Stop Logging in Kachin State June 13, 2005
Yaw Na/ Kachin Environmental Organization
The Burma Army and the Kachin Independence Organization have agreed to extend logging concession in Kachin forest for the next 20 years without preserving the forest. Various species of animals and the biodiversity in Kachin State are suffering the effects of the continued logging and subsequent deforestation in Kachin State. The local people have, no choice, to rely on logging, as they are living under the control of cease-fire groups and the military government’s logging areas.
The logging project has been in place since 1998, and its will continue for the next twenty years. Currently the main logging concession areas are Thabadaung and Sinbo villages, about 100 kilometer south of Kachin State capital Myitkyina. The logging concessions have been granted to Chinese businessmen by Kachin Independence Organization.
According to an interview with one of the Kachin Independence Organization leader, who involves in logging operations in the Lai Za area, we will continue logging under these concessions log for our business. He said that the benefit of logging are not only for the armed cease-fire groups, but it also solves the economic problem for the local people.
Most of the concessions are awarded by Burmese government, but also by two Kachin cease-fire groups, the New Democratic Army-Kachin and Kachin Independence Organization. The logging concessions provide the primary source of revenue for the operations of the cease-fire groups. Many Kachins are concerned that the revenues and benefits from the natural resource concessions are not filtering down to society.
A local researcher said that some Kachin communities suffer social and economic problems exacerbated by the immigration of thousands of Chinese workers in logging sites. Their presence has contributed to the growing demand for drugs and alcohol, which has created rifts amongst local communities. Drug users in the area also cause many problems for society and the local population.
One of the local people said that the logging must only benefit for the military government and its benefits are shared among the ethnic Kachin cease-fire groups and the military government under the decades of continues cease-fire restoration. Local people said that they have witnessed the cutting of the trees and have known that military government, Chinese business people, and the Kachin cease-fire groups will continue logging in the future. Logging in Kachin forest must be stopped for sake of Kachins.
Yaw Na is the director of the Kachin Environmental Organization based in Thailand. The opinions express here are the author’s own and do not reflect The Kachin Post’s editorial policy.
