The new Government of Myanmar has agreed a temporary national logging ban and a 10-year logging ban in the Pegu Yoma region.
The national logging ban will run until the end of March 2017, in effect closing the forests for one complete logging season. All exports of round logs from the country have been banned since April 2014.
For the duration of the new national ban, Myanmar will rely on stockpiled timber to supply its domestic wood processing industry and the international market; current stockpiles are sufficient to meet current demand for up to three years.
Access to these stockpiles will be controlled by the Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE), a Government entity. London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) stressed the importance of having controls in place to ensure full chain-of-custody for all stockpile sales to prevent illegally logged timber being laundered through the system.
Myanmar has, to-date, lost 546,000 hectares of forests or roughly 8.5% of its forest cover.
A further reform expected to be announced by the Government will prohibit private companies from logging in the country. The MTE previously sub-contracted to private sector firms to carry out logging, many of which had close ties to the former military government and which played a key role in over-harvesting.
Source: CTI/ Image: PFA
