Myanmar Exploits Forests For Political Gain, teak trees

Myanmar Exploits Forests For Political Gain, Watchdog Says

Rampant logging in Myanmar by the ruling junta, rebel groups and foreign companies threatens to destroy that country's rich forests, an international watchdog group said yesterday.

According to a report by the London-based Global Witness, Myanmar's forests - nicknamed "brown gold" by the local population and comprising 60 percent of the world's teak trees - have been the victim of political and economic exploitation by the junta (Darren Schuettler, Reuters/Planet Ark, Oct. 9).

A Conflict of Interests: The Uncertain Future of Burma's Forests accuses Myanmar's government of giving logging concessions to rebel groups in order to keep them at peace, resulting in deforestation in cease-fire areas. Myanmar is also known as Burma (Vijay Joshi, Associated Press/Environmental News Network, Oct. 9).

The military government "remains resolutely in power, sustained by its control over natural resources, in particular timber," says the watchdog group.

The regime itself uses revenue from timber to put down insurgent groups still at war, while rebels chop down and sell trees in order to pay for their campaigns.

The report also suggests that Myanmar has used "resource diplomacy" in order to maintain friendly relations with neighbors China and Thailand. Tens of thousands of Chinese laborers are employed in the timber trade in Myanmar and charge exorbitant prices for their work, says the report. Profits have generated political cooperation: both China and Thailand have criticized the U.S. and European sanctions imposed on Myanmar after the detention of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (Schuettler, Reuters/Planet Ark).

In 2002, logging made up 9.3 percent of reported foreign-exchange earnings of the junta, but Global Witness estimates that the real number is at least double that.

"There is a lot of hypocrisy there," Global Witness researcher Simon Phillips told the AP. "They (the Chinese) are simply exporting their environmental burden to Burma" (Joshi, AP/ENN).