ENVIRONMENT

Burma is one of Asia's naturally richest but least developed lands. Its diverse ecosystem ranges from tropical reefs along the Bay of Bengal to the high Himalayas. Verdant agricultural lowlands once made the country a leading rice exporter. Burma's fishing grounds are among the world's most bountiful. Its immense native rain forests, some of the last remaining in all of Asia, are home to numerous endangered flora and fauna.

Unfortunately, these forests are now being methodically and relentlessly destroyed, while Burma's fisheries are being stripped. New agricultural policies imposed by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (known from 1988-1997 as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC) force farmers to double and treble crop rice, ignoring the traditional wisdom of crop rotation and opening the way to potentially disastrous soil depletion and pestilence. Mining and oil and gas operations are being rapidly expanded with dangerous disregard to environmental impact.

This destruction of Burma's environment has been documented in several international reports. But Burma's peoples today have absolutely no say in how their country's resources are developed. The military closely guards all information, allows no public discussion or dissent, and punishes anyone who dares question its development priorities or other policies.

Ruled by a xenophobic military-dominated government from 1962-88 that pursued a "Burmese Way to Socialism," Burma missed the wave of development that brought new prosperity to its Southeast Asian neighbors - but which also scarred their environments through unregulated development. The current regime that seized direct power in 1988 has appeared intent on playing catch-up on both counts.

Broad swaths of rainforest, especially highly-prized teak forests, were opened to Thai loggers to earn foreign exchange and quickly denuded. Forests that for centuries provided the livelihood and cultural milieu for many ethnic minority peoples are being destroyed at an alarming rate exceeding that of Amazonian rainforests. The massive deforestation is causing new problems of erosion, floods, and landslides. It is also threatening some of the last habitats on earth for endangered animals such as the clouded leopard, gaur, silvered leaf monkey, tapir, tiger, Asian elephant, and Asian rhinoceros, which even vigorous reforestation projects can never re-establish. There is no indication that this logging is slowing. Burma's hardwood exports rose dramatically in 1999-2000, according to official Burmese figures. Teak exports rose by over fifty percent to 322,054 cubic meters, and exports of other hardwoods more than doubled to 519,871 cubic meters, earning the junta $218 million in foreign exchange.

Fishery concessions granted to Thai companies by the junta in 1989 and 1993 have led to severe overfishing by modern trawler fleets in wide areas of the Andaman Sea on Burma's southeastern coast. The depletion of a renewable resource for quick commercial gain is typical of the junta's economic policies - long-term environmental effects or their immediate impact on local residents are ignored. Many fishing villages in the area are increasingly impoverished as their traditional source of sustenance disappears.

The arrival of foreign mining companies seeking to exploit gold and other mineral reserves with virtually no environmental regulation now threatens mountain habitats in northern Burma as well as fragile coastal zones where tin is being dredged. Proposed massive hydroelectric projects on Burma's great rivers, especially the Salween along the Thai-Burma Frontier, which might receive official Japanese financing, would submerge rain forests that have for centuries been home to indigenous peoples and the habitat for numerous endangered flora and fauna. The junta's headlong rush to acquire hard currency may allow foreign investors to construct dams and power plants without regard to their environmental impact.

Exploitation of the Yadana natural gas fields in the Andaman Sea and the construction of a pipeline across southeastern Burma to Thailand is another major threat to Burma's environment. Led by America's UNOCAL and France's TOTAL oil companies, in partnership with the Burmese regime, the $1.2 billion pipeline project was pushed through without the consultation or approval of local residents or an independent environmental impact assessment. The pipeline area is now thoroughly militarized. Local residents have suffered serious human rights abuses, and thousands have been conscripted as forced laborers on infrastructure projects. The pipeline's route has destroyed or damaged forest habitats home to a number of rare animals.

UNOCAL and TOTAL, the biggest corporate investors in Burma, are today the target of consumer boycotts and shareholder actions in the United States and Europe. UNOCAL faces lawsuits in California that charge the company with abetting human rights violations associated with the pipeline project. The linkage between the denial of human rights and environmental destruction is seen as clearly in Burma as anywhere in the world today.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Burma Project, Open Society Institute
400 West 59th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10019 USA
tel: (212) 548-0632 fax: (212) 548-4655
e-mail: burma@sorosny.org; http://www.burmaproject.org

Center for Constitutional Rights
666 Broadway
New York, NY 10012 USA
tel: (212) 614-6413/64 fax: (212) 614-6499
e-mail: ccr@igc.apc.org

Conservation International
1919 M Street, NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036 USA
tel: (202) 912-1000 fax: (202) 912-1030
1-800-406-2306
http://www.conservation.org

Earthrights International
PO Box 11, Chiang Mai University
Chiang Mai 50202 Thailand
tel: (66-53) 210 236
e-mail: betsy@earthrights.org; http://www.earthrights.org

Free Burma - No Petrodollars for SLORC
c/o International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way
Berkeley, CA 94703 USA
tel: (510) 848-1155 fax: (510) 848-1008
e-mail: freeburma@irn.org, irn@irn.org; http://www.irn.org

International Women's Network for the Freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi
4-304, 5-417-16 Makuhari, Chiba-shi
Chiba-ken 260 Japan

Los Angeles Campaign for a Free Burma
11800 Avon Way 2
Los Angeles 90066 USA
tel: (310) 391-7788 fax: (310) 393-3407
karens@igc.apc.org

Project Maje
3610 NE 70th Ave.
Portland OR 97213 USA
tel/fax: (503) 226-2189
maje@hevanet.com

Rainforest Action Network
221 Pine Street, Suite 500
San Francisco CA 94104 USA
tel: (415) 398-4404 fax: (415) 398-2732
rainforest@ran.org; http://www.ran.org/

Students for Environmental Action at Stanford
(SEAS) Haas Center, 558 Salvatierra Walkway, Room 11
Stanford, CA 94305 USA
tel: (650) 723-3307 fax: (650) 725-7339
e-mail: seas@seas.stanford.edu; http://www.seas.stanford.edu

Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliances (TERRA)
409 Pracharatbampen Road, Soi Pohitsuk Huay Kwa
Bangkok 10310 Thailand
tel: (66-2) 691 0718 fax: (66-2) 691 0714
per@wov.com

PUBLICATIONS:

Article 19. Paradise Lost? The Suppression of Environmental Rights and Freedom of Expression in Burma. London: Article 19, 1994.

Brunner, J., Talbott, K., Elkin, C. Logging Burma's Frontier Forests: Resources and the Regime. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 1998.

EarthRights International. Human Rights and the Environment. EarthRights International, 1997.

Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development: The Union of Myanmar. Review of the Financial, Economic and Social Conditions. Rangoon: Ministry of National Planning and Economic Development: The Union of Myanmar, 1998.

New Frontiers
New Frontiers is a monthly briefing providing information on tourism, development and environmental issues in Burma. To subscribe, write:
TERRA, 409 Pracharatbampen Road, Soi Pohitsuk Huay Kwang
Bangkok, 10310 Thailand

Rainforest Action Network. Southeast Asian Rainforests: A Resource Guide and Directory. San Francisco: Rainforest Action Network, 1993.

Southeast Asian Information Network. Burma: Human Lives for Natural Resources, Oil and Natural Gas. Chiang Mai: Southeast Asian Information Network, 1994.