Identifying conservation issues in northern Myanmar (Burma)

Dr Tint Lwin Thaung
Forest Conservation Coordinator (Asia-Pacific)
The Nature Conservancy Indo-Pacific Resource Centre

Tuesday 13 November 2007, 12.30-1.30pm
Seminar Room B, Coombs Building
The Australian National University

Abstract: Kachin State in northern Myanmar is home to many biological hotspots, including subtropical moist forests, hill forests, alpine meadows and broadleaf and conifer forests (Olson and Dinerstein 1998). Global Witness (2005) recently reported considerable unease about the scale of illegal forest activities in Kachin State. Kahrl et al. (2004) analysed the China-Myanmar timber trade and its implications for forests and livelihoods in Myanmar’s Kachin State and the Yunnan Province of China. They found that China’s demand for timber was an underlying cause for the unsustainable harvest of valuable forests in Kachin State. Unsustainable logging was discussed comprehensively in the above mentioned studies, but the views of local stakeholders from Kachin State were not thoroughly considered. This chapter seeks to understand the views of local stakeholders in regard to natural resource conservation issues.

The speaker: Tint Lwin Thaung, a native of Burma/Myanmar, was trained as a forester, natural resource manager and restoration ecologist in Burma, Thailand and Australia. He has worked on natural resource conservation and community development in Burma/Myanmar and Australia for 20 years. From 1993 to 1997, he worked for the Wildlife Conservation Service in Myanmar. He is dedicated to promoting conservation and development assistance in Burma/Myanmar and to providing training opportunities for younger generations from Myanmar. He has degrees in Forestry from Rangoon University (1985), a Masters degree in Natural Resources from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok (1992), and a PhD from the University of Queensland (2002). He currently lives in Australia. He has published numerous articles on conservation based on fieldwork undertaken in Myanmar.