a struggle. She started with
around $1,120 from one of her
friends and there were many
occasions when she battled to
keep the publication afloat. Her
royal background does not come
with a royal allowance. But as
interest in the environment
increased, so did sales.
Her secondary strategy was to
help unify Burma’s burgeoning
green movement. She gathered
together the country’s handful of
environmental activists in 2006 to

form the Global Green Group
(3G), followed closely by the
Myanmar Green Network. The
group is made up of shifting
numbers of mining engineers,
meteorologists, lawyers, civil
engineers, activists, researchers
and journalists.
“Our main aim is to be the check
and balance between the
government and civil society,”
Thant Cin said. What this means
in practice is standing up for the
environment – and the people
living within it – when either or
both are threatened by rampant
development.
One of its roles is publishing
informational pamphlets for
people living near proposed
developments. Often, these
pamphlets are the first some local
people have heard about
construction plans. The group
also carries out impact
assessments and organizes
protests.
Most famously, this has meant
standing up against the Myitsone
dam, a controversial project

backed by China at the mouth of
the Irrawaddy River in northern
Kachin State that could cause
widespread environmental
devastation if it goes ahead.
“For the whole of Myanmar, the
Irrawaddy is like the mother
river,” Thant Cin said. “If there is
dam construction that they
shouldn’t do, we point out that it’s
not the time to do it.”
In part thanks to Thant Cin and
other protestors’ efforts, the
project is currently on hold. A
governmental decision is
expected in the next few months,
and if the project gets the go-
ahead, Thant Cin and her
colleagues will not take it lying
down.
New focus
Thant Cin’s latest initiative is
bamboo, which grows throughout
Myanmar, with the Bamboo Lovers
Network
(https://www.facebook.com/Myanmar-
Bamboo-Lovers-Network-
726704364029053/photos). The

organization aims to teach people
about the value of bamboo and the
importance of protecting it.
“Our people, they just cut it and
use it, they do not re-plant. They
think there is lots of forest,
there’s no need to plant again. So
we educate them and give
knowledge on this,” Thant Cin
said.
According to one forestry expert, the network
could have an economic benefit as well as
environmental. Speaking to the Myanmar
Times
(http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-
news/9357-bamboo-lovers-unite-to-save-
nation-s-forests.html) when the network was
launched in 2014, San Win, pro-rector of the
University of Forestry in Myanmar, said that
although the country has the third-largest
bamboo reserves globally – after India and
China – its income from bamboo is minimal
at around $2 million in 2010 compared to $1.74
billion for China.
Thant Cin has quite the to-do list,
and is busy: her phone rang
almost non-stop during a recent
interview with a Mongabay
reporter. But she sees her voice

as vital in opening people’s eyes.
In fact, she sees it as her duty as
a princess.
“We have had difficult times in
my country, and my father always
taught me that we have royal
blood,” she said. “It is different
from the civilians. We came from
the ruling people, so you must
always look after people. It is
your duty to your country and
your people. So I am standing on
that still now.”
Banner image: An image from
Alex Bescoby’s documentary,
“Burma’s Lost Royals.” Image
courtesy of Alex Bescoby.
Jennifer Rigby is a UK-based
journalist with extensive
experience as a foreign
correspondent in Myanmar. She is
a recipient of a prestigious 2016
International Women’s Media
Foundation’s reporting grant to
write a book about women
breaking stereotypes in Myanmar.
You can find her on Twitter at
@jriggers
(https://twitter.com/jriggers)

Article published by Genevieve Belmaker

Mongabay Series: Global Forests, Myanmar Forest
Trade
Myanmar struggles
to ght the crimes
of illegal logging
by Ann Wang on 1 November 2017
YANGON, Myanmar – It has
been a good year for U Tint
Khaing, the assistant director of
the Forest Department overseeing
Illegal logging uses the same
mechanisms employed by
organized crime, yet enforcement
agents in Myanmar must use
environmental protection laws to
combat smuggling.
During a series of seizures in
January of this year, the forestry
department seized hundreds of
tons of illegally logged teak
bound for China.
One of the key witnesses to the
case, who was released by police,
later led forestry officials to a
cache of 375 tons of illegal teak.
One expert says that illegal
logging should be processed
through the criminal justice
system, not by the forestry
department.

action in Yangon. His team seized
an estimated 1,500 tons of illegal
timber this year alone. They claim
that it’s the largest amount of
timber the Forestry Department
has ever seized from Yangon.
Acting on a tip, Khaing and two
of his staff arrived at Myanmar’s
industrial port in January of this
year with the mission to identify
two suspect containers from
among the 185 acres of grounds
where up to 5,000 containers are
processed daily. It is the largest
port in Myanmar and the only
legal way for processed timber to
exit Myanmar.
“The containers had seals from
the customs department but did
not have our forestry
department’s seal on it,” Khaing
said. The inspection unit at the
Forestry Department monitors the
loading of the containers before
sealing and is only allowed to be
sent to the port for export only
with the approval signature from
Forestry Department.
But Khaing says that it was
another case of just to do his job
he has to first deal with great
resistance from among his
counterparts within the
government system.They asked to
look inside, which led to a
standoff between forestry
officials and the customs
department under Ministry of
Planning and Finance at the port.
Only after numerous phone calls
and negotiations were they able
to do the inspection.

“It was a gamble for me too, what
if it’s not timber inside the
container?” Khaing said, who
risked his career over the two
containers. His insistence paid
off – it was 33 tons of illegal
teak in total. Building on the
momentum, the next day they
were able to seize another 11
containers, which totaled 163 tons
of illegal teak. The managing
director of Smart Export and
Import Company and Myanmar
Bean and Timber Trading were
both arrested in connection to
the seizure.
Out of the 11 trucks ordered to
transport the containers back to
the forestry department one car
license plate belonged to one of
the original transporters before
the seizure. Khaing saw the plates
and realized it was the same
driver that his team had handed
over to the police, hoping they
would further investigate. After
brief questioning, the police
released the driver without
charging him.
Timber is only allowed to be exported via
ports and must be processed before export in
Myanmar. Photo by Ann Wang for
Mongabay.

“The driver came back to our
compound to get his truck back
and we didn’t let that second
chance slip away,” Khaing said.
Further questioning led them to a
residence compound on the
outskirts of Yangon which was
likely a midpoint stop for
smugglers when they enter
Yangon from around the country.
They seized another 375 tons of
teak that day.
“Frankly speaking, there is not
much difficulty smuggling timber
to MIP [Myanmar Industrial Port]
before my seizures because this
route is very short and safe for
them,” Khaing said.
Enforcement is a problem in part
because of bureaucracy.
“Essentially the main issue is that
illegal logging is still regarded as
an environmental issue in
Myanmar, when it should be
regarded as organized crime,”
said Giovanni Broussard, the
regional coordinator for
combating wildlife and forest
crime at UNODC.
A forestry department ground inspection
team checks the timber to be exported and
monitors container loading at the site before
sealing the container. Photo by Ann Wang
for Mongabay.

“It should be treated by the
criminal justice system and the
forestry department shouldn’t be
the one responsible for the
investigation, as they do not have
the capability to build up the case
and bring the criminal to the
prosecutor,” Broussard said. He
added that forestry department
officers don’t even have access to
bank or phone records.
According to report
(https://www.unodc.org/documents/southeastasiaandpacific/Publicatio
by UNODC, 99 percent of those arrested for illegal logging are residen
driver and not the people or the company who made the purchasing or
“The money that is involved in
the illegal logging trade more
probably is not from within
Myanmar, and the timber doesn’t
stay in Myanmar, there has to be
a connection abroad,” Broussard
said. “But we don’t see the
Myanmar authorities linking up
with other counties and try to get
information from other countries.”
Crime and
punishment
Mongabay.

The 1992 forestry law with regards
to offenses and penalties poses
other challenges when
prosecuting crimes against illegal
logging. The maximum for crimes
related to logging is $23 and up
to two years in prison. If it is
teak, the fine would be a
maximum of $57 or up to seven
years imprisonment.
There is now a draft for a new
law and is currently under review
in parliament, but new forestry
law measures have failed to be
approved in the previous years.
With regards to corruption,
UNODC has had discussions with
related key players within the
department, however anti-
corruption measurements remains
a new topic within the sector.
“Regular rotation of staff can
reduce the risk of corruption, but
not everyone rotates, people from
that areas stay there, and
corruption always find its way
through,” Broussard said. He the
supply chain should be re-
evaluated, the old role of
Myanmar Timber Enterprise.
Through this method the supply
chain can be analyzed for areas of
corruption risk, and to establish
measures to reduce the chances
of corruption.

“Asking mandatory income
discloser from people working in
the forest department sector,
from all the people giving license
and permission, we need to know
how much these people makes
every year as well as their family
members, make it public, try to
see if these guys become richer
for doing their job because they
may be receiving other
payments,” Broussard said.
He points out that these are basic
anti-corruption measurements
used in sectors at risk, but so far
none is used in Myanmar.
Back in Khaing’s office at the
Forestry Department in Yangon,
which is also where he lives for
safety, he is still trying to find the
best way to stop illegal logging in
Myanmar. He also believes it is
imperative to eliminate
corruption.
“If the government staff are
honest, it will not be like this,”
Khaing said.
Banner image: A forestry
department ground inspection
team checks the timber to be
Mongabay.

exported and monitors container
loading at the site before sealing
the container. Photo by Ann
Wang for Mongabay.
Ann Wang is a foreign correspondent and
photojournalist based in Myanmar. You
can find her on Instagram at AnnWang077
(https://www.instagram.com/annwang077/).
FEEDBACK: Use this form
(https://form.jotform.com/70284468986170)
to send a message to the author of this
post. If you want to post a public
comment, you can do that at the bottom of
the page.
Article published by Genevieve Belmaker

Mongabay Series: Global Forests
Denmark prohibits
companies from
selling Myanmar
teak on European
Union markets
by Mike Gaworecki on 20 March 2017
The ruling comes after evidence
that Danish timber company
Keflico had violated the European
Union Timber Regulation (EUTR)
was brought to light by the
Environmental Investigation
Agency, a London-based NGO.
According to a statement issued
by Denmark’s Environmental
Protection Agency, audits were

Denmark last week placed an
injunction on all Danish
companies that prohibits them
from selling teak imported from
Myanmar on European markets.
The ruling comes after evidence
that Danish timber company
Keflico had violated the European
Union Timber Regulation (EUTR)
was brought to light by the
Environmental Investigation
Agency (https://eia-
international.org/denmark-
sanctions-entire-burmese-teak-
industry) (EIA), a London-based
NGO.
carried out at seven Danish
companies that had imported teak
from Myanmar in the last four
years.
The results of the audits showed
that authorities in Myanmar had
not provided adequate
documentation of where the
timber for any given purchase
came from and whether or not it
was legally harvested, thereby
making it virtually impossible for
Danish companies to avoid
importing illegal wood.

According to a statement
(http://mst.dk/service/nyheder/nyhedsarkiv/2017/mar/pa
paa-toemmer-fra-myanmar/) issued by Denmark’s
Environmental Protection Agency, audits were carried ou
at seven Danish companies that had imported teak from
Myanmar in the last four years. Teak is a tropical
hardwood especially prized for use in furniture and
shipbuilding.
The results of the audits showed
that authorities in Myanmar had
not provided adequate
documentation of where the
timber for any given purchase
came from and whether or not it
was legally harvested, thereby
making it virtually impossible for
Danish companies to avoid
importing illegal wood.
“None of the Danish timber
importing companies, which the
Environmental Protection Agency
visited, could demonstrate that
they adequately minimized the
risk of importing illegally
harvested timber,” the statement
reads (translated from Danish).
“The seven companies have now
been ordered to follow timber
regulation rules.”
The move by Denmark follows the precedent
set by the successful prosecution in Sweden
last November of the trader Almtra Nordic

(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/sweden-
sets-legal-precedent-with-prosecution-of-
myanmar-teak-trader/) for violations of the
EUTR. It was discovered that the company
could not show who had harvested its timber
or where it was cut prior to being purchased
from the Myanmar Timber Enterprise, the
state-operated company that is responsible
for the harvest and export of timber in
Myanmar. Almtra Nordic received a fine and
an injunction that prevents it from importing
teak from Myanmar until the company can
identify and mitigate the risk of the timber
it’s purchasing having been harvested
illegally.
According to EIA Forests
Campaigner Peter Cooper, the
Danish ruling sets another
precedent that other EUTR
Competent Authorities must
follow.
“Denmark’s leadership in EUTR
enforcement underpins similar
rulings already made in Sweden
and leaves no doubt that anyone
placing Burmese teak on the EU
market under current conditions
is in breach of European law,”
Cooper said in a statement
welcoming the decision by Danish
authorities. “With Denmark
setting a clear precedent on a

case submitted by EIA, we now
expect authorities in Italy, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and
the UK to rapidly resolve the
remaining 12 cases submitted by
EIA.”
The allegations made by the EIA against
numerous other European companies
focus on the due diligence requirements
of the EUTR
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/05/due-
diligence-helping-curb-illegal-timber-
trade-key-markets/), which hold importers
responsible for adequately assessing and
addressing the risk of illegally produced
timber entering their supply chains. EIA
says it has submitted cases regarding teak
imported from Myanmar by Antonini
Legnami, Basso Legnami, and Bellotti Spa
in Italy; Boogaerdt Wood, Gold Teak
Holdings, and World Wood in the
Netherlands; Crown Teak and
Vandercasteele Hout Import in Belgium;
Teak Solutions in Germany (a case that
has since been transferred to Spain); and
Moody Decking, Stones Marine Timber,
and DA Watts and Sons (Wattsons) in the
UK.
In October 2016, when EIA’s allegations
against the companies were made public,
many of them repudiated EIA’s findings in
statements to Mongabay

(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/illegal-
myanmar-teak-importation-widespread-to-
eu-investigation-finds/). For instance, Peter
Tsounis, the CEO of Crown-Teak, told
Mongabay in an email that, “Our due-
diligence procedures are quite strenuous
and our abiding with the EUTR…is strict.
There has not been one single container of
teak…that has not been controlled by us and
been properly and legally documented.” If a
private business were to go around the
Myanmar government and perform its own
investigations in the field, Tsounis added, it
would be “unlawful” and dangerous.
But EIA’s Cooper argues that, due
to the high risk of illegality and
lack of transparency in the
operations of the Myanmar
Timber Enterprise, it is probably
not possible for any company to
apply due diligence to Myanmar’s
teak.
“The Myanmar Timber Enterprise
needs to urgently address
illegality within its operations and
provide access to independent
monitoring of its operations — or
risk permanently losing access to
Europe’s lucrative teak market,”
he added.

comment, you can do that at the bottom of
the page.
Article published by Mike Gaworecki
Logging trucks in northern Myanmar in April
2015. Photo courtesy of the Environmental
Investigation Agency.

Mongabay Series: Global Forest Reporting Network,
Global Forests
‘An optimistic place
to start’: Myanmar
enacts national
logging ban
by Morgan Erickson-Davis on 3 August 2016
Myanmar lost 5 percent of its
tree cover from 2001 through
2014, with rates scaling upward
over that time.
The ban will stave off logging
activity for one harvesting season,
leaving the country to depend on
its reserve timber stockpiles.

Rumors that have been building
for months have come to fruition,
with Myanmar announcing a
national logging ban effective
immediately. Although temporary,
conservationists are lauding the
ban, which will run until the end
of March 2017.
Myanmar has seen an uptick in
deforestation in recent years, with
satellite data from the University
of Maryland showing the country
lost nearly 5 percent (2 million
hectares) of its tree cover from
2001 through 2014. (Note: tree
cover includes both forests and
tree plantations.) Of this, 2014
saw more than a quarter-million
hectares lost – more than any
previous year during the study
period.
Logging activities have been
banned in the Pegu Yoma region
for 10 years.
Legality concerns remain, with
conservationists calling for strict
controls over stockpiled timber to
ensure illegal harvests aren’t
laundered through the system.

According to environmental
watchdogs, overexploitation of
Myanmar’s forests have been
driven by corruption and
mismanagement in the country’s
timber industry sector. They say
the new ban is a big step in the
right direction.
“This is a decision that
demonstrates clear intent to
tackle corruption within the
forestry sector by Myanmar’s
National League for Democracy-
led Government, which only came
to power in March,” said Faith
Doherty of the Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA). “Of
course, there is no one-policy
solution to the problem and much
work remains to be done, but this
is a hugely encouraging and an
optimistic place to start.”

With the main brunt of logging
taking place in Myanmar from
August through March, the ban
effectively stops one season of
harvest. However, with a current
stockpile of around three years’
worth of timber, the country has
enough reserve to satisfy
demand. These stockpiles will be
managed by the government-
controlled Myanmar Timber
Enterprise.
Myanmar lost more than 2 million hectares
of tree cover from 2001 through 2014. One
of the states most affected by logging is
Kachin, which lies along the country’s
northeastern border with China. The state
contains some of Myanmar’s most extensive
intact forest landscapes – particularly large,
continuous tracts of primary forest – home
to endangered Indochinese tigers (Panthera
tigris corbetti).

However, the country’s timber industry has
historically shown something of a
disregard for legality concerns, with a 2014
EIA report
(https://news.mongabay.com/2014/03/just-
how-bad-is-the-logging-crisis-in-myanmar-
72-percent-of-exports-illegal/) finding 72
percent of log exports out of the country
from 2000 to 2013 were illegally harvested.
In a statement issued today, EIA stressed
the importance of implementing controls
that would ensure illegally harvested
timber isn’t laundered through Myanmar’s
stockpiles.
Myanmar previously enacted a ban on raw
timber exports in 2014
(https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/better-
late-than-never-myanmar-bans-timber-
exports-to-save-remaining-forests/) in effort
to stem pressure on its forests. But the ban’s
exclusion of milled timber raised eyebrows
in the conservation community and led to a
flurry of new lumber yards as those in the
industry sought to take advantage of the
loophole.
A big driving force of Myanmar’s illegal
timber trade is demand from China, with
Myanmar becoming China’s biggest
supplier of rosewood in 2013
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/drop-

in-timber-smuggling-gives-breathing-space-
to-myanmars-forests/). Such demand is
implicated with the decline (https://eia-
international.org/report/organised-chaos-
the-illicit-overland-timber-trade-between-
myanmar-and-china) of rosewood species,
with several considered endangered.
The trade in illegally harvested
timber across the Myanmar-China
border declined in 2015 as China’s
economy slowed and Myanmar’s
government changed hands.
Currently, China’s timber trade
with Myanmar is officially
suspended.
“Taken together with the fall in
the official cross-border timber
trade,” Doherty said, “the new
logging ban proposed by the
Minister of Natural Resources
and Environmental Conservation,
U Ohn Win, gives grounds for
hope that Myanmar is entering a
new era of forest management in
which conservation and
transparency, rather than the old
model of extract and export, are
at the fore.”

Header image is of an
Indochinese tiger taken by Lotse
and used via Wikimedia
Commons (CC 3.0).
Article published by Morgan Erickson-Davis

Tun Lin has a unique occupation:
he is the security guard at Linno
limestone karst cave on the bank
of the Salween River in
Myanmar’s southeast Karen
(Kayin) State. He earns 80,000
Myanmar kyat (around $60) per
month to guard the entrance to
the cave, the contents of which
A construction boom in Myanmar
is fueling a demand for raw
materials like limestone and sand.
Extracting these resources
threatens ecosystems and
communities along the Salween
River.
This push for economic and
industrial development is also
driving plans to build megadams
on the Salween River.
Activists call for an alternative
vision for development, based on
sustainable technologies and
small-scale, decentralized
projects.
Tun Lin, the 36-year-old security guard who
mans the door to the Linno cave – home to
four species of bat. Photo by Demelza
Stokes.

— common nectar bats
(Eonycteris spelaea), wrinkle-
lipped bats (Chaerephon plicatus),
Theobold’s tomb bats (Taphozous
theobaldi), black-bearded tomb
bats (Taphozous melanopogon)
and a lot of guano — are
targeted by robbers who either
poach the bats or steal the guano
that is sold in the local area for
use as fertilizer.
Only five months on the job, the
36-year-old has not yet
encountered any thieves, but the
last time hunters came, they used
nets to scoop up over a thousand
of the cave-dwelling bats.
Captured live and kept in bags,
the bats were sold on as food or
as traditional medicine, explained
Myint Myint Nwe, the cave’s
license holder and customary
“owner.” But it’s not just the cave
bat colonies that are at risk here
in Karen State. In fact, the entire
limestone karst landscape, and its
natural formations and caves are
increasingly at risk from
Myanmar’s (and Southeast Asia’s)
booming construction industry,
the bedrock of surging industrial
development.
This is the final article in a five-part series
exploring Myanmar’s Salween landscape amid
galvanizing plans to develop hydropower
projects along its course.
Part I
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/damming-
the-salween-what-next-for-southeast-asias-last-
great-free-flowing-river/) outlines plans being
made by businesses and governments in China,
Thailand and Myanmar to harness the
Salween’s vast hydroelectric potential.
Part II

(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/fire-on-
the-salween-dams-in-conflict-zones-could-
threaten-myanmars-fragile-peace-process/)
looks at the Salween dams’ already bloody
legacy and the projects’ direct or indirect
relationship with perpetuating instability and
conflict in Myanmar’s Shan and Karen states.
Part III
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/my-
spirit-is-there-life-in-the-shadow-of-the-mong-
ton-dam/) uncovers some of the ethnic and
ecological biodiversity at stake, focusing on
the Kun Heng “thousand islands,” a unique
riverine ecology facing submersion under the
Mong Ton dam reservoir in Shan State.
Part IV
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/karen-
people-call-for-a-peace-park-instead-of-big-
hydropower-in-their-homeland/) introduces the
“Salween Peace Park,” combining wildlife
conservation and peace-building in Karen
State, where the world’s longest running civil
war has raged since 1949.
Much of this quarried limestone makes its way
to Karen State’s cement industry, which is
growing in tandem with burgeoning
development in the Salween Basin and
throughout Myanmar. Ten years ago, a study in
the journal BioScience estimated that
companies across Southeast Asia quarry 178
million metric tons of limestone every year —
and that limestone extraction was “the primary
threat to the survival of karst-associated
species, and … will certainly exacerbate the
biodiversity crisis in Southeast Asia.” The
entire region’s limestone mountains, cliffs and
caves — and their residents — are all at risk
from quarrying, and Myanmar is no exception.
Human Rights Watch reported this year
(https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/11/03/farmer-
becomes-criminal/human-rights-and-land-
confiscation-karen-state#_ftn34) that four

large-scale mining licenses for limestone
extraction and at least ten exploration permits
have been granted in Karen State.
The tropical caves that pockmark the sharp rising cliffs are
very fragile environments, their unique ecosystems formed
by particular combinations of light, moisture and soil.
Referred to as “arks of biodiversity,”
(http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/56/9/733.full)
these caves contain high levels of endemism. Four years
ago, a local construction company began blasting rock
from the limestone outcrop that surrounds the Linno cave.
The impact on the cave’s residents was immediately felt by
Myint Myint Nwe, who has held the license to harvest the
bats’ guano for twelve years. Once mining began on the
western side of the outcrop, the loud disturbance from
blasting caused the bats (which number roughly 404,000) to
abandon their roosts. She sent a letter to the village chief
who then sent the request to the government to stop the
mining, “The bats are my livelihood … so I am happy they
closed the mine, but they moved to another mountain I
think,” she told Mongabay.
In addition to producing natural fertilizer, cave-dwelling bats
provide other vital ecosystem services such as insect control,
seed dispersal and pollination. A 2011 study on the economic
importance of bats to agriculture in North America suggested
ecosystem services from bats added up to billions of dollars per
year
(https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/bat_crisis_white-
Limestone at a government mining facility in
Myaing Galay, near Hpa-An town, Karen
State. According to a 2006 study in the
journal Bioscience, less than 1 percent of
Myanmar’s limestone karsts are protected.
Photo by Demelza Stokes.

nose_syndrome/pdfs/Boyles2011EconomicsofBats.pdf). Southeast
Asia is home to over 340 bat species, and Myanmar houses
almost a third of those, including the Kitti’s hog-nosed bat
(Craseonycteris thonglongyai), the world’s smallest mammal
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/vanishing-point-bumblebee-
bat-is-worlds-smallest-its-also-at-risk/) (weighing only two grams).
At least 40 percent of the region’s bats use caves as roosting
sites, primarily due to their large size and stable microclimates,
the Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit has reported
(http://www.seabcru.org/portfolio/cave-bats).
Myanmar’s complex limestone cave systems allow for great diversity of
often sharing roosting sites. A 2009 study
(http://webspace.qmul.ac.uk/sjrossiter/Assets/Steve/2009%20Struebig
suggested isolated karst outcrops can serve as important population re
slowing down the decline of bat diversity in fragmented forests. Cave-d
traditionally been protected by Myanmar’s local communities and Budd
Karen State’s limestone caves due to mining or other disturbances cou
declining bat populations in surrounding connected areas.
The mining of Linno cave to provide raw materials for road constructio
Myanmar feeds into the broader transformation of Southeast Asia’s lan
increasing fragmentation of wildlife habitats. WWF reported
(https://d2ouvy59p0dg6k.cloudfront.net/downloads/the_road_ahead__
this year that Asia’s infrastructure development boom will lead to the c
new kilometers of transport projects, increasing the vulnerability of tig
animals due to “unmitigated fragmentation and destruction of their hab
around the Salween dam sites and their associated road construction p
effect of large hydropower projects as their development reverberates
ecosystems (see Part 3 (https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/my-spirit-
shadow-of-the-mong-ton-dam/)).
[quote_colored name=””
icon_quote=”no”]It starts with
sand [/quote_colored]
Another key ingredient in the
cement industry feeding Asia’s
industrial development is sand.
Aung La Teh, ex-headman of Kaw
Ku village keeps an eye out for
illegal dredging boats puttering
around Kaw Ku Island. He and
the other villagers who farm the
sediment-rich island in the middle
of the Salween are concerned
because sand mining — on the

island itself, or upstream —
causes erosion of the island. “The
Border Guard Force and business
cronies, they came and took sand
from the island,” U Saw Thein
Mein Go, Kaw Ku village’s chief
told Mongabay. “Last year they
destroyed one part of the island.
Since myself and another chief
went to stop them, we told
parliament and we asked them
put a stop to it.” The villages that
share the use of Kaw Ku Island
have an agreement to take sand
from the island or the riverbed for
their own use, not for sale, but
the increasing commercial
demand for sand has seen the
Salween riverbed become
increasingly coveted.
Sand mining isn’t the only thing
threatening the existence of Kaw
Ku Island. If plans to build five
large dams on the Salween go
ahead, the levels of sediment that
drift downstream and build up on
the island will be depleted. Most
years, the natural hydrological
cycle of the river sends seasonal
floods in August (at the peak of
the monsoon) that cover the
entire island. “The levels depend
on the rains. When the water
floods the villagers are really
happy because they get more
sediment for their agriculture,”
Aung La Teh told Mongabay.
Aung La Teh is from one of the
two villages that have over the
past thirty years shared the use of
Kaw Ku Island to grow
vegetables. He told Mongabay
that his profit from the sale of

vegetables depends directly on
the quality of the sediment on the
island.
Aung La Teh and other villagers who cross the
Salween each year to farm on Kaw Ku believe that
the Hat Gyi dam (and the other four dams) will
seriously affect their agricultural production and
livelihoods. Aside from depleting the sediment
levels on which they depend, plans for the Hat
Gyi hydropower dam include a water-diversion
project that will siphon water from Hat Gyi’s
reservoir across the border to store in the
Bhumipol dam
(http://www.prachachat.net/news_detail.php?
newsid=1472365092) in Thailand’s Tak province.
Thailand will reportedly use the water to cope
with recurring severe drought problems
(http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/03/thailand-
hit-worst-drought-decades-160330102123735.html),
but critics of Hat Gyi worry excessive water
capture and diversion will severely affect the rural
communities downstream in Myanmar who
depend on agriculture to survive.
The Hat Gyi dam site is located in Karen State’s Hlaingbwe
township, about fifty kilometers from the Thai border and 100
kilometers from the mouth of the river in Mon State, where it
flows into the Bay of Bengal. The 1,360 MW project
(https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-
files/salween_factsheet_2016.pdf) will be developed by EGAT
International Co. Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Thailand’s state-
Farmers like ex-headman Aung La Teh
depend on sediments from the Salween River
to fertilize their crops on Kaw Ku Island.
Photo by Demelza Stokes.

owned Electricity Generating Authority), Myanmar’s energy
ministry (MOEP), Myanmar’s International Group of
Entrepreneurs Co. (IGE), and Chinese state-owned Sinohydro. If
it goes ahead, the Hat Gyi dam will be the first Salween dam to
be constructed. According to International Rivers, a second
environmental impact assessment has been completed for Hat
Gyi, but the full version of the report has not been made
available to the public.
Lack of transparency around the Salween dams’
impact assessments troubles observers. The
best hope for mitigating the ecological and
social effects of a project is through
comprehensive studies of the dams’ potential
social and environmental impacts conducted
prior to construction, when it is still possible
to influence the decision-making process. “It is
urgent that the future of the Thanlwin
(Salween) River is responsibly planned and
equitably managed to protect the environment
and the inhabitants of the watershed.” Maung
Maung Aye, Chief Advisor at the Myanmar
Environment Institute, told Mongabay. While it
can’t save ecosystems, providing compensation
for loss of lands or moving people to
relocation villages can offer a solution for
dam-affected communities. However, even in
peaceful conditions these processes repeatedly
fall woefully short of their objectives
(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-
interactive/2015/nov/26/the-mekong-river-
stories-from-the-heart-of-the-climate-crisis-
interactive) (see Part 3) — let alone in
Myanmar’s conflict-ridden borderlands, where
people may have already been relocated
multiple times due to conflict.
River-dependent communities like
Aung La Teh’s, who have for
generations depended on the river’s
natural monsoonal fluctuations to
farm, are in the dark about how the
dam and its proposed water diversion
project will affect their livelihoods.
Six villages depend on the nearby

Dawla Lake, which is connected to
the Salween near Kaw Ku Island. The
lake fills up during the monsoon and
fish from the Salween migrate and
breed in the lake, and during the dry
season, villagers graze their cattle on
the land. The villagers who depend
on Dawla Lake’s flooding for their
fishing and farming needs will be
forced to seek out their livelihoods
elsewhere if the lake dries up.
Scientists have warned that dams on
the Mekong could disrupt fisheries
and seasonal floods, creating an
“ecological time-bomb”
(https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development-professionals-
network/2016/jan/08/wonder-of-the-
aquatic-world-under-threat-from-
plans-for-mekong-dams) that
threatens “the food security of
millions” — an ominous portent for
downstream Salween farmers.
[quote_colored name=””
icon_quote=”no”]“We cannot
accept that by going against the
Hat Gyi dam, we cannot get
electricity.”[/quote_colored]
Myanmar does need to increase
access to electricity to fuel its
growth and development.
Severely lagging behind its
neighbors, it has one of the
lowest electricity consumption
rates in Asia. However, the
construction agreements for the
Salween dams, signed while
Myanmar was still under military
rule, grant most of the electricity
to China and Thailand, leaving
Myanmar’s rural communities to
deal with the environmental and
social consequences. People
living near Kaw Ku Island want
more electricity, but many are

adamantly against the
construction of large dams on the
Salween River. “We cannot
accept that by going against the
Hat Gyi dam, we cannot get
electricity,” a man from Mi Kayin
village explained to a researcher
working amongst downstream
communities earlier this year.
The villagers are worried that the
Hat Gyi dam (and the four other
huge Salween dams) will seriously
affect their agricultural
production and livelihoods.
Last week, at a Green Energy
Forum in Yangon, 422 civil
society groups published a
statement calling for more
sustainable energy solutions to
meet the country’s energy needs.
“Myanmar is in a unique position
to leapfrog fossil fuels and mega
dams to focus on renewable
energy, especially community-
owned off-grid solutions, which
can be much cheaper than
expanding the central grid,” it
said. Approximately 70 percent of
Sand mining upstream has caused erosion
on Kaw Ku Island. Villagers are also worried
that the Hat Gyi dam will decrease the
amount of silt and sediment deposited by
the river, lowering soil fertility and reducing
their agricultural yields. Photo by Demelza
Stokes.

Myanmar’s citizens live in areas
not connected to the national
grid, and critics of coal and big
hydropower projects are calling
for small scale and decentralized
energy sources as a more
efficient solution to filling
Myanmar’s energy gap. “While
providing electricity for
consumers and industry is a clear
priority, the long construction
time rules out large dams for
solving the immediate crisis,” Jeff
Rutherford, a consultant who has
studied the Salween basin for
over a decade, told Mongabay.
The statement released during the Green Energy Forum called on the
National League for Democracy (NLD) to honor promises made
during the 2015 elections, which delivered the party a majority in the
new, civilian-led government. In its 2015 campaign manifesto
(http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs21/NLD_2015_Election_Manifesto-
en.pdf), the NLD warned “the construction of the large dams required
for the production of hydropower causes major environmental harm”
and committed to generating electricity from existing dams. In fact,
the NLD have Myanmar’s democratic transition to thank for
increased pressure from environmental civil society groups, who have
up until very recently been muzzled by repressive orders such as the
ban on public gatherings of more than five people that was instated
in 1988. It was only lifted in January 2013. “We are engaging this
freedom not long, it is very recent,” Pyi Pyi Thant, a researcher at the
Mekong Energy and Ecology Network told Mongabay. “The political
process domestically has allowed for the environmental movement to
get stronger, more big,” she added.
Myanmar’s environmental
movement has had some success
in bringing the Salween into the
spotlight, out of its historical
marginalization in the ethnic
minority areas along the country’s
eastern borders. Still the longest
free-flowing river in Southeast
Asia, the Salween remains one of
the world’s richest veins of ethnic
and biological diversity. It
harbors a collection of indigenous

cultures and pristine habitats —
found nowhere else on earth —
and all are at stake in damming
the river.
Myanmar’s government hopes to
exploit the Salween’s energy
potential and generate revenue
by selling electricity from a
cascade of giant dams. They will
get some of the electricity, but
most will be exported to China
and Thailand. If the dams go
through as planned, huge
reservoirs will be left in place of
flowing rivers, massively
disrupting the architecture of
surrounding ecosystems. They will
eradicate forests and farmland,
and cause mass displacement of
people already stricken by
poverty and conflict. They can
destroy fisheries. They will
increase erosion and dramatically
change the levels of silt and
sediment downstream, which will
lead to increased salinization of
its waters near the river mouth.
The Salween has multiple futures mapped out.
China’s apparent decision to shelve plans
(https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/press-
release-great-news-for-china-s-last-free-flowing-river-
11602) to dam the upper section of the Salween (Nu)
could wildly change its upstream development
pathway — a victory for scientists and
environmental groups who have worked to document
the river’s biodiversity and make the case for
preserving its integrity. Downstream, that same
integrity makes the Salween a kind of final frontier
for the heavyweight Chinese and Thai dam
developers that have built large hydroelectric dams
across the region. The multibillion-dollar investment
projects will help Myanmar keep pace with the
breakneck speed of Asia’s industrial development,

but at the cost of thousands of ethnic minority
peoples’ livelihoods and of one of Southeast Asia’s
most wild and enigmatic landscapes.
The author would like to thank the
people of Ei Thu Tha and Htee
Htay Khee IDP camps, Kaw Ku
islanders, the Mong Pan Youth
Association, Action for Shan State
Rivers, the Karen Environmental
Social Action Network, and local
researchers who have requested
anonymity, without whom gaining
access and gathering information
to compile this series would have
been impossible. You can follow or
get in touch with Demelza on
Twitter at @DemelzaStokes
(https://twitter.com/demelzastokes)
or via her website
www.demelzastokes.com
(http://www.demelzastokes.com)
Article published by Isabel Esterman

Demand for
elephant skin
driving up
poaching in
Myanmar
(warning: graphic
images)
by Shreya Dasgupta on 6 June 2017
Elephant hide is reportedly being
used for traditional medicine or is
being turned into jewellery.
With an increase in demand for
elephant skin and teeth, elephant
mothers and calves are also being
killed.
WWF has launched a
#SaveTheirSkins campaign to
help put a stop to elephant

A new elephant poaching “crisis”
is emerging in Myanmar, WWF
announced yesterday
(http://www.wwf.sg/?301710/Call-
for-international-action-to-halt-
surge-in-elephant-skinning-in-
Myanmar).
In addition to targeting wild
elephants for their tusks,
poachers are now killing
elephants for their skin. The hide
is reportedly being used for
traditional medicine or is being
turned into jewellery.
Since 2013, more than 100
elephants have been killed for
their skin, WWF said. In the first
few months of this year alone
poachers have killed at least 20
elephants, surpassing the yearly
average elephant poaching rate
for Myanmar. Each animal, killed
with poisoned darts, was skinned
or close to being skinned, Rohit
Singh, Global Wildlife Law
Enforcement Specialist at WWF,
told Mongabay.
“Elephant skins have been in the
market for the past few years, but
we recently noticed a sudden
increase in demand,” Singh said.
poaching.

“While reasons behind this surge
in demand remain unknown, we
are seeing this reflected in the
numbers of wild elephants found
killed and skinned.”
Fewer than 2,000 wild elephants
are estimated to survive in the
country now. And this recent
elephant skin fad could cause
their populations to collapse,
conservationists warn.
Ivory poaching in Asian countries
typically targets tusked male
elephants since females usually
lack tusks. In Myanmar, this
has resulted in a skewed sex ratio
of the wild elephant populations.
But now, with an increase in
Elephants are increasingly being killed for
their skin in Myanmar. Photo by Aung Myo
Chit.

demand for elephant skin and
teeth, mothers and calves are also
being killed.
“This additional pressure on
young ones and breeding females
will have serious amplifications
on the future survival of this
species in Myanmar,” Singh said.
“This is why it is so important to
put a stop to this crisis now,
before Myanmar’s wild elephant
populations become biologically
unviable.”
Elephant skin on sale at Golden Rock market
in Myanmar. Photo by anonymous.

The recent surge in poaching for
elephant skin is being
exacerbated by weak law
enforcement. For example, when
AFP reporters visited
(https://phys.org/news/2017-01-
skin-fad-threatening-myanmar-
elephants.html) Golden Rock, a
popular Buddhist pilgrimage site
in Myanmar, they found several
shops openly selling slices of
elephant skin for just a few
dollars per square inch of skin.
Shutting down these markets, and
increasing protection for the
elephants is key to combatting
the illegal wildlife trade, WWF
said.
“We urgently need to deploy
ranger squads into key priority
areas where the elephants are
being poached from – Bago
Yoma and Ayeyarwady Delta,”
Singh said. “These ranger squads
will be well-trained and equipped
to defend the remaining
elephants. In the mid- to long-
term, more can be done to put a
stop to illegal trade of wildlife in
Myanmar and the region. In
Myanmar, we want to work with

the government to close down
the key markets where illegal
wildlife products are sold.”
To help put a stop to elephant poaching, WWF has launc
a #SaveTheirSkins campaign
(https://www.savetheirskins.com/?
utm_source=mediarelease&utm_campaign=SaveTheirSk
“We are witnessing the perfect
storm for wild elephants in
Myanmar,” Christy Williams,
Country Director of WWF-
Myanmar, said in a statement.
“We urge people and
governments across this region to
come together to support
increased protection for the last
remaining wild Asian elephants in
Myanmar and beyond.”
Elephants in Myanmar. Photo by Christy
Williams.

comment, you can do that at the bottom
of the page.
Article published by Shreya Dasgupta

YANGON, Myanmar –
Conservation work in Myanmar
has been met with various
challenges such as limited
funding, an unstable political
situation and poor management
plans for forest reserves. Now, a
recent analysis of a drone survey
has found that the last remaining
mangrove breeding ground in
Myanmar’s delta region actually
has very few mangrove trees.
The first-ever drone analysis of
Mein-ma-hla Kyun Wildlife
Sanctuary (MKWS) in Myanmar’s
southern Irrawaddy Delta was
conducted in mid-October by
Fauna and Flora International
(FFI). The results of that analysis,
Conducted by Fauna & Flora
International, the survey found
that the mangrove breeding
ground is actually mostly covered
with Phoenix paludosa, or
Mangrove date palm.
Some areas within the sanctuary
with endangered mangrove tree
species have been identified and
therefore have a higher chance of
being protected from illegal
logging and experts contend that
a new, detailed restoration plan is
needed to save MKWS.
The MKWS finding highlights
challenges to conservation work
in Myanmar, which are often long
and difficult to implement, and
susceptible to unstable political
and ethnic conflict.

which have not yet been publicly
distributed, were shared with
Mongabay.
According to the drone survey
findings from the approximately
53-square-mile wetland mangrove
reserve , mangrove trees are
largely spread around the
outskirts of the island and the
surrounding areas of 6 out of 7 of
the stations that belong to the
Forestry Department.
The majority of the island is
actually covered with Phoenix
paludosa, also called Mangrove
Date Palm, a species of flowering
plants in the palm family. The
drone footage did help identify
the location of larger and
endangered mangrove trees
within the sanctuary. The areas
within the sanctuary with
endangered mangrove tree
species that were identified may
now have a higher chance of
being protected from illegal
logging.
First-ever drone survey image from MKWS
shows that the island is covered with mostly
Phoenix paludosa instead of mangrove trees.
Courtesy of Fauna & Flora International.

The findings have sent a shock
wave through the local forestry
department and Myanmar’s
conservation experts who FFI
shared the research with. The
forestry department could not be
reached for comment.
“The situation is very devastating,
it was clear that all large
mangroves as been removed.
Nargis (a 2008 cyclone) had a big
impact on the bigger tress, but
it’s clear the major impact is from
firewood extraction,” said Frank
Momberg, director of FFI
Myanmar.
Drone footage collected by FFI
clearly shows fishing boats inside
MKWS wildlife sanctuary with
stockpiles of wood carefully
loaded on their boats. Residents
of surrounding villages also
routinely collect wood in the
area.
“With very limited law
enforcement, patrolling and
managing of the the sanctuary is
a very challenging,” said
A drone image shows people in boats loaded
with wood inside the MKWS mangrove
sanctuary in October 2016. Photo courtesy of
Fauna & Flora International

Momberg. “But now we will focus
on protecting the core area so
there is no further degradation.”
According to Momberg, in order
to save MKWS, a detailed
restoration plan and major
investment are needed, but at the
moment neither the government
nor FFI have the resources to
conduct significant restoration
projects.
Local e orts
Despite troubles such as funding for
tree planting and obtaining land
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/in-
myanmars-irrawady-delta-a-rapidly-
disintegrating-mangrove-forest/) from
local authorities, raising awareness
among villagers and the country’s
unstable political situation remain the
biggest challenges for conservation
efforts.
U Htay Lay has participated in
mangrove tree workshops all
across the world including India,
China and Thailand. Originally
from the small town of Bogale in
the Delta region, he worked for
years as an officer for the forestry
department in Yangon, the largest
city in Myanmar.
“I’m happy to be back here,” said
U Htay Lay, on his way last month
to the land that he and his team
bought and built with their own
hands, Mangrove Service
Network Island, or MSN Island.
The island just 58 acres and lies
due north of MKWS on River
Bogale.
U Htay Lay and his team bought
the island back in 2012 from a rice
farmer for $2,350 in order to

avoid having to transfer the land
back to the government.
“It was low ground land and can
no longer be used to grow rice,
so we wanted to use it as a base
for conservation work,” he
explained. Other than preserving
the trees already on the island,
they have actively been growing
ten different species of
mangroves and fresh water trees
on the island.
The purpose of the island is to
use it as a nursing ground for
mangroves and as an education
center. They also launched a
campaign to educate the
approximately 75 percent of
villagers who rely on fishing for
survival. The campaign’s message
is simple: if you protect the
forest, you protect the fish and
your livelihood.
They’ve also worked to prevent
villagers from coming to the
island to collect wood by
connecting with them and
educating them that it is a private
land and off limits.
U Htay Lay, secretary of Mangrove Service
Network (MSN) shows off a mangrove tree
flower on MSN Island. Photo by Ann Wang
for Mongabay

“Funding is always difficult, but
we’ve been lucky with funds from
various embassies in Myanmar,
and we keep things cheap by
building it with our own hands,”
said U Htay Lay. The network
also generates income from
nursing certain mangroves for
various conversation groups
across the country.
Regional
conservation work
Other conservation work is being
carried out throughout Myanmar.
CARE, an international
humanitarian agency with long
term development projects, has
been establishing community
forestry in Rakhine state in the
northwest of Myanmar since 1997.
“We chose Rakhine state due to
its environmental damage and
because it is one of the less
developed state in Myanmar,”
said Nilar Shwe, a program
director for CARE Myanmar.
According to a preliminary analysis released by International Organisat
(http://www.themimu.info/sites/themimu.info/files/documents/Map_M
mangroves between 1988 and 2015. The loss of mangrove forest is caus
(http://www.president-office.gov.mm/en/?q=issues/disaster/id-6460) h
households and more than 100 acres of farmland have fallen victim to r
of Myanmar.

The path to recovery is far from
simple. Daw Nilar Shwe says that
extensive work needs to be done
before even planting a single
tree.
“We have to form a community
forest management group with
the villagers, and use that group
to apply for land from forestry
department, and obtain a
certificate to use the land by
local authorize,” Shwe said. But
after every step is completed,
successful applicants are allowed
to use the land for 30 years
without taxes or fees.
Then the work can finally begin.
“We train villagers to plant trees
for firewood, timber but also for
environmental protection in the
community forest,” Shwe said.
Many people in the Rakhine
region are landless, but according
to regulations for forming a
community forest, all members
must have once acre of land. So
far the project has been initiated
in 120 villages in Maungdaw and
Buthidaung district in Northern
Rakhine state, at a cost of
$600,000 per year with funding
from the EU, AusAID and various
other organizations.
Regional tensions
The most difficult part of this
project, according to Shwe, is the
uncertain political situation in
A villager stands in front of a rice paddy in
one of the villages surrounding MKWS. The
area used to be mangrove forest, but since
people started to move in about 40 years
ago, much of the land has been transformed
into rice paddy fields. Photo by Ann Wang
for Mongabay

Myanmar. She says that a lot of
the community forest was
distorted in the 2012 Rakhine
riots, in which at least 82 people
were killed, 4,600 homes burned
and more than 22,000 people
were displaced due to a series of
conflicts between Rohingya
Muslims and the Buddhist
community, according to the
government.
Nine police officers were killed
and four wounded in Maungdaw,
Rakhine State in early
October this year, which
triggered another series of
violence leading to a lock down
in the district. The Myanmar
military has killed about 69
members of what it has described
as a Rohingya Muslim militant
group since the conflict began,
according to Global New Light of
Myanmar, a state-controlled
newspaper, on November 15.
Ostensibly, the conflict has had a
serious impact on conservation
efforts.
“We had to suspend our
implementation in that area since
October,” said Shwe. “Many of
the community forests are shared
between villagers of different
religion at our projects sites in
Northern Rakhine, but due to all
these conflicts, the trust between
villagers are gone and will be very
hard to be rebuilt again.”
Banner image:
Ann Wang is a foreign correspondent and
photojournalist based in Myanmar. You
can find her on Instagram at AnnWang077
(https://www.instagram.com/annwang077/).

“I just get poorer and poorer,”
Leh Paw, a Karen woman recently
displaced due to conflict in
Myanmar’s Karen (Kayin) state,
told Mongabay in November.
Ethnic armed groups in
Myanmar’s border states have
been in conflict with the central
government for more than half a
century.
Civil society groups, ethnic
political groups and ethnic armed
groups already blame the Salween
dams for either exacerbating
existing conflict or prompting
new military incursions.
The UNHCR estimates that as of
December 2015, Myanmar already
has some 400,000 internally
displaced persons, entire
communities who have had to
flee from war, natural disasters or
development projects. Many fear
the dams could create thousands
more.
Leh Paw, an ethnic Karen woman taking
refuge in Htee Htay Khee village speaks with
Mongabay in November. Photo by Demelza
Stokes.

This is the third time in 30-year-
old Leh Paw’s life that she has
been forced to leave her village
due to conflict, “You see me now,
I live in poverty. I just get poorer
and poorer, until I have nothing.
Because of the conflict I have
had to flee, again and again. And
when we flee we have to give up
everything, our property, paddy
fields, buffalos, crops. We have
nothing left.”
Leh Paw is from Po Chi Ler
village in the Myaing Gyi Ngu
area of Hlaingbwe township,
Karen state. She fled from her
home earlier this year due to
ongoing violent clashes between
the Tatmadaw, its allied Border
Guard Force (BGF), and a splinter
group of the Democratic Karen
Benevolent Army (DKBA). Along
with her husband and two
children, Leh Paw is among over
300 internally displaced persons
(IDPs) who are still taking refuge
in Htee Thay Khee village on the
bank of the west bank of the
Moei River in eastern Myanmar,
at the border with Thailand.
Htee Thay Khee’s IDPs are the latest in hundreds
of thousands of ethnic minority people who have
been displaced through Myanmar’s decades of
conflict. In 2014 there were approximately 110,000
IDPs in southeast Myanmar, displaced due to war,
natural disasters or large-scale development
projects, according to a survey
(http://www.burmalibrary.org/docs19/TBC_report-
2014-11-idp-en-red.pdf) by The Border Consortium
(a group of non-governmental organizations). To
the north, 300,000 people
(http://khrg.org/1998/05/khrg9803/killing-shan-
continuing-campaign-forced-relocation-shan-

state) are thought to have been displaced from
Shan state alone during Myanmar army
(Tatmadaw) offensives in the 1990s.
This is the second article in a five-part series
exploring Myanmar’s Salween landscape amid
galvanizing plans to develop hydropower
projects along its course.
Part I
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/11/damming-
the-salween-what-next-for-southeast-asias-last-
great-free-flowing-river/) outlines plans being
made by businesses and governments in China,
Thailand and Myanmar to harness the
Salween’s vast hydroelectric potential.
Part III
spirit-is-there-life-in-the-shadow-of-the-mong-
ton-dam/) uncovers some of the Salween’s
ethnic and ecological biodiversity at stake,
focusing on the Kun Heng “thousand islands,”
a unique riverine ecology facing submersion
under the Mong Ton dam reservoir in Shan
State.
Part IV
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/karen-
people-call-for-a-peace-park-instead-of-big-
hydropower-in-their-homeland/) meets actors
involved in creating the ‘Salween Peace Park,”
combining wildlife conservation and peace-
building in Karen State, where the world’s
longest running civil war has raged since 1949.
Hlaingbwe in Karen (Kayin) State lies north
of the Salween Delta, between Yangon and
the Thai border. Inset shows conflicts from
the 1990s until early 2016. Map courtesy of
Map for Environment, inset courtesy of
CenterLeftRight and Aoetearoa/Wikimedia
Commons.

Part V
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/stone-
sand-water-the-key-ingredients-changing-the-
salween-landscape/)focuses on downstream
Salween communities’ livelihoods and ongoing
changes facing the broader Salween landscape
due to Myanmar’s rapid economic
development.
Myanmar’s ethnic border states
have been riven by almost
seventy years of conflict. From a
few months after Myanmar gained
independence in January 1948
right up until today, ethnic
organizations have been pursuing
armed struggle to advance their
political demands. These have
ranged from full independence to
greater autonomy and federalism,
and started with the Karen
National Union (KNU) which
began fighting government forces
in early 1949.
Since 2011 — when former-
general Thein Sein was sworn in
as president of the new
nominally-civilian government
after the country’s first elections
in 20 years — Myanmar has
undergone significant reforms
and has tried to initiate a
comprehensive peace process. On
October 15, 2015, the Tatmadaw
and eight armed groups signed a
multilateral agreement, known as
the Nationwide Ceasefire
Agreement (NCA). It is not truly
“nationwide,” however, since
many ethnic armed organizations
did not sign it — including seven
ethnic armed organizations that
have signed separate bilateral
ceasefires with the Thein Sein-led

government, and four that have
no individual ceasefire
agreements with the government
and are involved in ongoing
conflict with the Tatmadaw.
Building on the patchy NCA, this year’s newly
elected government (led by the National
League for Democracy) convened with the
country’s armed groups to negotiate a national
peace settlement at the “Union Peace
Conference” during August and September.
Meanwhile, conflict continues, and fighting has
intensified
(http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/locals-
in-northern-shan-state-warned-to-take-
precautions-as-fighting-escalates.html) in
northern Shan state during November between
an alliance of four ethnic armed groups (none
of whom are signatories to the NCA) and the
Myanmar army, leading to the recent
displacement of 3,000 people
(http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-
myanmar-idUSKBN13H07I) to China.
Amid Myanmar’s intensely complex conflict scenario, plans press forwa
build the five large Salween dams, which all lie in or near areas of cont
governance in Shan, Karenni and Karen states. Due to the dangerous s
on the ground in most of the dam site areas, it is extremely difficult fo
researchers, journalists and local civilians to independently verify the s
the projects.This August, Myanmar’s Ministry of Electricity and Energy’
(MOEP) permanent secretary said at a press conference that the Salwe
A soldier from the Karen National Liberation
Army’s Brigade 5 stands on the west bank of
the Salween. Photo by Demelza Stokes.

would go ahead
(http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/macroeconomics/30
And in a recent Strategic Environmental Assessment workshop (more in
III), the MOEP outlined estimated completion dates for the dams, runn
2021-2031 (http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/c7302c68-f34f-40bd-9
6ad04c0cfe0b/IFC%27s+SEA+Workshop.pdf?MOD=AJPERES).
The nationwide SEA aims to “promote consensus on a sustainable hydr
pathway for Myanmar,” and is being led by the World Bank Group’s Int
Corporation (IFC), which signed an advisory services agreement to coo
in implementing the SEA. Observers (http://www.mmtimes.com/index.p
myanmar-s-hydropower-study-truly-be-for-the-people.html) welcome the
improve public engagement and negotiation across Myanmar’s hydropo
introduction of international standards such as the IFC’s Performance S
operating in Myanmar. The IFC’s Performance Standard 4 encourages s
operating (investing) in conflict or post-conflict scenarios, stating
(http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/a40bc60049a78f49b80efaa8c6a8
MOD=AJPERES) that the risks that a project could exacerbate an exis
should “not be overlooked as it may lead to further conflict.”
Fear of the dams fueling more
conflict in Myanmar’s ethnic
areas led to a coalition of ethnic
Shan political groups to call for
the government to halt the
Salween dam plans in August this
year. “This is a conflict area, until
now, the dams could affect peace
and cause a lot more conflict in
our ethnic areas,” Nang War Nu,
Director of the Kun Heing
Foundation and ex-member of
parliament for the Shan
Nationalities Democratic Party
told Mongabay.Further to the
south in Karen state, ethnic
political and military leaders have
also urged the government to put
a moratorium on the Salween dam
projects until there is real peace
in the country. “During the peace
process, or until we have genuine
peace, any mega-development
projects should not go ahead,”
General Baw Kyaw Heh, Vice
Chief of Staff of the KNU’s armed
wing, told Mongabay earlier this

year. “These deals were signed
between the Myanmar
government and the foreign
companies, not with the inclusion
of the Karen people. We haven’t
been included in any discussion
regarding how these dams will
benefit the people. In fact, they
have created destruction even
before they’ve been started.” he
said.
Observers question the
government’s ability to ensure
genuinely participatory and
transparent consultations with
communities living around the
Salween dams as IDPs continue
to flee from conflict near the
sites in Myanmar’s Shan and
Karen states (more in Part III). “It
is unclear whether the SEA will be
able to stop the clock on
controversial projects to enable
meaningful and inclusive debate
about whether projects should be
built,” Pianporn Deetes, Thailand
campaign coordinator at
environmental group International
Rivers told Mongabay.
Evidence of construction
activities already occurring at the
dam sites highlights the massive
discrepancies between hopes at
policy level in Naypyidaw
(Myanmar’s capital) and the
reality of life on the ground in
active conflict zones, where a
multitude of actors operate
outside the control of the central
government (including possibly
the Myanmar army and private
companies). UN special
rapporteur on human rights for

Myanmar Yanghee Lee said in
July she “observed the very real
tension between a new civilian
leadership and a bureaucracy
inherited from previous military
regimes which often resulted in a
duality in policy and approach.”
Critics of the dams fear the
projects are already bulldozing
ahead with scant regard for the
welfare of local people and with
no genuine mechanisms in place
to ensure that they are either
involved in public consultations
or receive fair compensation if
they give up their land for the
projects. Land disputes in
Myanmar are a “major national
problem” according to Human
Rights Watch, which found those
displaced by natural resource
extraction and infrastructure
projects (even in peaceful areas)
are often displaced without
adequate consultation,
compensation, or due process of
law.In Karen state, ethnic Karen
leaders and local people directly
connect recent fighting in Karen
state with the drive to build the
Hat Gyi dam.
The clashes in September this
year in Myaing Gyi Ngu and Mae
Tha Waw areas of Karen state’s
Hlaingbwe township led to the
displacement of around five
thousand people. Some attribute
this year’s conflict to efforts by
the Tatmadaw via its allied BGF
to rein in a renegade DKBA-
splinter group, who are not a
signatory to the NCA. But
observing the topography of the
areas in question, some ethnic
political leaders in the KNU,

leaders of the KNU’s armed wing,
the Karen National Liberation
Army (KNLA), and civil society
link the recent conflict in Karen
state with the need to secure
access roads to and the Hat Gyi
dam site.
The fighting occurred in areas along the Myaing Gyi Ngu – Mae Tha W
near to the Hat Gyi site to the Thai border. Observers call it an “acces
(http://kesan.asia/media/Documents/KRWPressReleaseOnRecentFight
to Hat Gyi, that will be needed to transport construction materials from
work on the dam. The KNLA’s General Baw Kyaw Heh told NGO Karen
statement this year,
(http://kesan.asia/media/Documents/KRWPressReleaseOnRecentFight
“In order to implement the plan for Hat Gyi Dam, the Burmese and BG
the road and the surrounding areas.” In their statement, KRW accuses
pretense of eliminating the DKBA splinter group to take control of mo
dam site.
“It is important that fighting stops in the
area. It is KNU policy that before we have
reached a political agreement with the
government, these mega-projects should not
be built,” Naw Zipporah Sein, vice
chairperson of the KNU, told Mongabay in a
phone interview. Concerned with the recent
escalation in fighting, the KNU released a
statement
(http://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/knu-
Lieutenant Colonel Kyaw Mue of the KNLA’s
Brigade 5 has been based on the Salween for
over 20 years. “I don’t think it is good to
build dams on Salween River in our
territories at this moment as the peace
process is not completed and there is no
certainty for a lasting peace,” he told
Mongabay. Photo by Demelza Stokes.

tells-burma-army-to-cease-hostilities-in-
karen-state.html) on September 13 calling for
the Tatmadaw and the BGF to cease military
activity in Karen state, stating it could derail
the peace process.
The Hat Gyi dam will be located in Karen state’s Hlaingbwe
township, approximately fifty kilometers from the Thai border
and 100 kilometers from the mouth of the river in Mon state,
where it flows into the Bay of Bengal. The 1,360 MW project,
(https://www.internationalrivers.org/sites/default/files/attached-
files/salween_factsheet_2016.pdf) will be developed by EGAT
International Co. Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Thailand’s state-
owned Electricity Generating Authority), Myanmar’s energy
ministry (MOEP), Myanmar’s International Group of
Entrepreneurs Co. (IGE), and Chinese state-owned Sinohydro.
IGE company is owned by the son of former military regime
minister Aung Thaung
(http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/24/world/asia/u-aung-thaung-
burmese-politician-accused-of-abuses-dies-at-74.html), who died
last year, and was placed on the United States Treasury
Department’s blacklist in 2014 for ‘…perpetuating violence,
oppression, and corruption,’ (https://www.treasury.gov/press-
center/press-releases/Pages/JL2680.aspx) as well as
undermining Myanmar’s democratic transition. The MOEP’s
estimated completion date for the Hat Gyi dam is 2020-2021
(http://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/c7302c68-f34f-40bd-
99b3-6ad04c0cfe0b/IFC%27s+SEA+Workshop.pdf?
MOD=AJPERES).
MILITARIZATION AROUND THE
DAMS ALREADY MAKING LIFE
UNBEARABLE FOR CIVILIANS
Researchers have documented
militarization of the Salween dam
areas through expansion of army
camps and army personnel,
increased checkpoints along
access roads, and through the
provision of security for
construction companies (and
mining or logging companies).
Some of the areas have
essentially become no-go zones
for local people. “When the

companies come to visit and
implement the projects, the
military comes to protect them
and provides security. Because of
that they also don’t allow locals
to go there,” Nang Kham Mai,
campaign coordinator at the Shan
Sapawa Environmental
Organization, told Mongabay.
Residents living around the Salween dam sites have
documented an increase in other activities such as
logging and mining in the future reservoir sites.
Companies affiliated with the Tatmadaw, the
Tatmadaw itself and ethnic armed groups all engage
in a militarized extraction of Myanmar’s rich natural
resources. In areas where rule of law is thin on the
ground, this carries with it a deluge of threats (and
human rights abuses) to local people living near the
dam sites where preemptive resource extraction
takes place. The Shan Human Rights Foundation
(SHRF) reported in 2013
(http://shanhumanrights.org/old_version/index.php?
option=com_content&view=article&id=394:13-
december-2013-&catid=75:action-updae) that the
Tatmadaw provided security for loggers clearing
teak from the Mong Ton dam’s projected flood
zone, and conscripted local villagers into forced
labor for the military. Forced labor and a host of
other human rights violations by armed groups have
propelled thousands of ethnic Shan people to
migrate to Thailand over the last two decades.
A Chinese gold mining boat picture north of
the Mong Ton dam site in 2015. Photo
courtesy of the Mong Pan Youth Association.

More recently, local researchers
working on a project with think-
tank CGIAR documented in
February this year that the
Myanmar army and a Lahu militia
provide security for the Chinese
construction and gold mining
companies currently operating at
the Mong Ton dam site. Chinese
companies hired the Lahu militia
through the Myanmar army to
provide them with protection,
villagers living near the dam site
claimed. The villagers also told
researchers that when the
Chinese (and their security) are
present, they are too afraid to
venture into the forest except
during daylight hours, and do not
go to the river to fish or pan for
gold at any time the Chinese are
present. Some activists are afraid
that these conditions will result in
a forceful depopulation of the
area surrounding the Mong Ton
dam site.
“Those who belong to the
Thanlwin river are the people who
will be most affected by the
dams,” Daw Nang Khin Thar Ye,
current member of parliament and
member of the Shan Nationalities
League for Democracy, told
Mongabay. “They have already
suffered from years of war, so I
am against the dam projects,” she
said.Whether or not dams are a
root cause of conflict in
Myanmar, ongoing conflict and
well-documented militarization
around the dam sites is causing

the displacement of thousands of
ethnic people, many of whom
remain unable to return home.
With the dams moving forward in
the meantime, it remains to be
seen if Myanmar’s new civilian
government can ensure dam
companies commit to
international standards of
practice and ensure affected
peoples’ human rights. For now,
villagers fleeing conflict in the
Myaing Gyi Ngu area are too
afraid to return because of
landmines planted during this
year’s conflict. “I fled with
nothing,” Leh Paw told
Mongabay, “I came here in the
clothes I am in. We left all our
belongings. We couldn’t carry
food, rice, or clothes. We didn’t
finish planting our crops. My
husband wants to go back, but we
are too scared.”
Continue reading Part III
spirit-is-there-life-in-the-shadow-of-the-
mong-ton-dam/), which explores ethnic
and ecological diversity in areas that will
be affected by the dams.
Article published by Isabel Esterman

Mongabay Series: Endangered Environmentalists,
Global Forests
Attacks on
journalists in
Myanmar highlight
complications,
dangers for the
media
by Mongabay.com on 15 December 2016
Soe Moe Tun’s murder was
followed the next day by a
roadside attack on journalist
Kyaw Thura Myo.
Myanmar is on the Committee to
Protect Journalists list “10 Most
Censored Countries” list.
Reporting on the illegal logging
industry in the country has
exacerbated security risks in the
past year.

The murder of a Burmese reporter
investigating illegal logging and
the roadside beating of another,
both in Myanmar earlier this
week, have raised new fears
about media safety in the country.
Soe Moe Tun, a 37 year-old Burmese reporter
with Daily Eleven newspaper, was found
“severely beaten”
(https://news.mongabay.com/2016/12/journalist-
murdered-while-investigating-illegal-logging-in-
myanmar/) to death by the side of a highway
near the town of Monywa in Myanmar’s central
Sagaing region on Dec. 13. Police are
investigating his murder but robbery doesn’t
appear to be the motive: his valuables were
found at the crime scene.
Kyaw Zaw Linn is editor-in-chief
at Eleven Media, which owns
Daily Eleven. He said in an
interview with Mongabay that Soe
Moe Tun was the newspaper’s
Eleven Media HQ in Yangon, Myanmar.
Photo by Ann Wang for Mongabay

only reporter based in Monywa
and had never mentioned any
security concerns. The Sagaing
region is well known as a hub for
illegal logging that operates in
spite of a logging ban that’s been
in effect for most of 2016. Soe
Moe Tun had reported twenty
stories for the outlet since
January 2015 and was the father
of an eight year-old boy.
It’s not the first time the outlet
has been targeted.
“This case shows that, we journalists have to care
and be careful about everything, especially our
safety,” said Linn. “Last year, our CEO U Than Htut
Aung was attacked on July 14 in front of our office
building and now he is waiting for the defamation
trial
(http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/myanmar-
court-denies-bail-for-detained-eleven-media-ceo-and-
editor-11302016162411.html).” He added that despite
the apparent risks, other reporters with the media
group will continue their work.
“We are scared of what happened
to Soe Moe Tun, but we are
journalists, we have chosen our
profession, so we are not afraid
(of doing our job).”
According to the Myanmar Journalist Network,
Soe Moe Tun isn’t the only journalist to have
been targeted by timber traffickers. In a
statement, the group said Tin Zaw Oo, a
journalist based in Myanmar’s Mandalay region
was forced into hiding in the past two months
following threats from timber traders. Illegal

timber trafficking in that area has also been
active, despite recent crackdowns
logging-ban-feeds-shadow-economy-of-illegal-
trade/) by authorities. On Wednesday, Kyaw
Thura Myo was attacked in Mandalay, just two
hours east of Monywa, though it’s not clear why
he was attacked. Kyaw Thura Myo has worked
for a journal that focuses on agricultural and
farming news called The Farmer since 2012.
In a December 15 statement, the Farmer
Media Group said that he was surrounded
and beaten by four assailants on the
roadside at about 9 p.m. while returning
home by motorcycle. The motive for the
attack is unknown and there is no evidence
that his case is related to the attack on Soe
Moe Ton. However, Eleven Media Group
(http://www.elevenmyanmar.com/local/7050)
did quote a video he posted on Facebook
noting that his publication had recently
reported on the trade situation in Muse, a
border region with China in Myanmar’s
restive northeastern region.
China imports hundreds of millions of dollars
in illegal timber overland from Myanmar every
year, according to the Environmental
Investigation Agency (EIA). An EIA report
released in 2015
(https://s3.amazonaws.com/environmental-
investigation-
agency/assets/2015/09/Organised_Chaos.pdf)
details how the Chinese pay (https://eia-
global.org/reports/organized-chaos-the-illicit-
overland-timber-trade-between-myanmar-and-

china) “in gold bars for the rights to log entire
mountains” and rely on the corruption of local
officials to pass through checkpoints.
In the region where Soe Moe Tun
was murdered, logging is so
common in the towns and villages
surrounding the forested hills that
in some places, nearly everyone
seems to have a stake. In the
words of one official there who
asked not to be named in an
interview: “The profession of this
town is logging.”
Reporting on it, however, isn’t so
welcome – especially since a
recent ban made the trade illegal.
In one town, officials recently
said the industry had been
relatively open until the ban and
had since been pushed
underground. Now, few people
want to talk for fear of being
A truck load of timber heads towards the
ports at Yangon for export. Photo by Ann
Wang for Mongabay

thrown in jail, and activists are
extremely reluctant and afraid to
go to some of the remote areas
where logging takes place. Some
of the people involved could be
dangerous, they said, and many
are on drugs. Corruption has
helped logging to continue in
many places and officials sought
to play down how much they
knew about the trade, for fear of
being accused of involvement.
The situation is so complex that
reporting on it is difficult work
that requires experienced
reporters, institutional knowledge
and support from outlets, and at
least basic safety training.
Yet Myanmar is a place where
even the concept of freedom of
the press is very new: the country
came under a quasi-civilian
government in 2011 after decades
of military rule. It takes ninth
place on the Committee to
Protect Journalist’s “10 Most
Censored Countries
(https://cpj.org/2015/04/10-most-
censored-countries.php)” list.
Several laws meant to protect the
media were only recently
instituted. In 2014 the Printing
and Publishing Enterprise Law
(PPEL) was adopted, which
officially abolished prior
censorship and made a path for

the editorial independence of
newspapers from the state. The
Broadcasting Law of 2015 made
way for private, public and
community media to flourish. It
was late 2015 when the Myanmar
News Media Council was
established.
A first-ever assessment of its kind by UNESCO
(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-
information/resources/publications-and-communication-
materials/publications/full-list/assessment-of-media-
development-in-myanmar/) and press freedom NGO
International Media Support found in a report released in
June 2016
(http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002447/244760E.pd
that there is a “skills deficit” among reporters employed by
the proliferation of new media publishers. The assessment
took 18 months and looked at 50 key indicators in Myanmar’s
media landscape.
Zaw Htike, a trainer at Myanmar
Journalism Institute (MJI), said
that of Myanmar’s roughly 4,000
journalists, only about one-third
have had any type of safety
training for reporting. MJI is the
first private and independent
journalism school in Myanmar
and gives courses on basic
journalism training, election
coverage, business reporting,
environmental reporting, and
investigative reporting.They have
trained hundreds of students.

Despite their work, Htike said
many reporters are still very new
to the industry, and may not
understand basic safety protocols.
Add to that a boom in
competition and pressure to get
the story. Since the government
allowed the publication of daily
newspapers in 2013, the number
of journalists has doubled,
according to Htike.
Some safety protocols just come down to keeping a low prof
Soe Moe Tun’s case, on December 6 – less than a week befo
was killed – he shared his own post on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?
fbid=633188453476502&set=pcb.633188513476496&type=3&t
from 2014 that included photos of a notebook with the names
contact information of illegal loggers caught in 2014.
A screen shot of Soe Moe Ton’s Facebook
posting from Dec. 6 where he shared notes
with names and phone numbers of illegal
loggers and colluding police. Soe Moe
Tun/Facebook

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