Myanmar to re-assess 21-year old forest policy

Myanmar will re-assess the country's forest policy which was drafted in 1995 in order to adapt to the current situation, local authorities said Wednesday.

The factors which prompted the re-assessment are that Myanmar failed to implement the policy as the country depended on forest resources extraction to solve the fiscal requirement and also failed to take action against illegal wood extraction, said U Ohn Win, Minister for Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, at a policy workshop held here.

The government announced in April suspension of logging for the current fiscal year 2016-2017 to prevent entrepreneurs engaged in the industry from suffering shortage of raw materials.

Meanwhile, it said that it will allow resumption of limited timber production in the next fiscal year 2017-18.

However, the private companies will no longer be allowed for logging but the state-run Myanmar Timber Enterprise will do, said U Nyi Nyi Tun, deputy director general of Myanmar Timber Enterprise.

Myanmar is one of most resource-rich countries in Southeast Asia. However, statistics show that forest coverage in Myanmar dropped to 42.92 percent in 2015 from over 57 percent in 1990.

Myanmar has restricted wood logs export to encourage more export of value added wood products since 2014. Enditem