In the name of development, the rich resources of Myanmar’s Mong Pan turned out to be a curse under the military government. Natural resources and forests have been exploited by timber companies in conspiracy with the military government via many destructive logging projects, both legal and illegal
In this special blog for the International Day of Forests, we take a look at the successes of a major European action plan to fight deforestation and illegal timber flows
EIA campaigners participated in an important meeting of the Standing Committee of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Geneva and addressed a range of issues involving wildlife and timber trade
Wildlife and forest crimes are transnational crimes where corruption is known to play a pivotal role in their facilitation and growth. Annually, illegal wildlife trade alone is estimated to range from $7 billion to $23 billion while illegal timber trade ranges between $30 billion to $100 billion.
Two forest rangers, Sieng Darong and Sab Yoh, have been murdered in Preah Vihear Protected Forest, Cambodia. They were shot by illegal loggers, one of which has been tied to the Cambodian military, with high-powered rifles. The main driver of these crimes is unsustainable demand for rosewood timber in Vietnam and China
The EIA team which launched the new Forest Campaign report Organised Chaos: The illicit overland timber trade between Myanmar and China in Beijing met in Yangon, Myanmar with civil society groups, media, activists and representatives of international institutions such as the EU and DFID