5. Kachin State: A frontier forest

Source: 1998. Logging Burma's frontier forests: Resources and the regime. Jake Brunner, Kirk Talbot, and Chantal Elkin.

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Kachin State is one of the most sparsely populated, densely forested, and inaccessible parts of mainland Southeast Asia. A study of the world's frontier forests by the World Resources nstitute shows that Kachin State contains one of the region‘s last remaining areas of " large, intact natural forest ecosystems that are relatively undisturbed and large enough to maintain all their biodiversity" (Bryant et al., 1997). By virtue of its remote location, Kachin State suffered little deforestation in the 1970s and 1980s. However, high-resolution satellite data show that this frontier is now being threatened by logging.

Evidence elsewhere in the region suggests that Kachin State may be in the early stages of a period of intense deforestation that could culminate in the clearing of all accessible timber, leaving just a patchwork of severely degraded forest fragments. This figure shows the extent of satellite coverage, national and state boundaries, major roads, railways, mines, rivers, lakes, towns, and the approximate locations of the Burmese and ethnic armies.

Deforestation is of particular concern in Kachin State because of its high level of biodiversity and because its forests protect the local watershed. Habitats and wildlife in northeastern Burma and adjacent areas of China have been assessed, respectively, as being " vulnerable" and " critical or endangered" by the World Wildlife Fund (Olson and Dinerstein, 1997). One of the priority recommendations of the FAO/UNDP Nature Conservation and National Parks Project that ended in 1984 was the establishment of a protected area in northern Kachin State that would protect Himalayan fauna -- the takin, musk deer, red panda, and wolf (Blower, 1985) -- and the upper catchments of the Irrawaddy River.

The only protected area in Kachin State, the once renowned 200,000-ha Pindaung Wildlife Sanctuary, has been severely degraded. Pindaung was established in 1918 as Burma's first wildlife sanctuary. Until the 1950s it was a carefully managed home for a variety of wildlife, including rhinoceroses and up to 800 elephants (Smith, 1994). The rhinoceroses and most of the elephants are now gone, along with more than half the forest cover. A 2-km-wide strip on either side of a railway line that traverses the Sanctuary has been cleared as a counterinsurgency measure, and a growing number of villagers dislocated from other parts of Kachin State have moved in to illegally cut timber and settle on the land. Today, Pindaung has effectively ceased to exist.

Box 4. Opium cultivation in Kachin State

According to the U.S. Embassy, the area under poppy cultivation in Burma increased by about two thirds between 1987 and 1990, but has remained in the 150,000-ha to 166,000-ha range since then. Most of this expansion has taken place in Shan State, which forms part of the "Golden Triangle" where the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand intersect.

In the early 1990s, Kachin State was declared an " opium-free zone" by the Kachin Independendence Organization (KIO), the only organization with such a policy. American satellites subsequently recorded a decline in poppy production. Yet the Far East Economic Review (February 20, 1997) has reported that " the anti-opium scheme seems to have fallen apart after the KIO signed a cease-fire agreement with the [Rangoon] junta. The regime appears to have encouraged local farmers to grow poppies in the areas it controls, and the Kachin rebels have been unable to sustain their anti-drug campaign. Increased production has been observed in the northern and western parts of Kachin State."

However, the KIO has publicly reaffirmed its "no opium" policy, despite the fact that policing against poppy growing has become much more difficult because of the interweaving of KIO and Burmese-controlled areas. According to the KIO, the areas where increased opium production has been reported lie outside its control.

Apparently, while it is not directly involved in poppy cultivation (most of the heroin refineries are owned and operated by ethnic Chinese), the Burmese army permits it around the towns it controls, provided that the opium is refined at its factories, and that taxes are paid at every stage in the production cycle.