Myanmar’s people have suffered a brutal nationwide crackdown aimed at suppressing widespread opposition to the military throughout the last 12 months. But in the country’s mountain regions and thick forests, a less visible attack on the environment that people depend on to live is unfolding.Over the last year, military generals have ramped up lucrative and devastating destruction of Myanmar’s natural wealth. This steep rise in use of finite natural resources threatens precarious ecosystems, the health of which is intrinsically connected to Myanmar peoples’ wellbeing, right now and in the future. 

These environmental crimes violate human rights as they endanger critical freshwater sources; viable land for agriculture; sources of medicine; air quality, and puts Myanmar’s people at greater risk of the impacts of climate change such as extreme weather events. Efforts to pursue sustainable solutions and develop climate resilience have also been derailed. 

This dangerous disregard for the environment will also limit the potential for more equitable and sustainable use to support long term economic growth. 

As those with power benefit from this spate of exploitation, some people in Myanmar have already been driven to make use of nature for their own survival.

One year on, Project Yokkasoe looks back at the exploitation crisis which has unfolded since February 2021. 

As many reading this article will know, Myanmar has some of the most valuable timber on earth - including teak, Burmese rosewood and Paduk. Historically, these natural assets proved to be a blessing and a curse as they were plundered to fund various military regimes. 

During the country’s recent period of democracy, Myanmar saw deforestation rates slow (though it continued to have one of the highest deforestation rates on earth), but after 1 February 2021, concerns that the military would once again ramp up deforestation came to pass. From the sky, satellite imagery identified aggressive deforestation in Lenya, with 355,000 deforestation alerts recorded between 1 February and 9 August. Where once thick forest thrived, pixelated patches of brown debris have been left behind. Reports from the ground also began to trickle into the media, with sources claiming that 40-50 timber trucks headed from Sagaing Province to Yunnan, China, on a daily basis. It also came to light the military had auctioned off stockpiles of seized illegal timber, with 12,500 tonnes of teak sold in September 2021. 

This ongoing deforestation creates a series of problems for communities living in and around the forest – affecting clean drinking water, increasing the risks posed by landslides and floods, and the availability of viable land for agriculture. With these critical resources compromised, communities may not have access to even the minimum standards of human dignity.

The destruction of natural habitat for wildlife also invariably endangers the survival of many species, including rare tigers who use Lenya region as a corridor for movement. Deforestation also enables poachers to enter previously inaccessible areas of forest, which raises concerns given that sales of illegal wildlife products online have exploded in Myanmar since February 2021.

Rare earth and gem mining has also accelerated throughout the last 12 months. Myanmar’s military generals have long profited from gem sales such as jade, which have supported the long-term survival of previous military regimes. The mines excavated to harvest these gems as well as commodities such as ammonium sulphate have changed forest landscapes, leaving behind barren quarries the size of towns. This is not new to Myanmar, but as of June 2021, approximately 10 new rare earth mines were reported to have opened near the border of Sam Nau alone, with local environmental groups estimating there to be more than 100 junta sponsored rare earth mines in Pangwa and Chipwe townships. When local media reported that a gem fair was due to take place in Naypyidaw in December, concerns over the military’s potential to resume issuing permits for gemstone mining surged.

Large scale initiatives outlined in 2021 also pose further threats to Myanmar’s people, wildlife and natural resources. 

In February 2021, the head of the military revealed plans to restart currently stalled hydropower projects, casting widespread, worried rumours that this would include restarting construction on the highly controversial and contested Myitsone Dam. It was originally halted in 2011, following a nationwide anti-Myitsone movement that started in the northern region of Kachin. The Chinese-funded Myitsone Dam would come at a huge cost, destroying a sacred site, and flooding an area the size of Singapore, displacing 47 villages and 12,000 people. If built, the dam will also disrupt delicate sediment dynamics in the river which enable fish and nutrients to travel to breed and replenish the stocks which provide 90% of protein consumed in Myanmar. A disruption like this will worsen food security in what is already a precarious situation for millions of people. 

In November, the military’s agriculture minister Tin Htut Oo spoke about expanding palm oil plantations in Tanintharyi. Their official paper said, “implementations are underway” to make the region a “big oil pot based on palm oil”. The potential loss of this ecosystem bears global consequences: the pristine forests of Tanintharyi play a vital role in carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change impacts the world over, and are home to many rare and endangered species. 

But on the ground, the impacts are far more immediate for the Karen people, who fought the military for 70 years for greater autonomy, before signing a ceasefire in 2012. Indigenous communities here depend on the forest for food, water, and medicine. They also have the customary systems to conserve these resources – protecting one of Southeast Asia’s largest pristine forests – thanks to information passed down through generations. Previously, they have successfully campaigned to halt mining operations, suspend palm oil successions, and cancel harmful conservation projects. 

In the last 12 months, environmental defenders such as those who campaigned to achieve these goals in Tanintharyi have been the target of the military. In 2021, Kyaw Min Hut, a forest defender from Sagaing region was arrested and beaten along with his family, purportedly due to his leading role in organising his community to protect surrounding natural resources. His arrest came after another defender, Man Zar Myay Mon, was shot and detained in June. Since February 2021, environmental and land rights defenders have fled their homes or gone into hiding, whilst groups which have long sought autonomy have renewed fighting against the armed forces amid fears of losing recognition of their land rights.

As a fallout of the military’s regime, projects set to relieve pressure on dwindling natural resources have also been derailed. In December 2021, it was reported that developers awarded solar power tenders totalling more than one third of Myanmar’s current dry season available capacity were unable to deliver, partly because of the instability in the country.

In June 2021, the junta had launched its first major public tender since 1 February 2021: an announcement made as part of an ambitious scheme to build 320 megawatts of solar farms at 12 sites across Myanmar’s central regions. The tender tested the regime’s pull on local and foreign investment, but with sanctions from international authorities and suspension of payments from foreign companies, most international investors steered clear. 

The data shared in this article paints a worrisome picture, and with a sweeping clampdown on press freedom since February 2021, it’s likely that this is just part of what has rapidly become an environmental crisis in Myanmar. What’s more, a lack of accountability risks emboldening the perpetrators of environmental crimes across the nation. 

Clearly evident is that Myanmar’s people, natural resources, and wildlife have faced immense pressures over the last 12 months. Yet despite how this nation’s political future plays out, the health and success of the nation will always be inextricably connected to the health of its ecosystems. This unabated environmental exploitation is a violation of the Myanmar people’s basic human rights that risks pushing more people into poverty, threatens equitable economic growth, could render millions more vulnerable to climate disasters, and exposes people to the perils of zoonotic diseases. 

This was 2021 in Myanmar. For the sake of all who live in this country – and the wider world at large – Myanmar’s astonishing natural wealth must be conserved, and its indigenous and local communities empowered into 2022.