Myanmar’s forests are in trouble. Two recent reports reveal the rapid loss of tree cover over the past five years has been so severe Myanmar ranks among the worst for deforestation in the world.
Between 2010 and 2015 Myanmar lost an average of 546,000 hectares of forest each year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization – ranking it behind only Brazil and Indonesia in terms of forest losses. Photo: AFP
Since 2010, Myanmar has lost more than 546,000 hectares (over 1.3 million acres) of forest on average each year, according to a report by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
The chunk of forest lost annually is about the size of fellow ASEAN country Brunei, and over the past five years adds up to the size of Equatorial Guinea.
Almost 2 percent of the country’s forest cover, based on 2010 levels, has been lost each year, or 8.5pc over the five years. Myanmar had the third-highest annual rate of forest reduction, just behind deforestation-plagued Brazil and Indonesia, according to the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2015, released on September 7.
The loss of such sizeable forestry could have a devastating impact, leaving the country even more vulnerable to incipient extreme weather events brought about by climate change, including more severe bouts of flooding, drought and disease. Some meteorologists have even blamed this year’s drastic floods on land use changes, and especially on the loss of forestry.
“Forests play a fundamental role in combating rural poverty, ensuring food security and providing people with livelihoods. And they deliver vital environmental services such as clean air and water, the conservation of biodiversity and combating climate change,” said FAO director general José Graziano da Silva.
According to many climate model predictions, Myanmar is already one of the most climate-disaster-prone nations. In the UN Risk Model, Myanmar tops the charts as the most vulnerable to climate change. Deforestation only amplifies those vulnerabilities by contributing to the degradation of the watershed, facilitating soil erosion that allows runoff and floods, and interfering with the natural carbon cycle.
While forest covered an estimated 65pc of the country in 2000, that number has been reduced to 45pc in 2015, according to the FAO assessment.
Forest resource change typically occurs due to forces outside the forest, such as urbanisation, demands for agricultural land, mining or infrastructure development, the FAO said.
According to a separate report by the Global Forest Watch published last week, the Greater Mekong Region is home to some of the most biodiverse tropical forests, while at the same time subject to some of the fiercest deforestation. Using satellite images, the monitoring centre based out of the University of Maryland found that the average rate of tree loss in the Mekong – including Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and China – jumped more than five-fold between 2001 and 2014.
The report also noted that the Myanmar’s forestry sector directly employs some 36,000 people and contributed US$254 million to the economy.
“Conserving forest coverage is the answer to sustaining the natural environment of the country,” said U Tin Aye, a forestry expert and member of the Myanmar Forest Association. “I would like to suggest conserving forests be made a national priority.”
From: The Myanmar Times