Myanmar has signed an MoU with China as to enable them the trading and cultivating of timber. Yet, the Myanmar government rejected China’s requests, which would have implied the purchase of timber in log form under a soft system and the building of a timber-based industrial zone in Myanmar, according to Khin Maung Yi, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry.
Khin Maung Yi also added that “the Chinese government’s representative group came to us. We held a discussion with civic organisations. They requested the establishment of a timber-based industrial zone in Myanmar, perhaps in Lashi or Muse, for log trading. Our ministry replied that this would not be possible.”
As Eleven Myanmar states, the Myanmar officials made many visits to China as to restrain illegal timber smuggling perpetrated by Chinese nationals. The Chinese officials assured the Myanmar represenatives that they will cooperate: “Logs from Myanmar entering through any route and from any region will not be allowed.”
Between 2000 and 2014 China gained US$2.7 billion from the illegal log trade with Myanmar, alongside with the $4.6 billion earned in 2014 from the conversion of illegally-traded tamalan timber into finished industrial products, says Eleven Myanmar.
China has one of the highest rates of forest recovery, as an EIA statement from September 2015 states. Myanmar, on the other side, is one of the biggest countries with the highest deforestation rates. On January 12, Kihn Maung Yi said that the timber production in Myanmar was highly reduced by the by illegal trading and processing.
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