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5. Implementation of forest restoration and rehabilitation initiatives
5.1 History of initiatives, strategies and techniques
5.1.1 Plantation establishment
Establishment of forest plantations has been seen as the main remedy to restore forest cover in the country. Plantations for commercial purposes, local and industrial use and watershed protection have been encouraged to fulfill domestic
requirement, exports and environmental preservation. Compensatory plantations to enrich existing natural forests were initiated as early as the late 1850s. In the early 1970s, mass planting schemes were chosen due to the rapid rate of natural
forest degradation and deforestation. The Myanmar Forest Policy, 1995 also encourages forest plantations in order to supply local and industrial use as well as to improve the natural environment. Four main types of plantations are classified
by MOECAF – commercial, local supply, industrial and watershed. Under MOECAF, both the Forest Department and the DZGD are responsible for establishing them. The Forest Department has established all four major types of plantations but
the DZGD has concentrated on establishment of local supply and watershed environmental conservation and restoration plantations in the Central dry zone. Forest plantation areas by types in 2000, 2005 and 2012 are shown in Table 7.
Table 7. Forest plantations in Myanmar by year and type
Sources: FAO 2010a; MOECAF 2012.
Establishment of all four types of plantations has gradually increased over time. Commercial plantations mostly teak constitute the highest share, up to 48 percent of total plantations established in the country. Local supply plantations
mostly village fuelwood plantations stand second at 25 percent, followed by watershed environmental conservation and restoration plantations and industrial plantations such as eucalyptus plantation for pulp and paper. Currently, MOECAF
has a target to establish around 10 000 ha of forest plantations annually. In addition, although no target has been set, an estimated 8 000 ha of privately-owned commercial forest plantations have been established by private companies and an
average 2 400 ha of community forest are established by communities every year.
5.1.2 Expansion of PFE area
A significant indicator of the state’s commitment to forest restoration and rehabilitation is the increase of PFE area following promulgation of the 1997 Forest Policy. PFE comprises RF, PPF and PAS, which were well protected and conserved under
forest law in 1992. The 1995 Forest Policy set the targets of expanding RF to 30 percent of the total land area and setting aside no less than 5 percent of total land area as PAS up to 10 percent in the long term. Figure 3 shows the percentage
of PFE area to total land area between 1980 and 2015.
Figure 3. PFE area percent to total land area
Source: MOECAF 2012. 5
10 15
20 25
30 35
1980 1985
1990 1995
2000 2005
2010 2015
PFE
30.90 24.13
15 15
Classification
Commercial Local supply
Industrial use Watershed
Total Area ha
371 355 197 209
50 394 77 408
696 366 share
53 29
7 11
100 Area ha
480 534 250 920
72 488 192 270
996 212 share
48 25
7 20
100 Area ha
396 263 254 460
64 581 134 566
849 870 share
46 30
8 16
100 2000
2012 2005
91 Before the policy target was set, the total percentage of PFE to total land area was stagnant at only about 15 percent for
more than ten years from 1985 to 1997. It had increased to 24.13 percent by 2008, just ten years after the 1997 Forest Policy. In 2012 it reached 30.9 percent of the total land area. As the long-term targets for RF and PAS have not been fulfilled
yet RF-18.5 percent and PAS 5.7 percent by 2012, further increment is still possible. Despite this positive trend, severe forest degradations and setbacks such as land-use changes have been observed even in PFE areas; keeping as much land
as possible under PFE with full legal protection would be a significant effort towards restoration and rehabilitation.
5.1.3 Community forestry development
Deforestation and forest degradation became apparent in the late twentieth century. It is agreed that one of the main causes is lack of people’s mainly forest dwellers participation and understanding of forest conservation, management and
benefit sharing Ba Kaung 2006.
To address this weakness, the CFI was issued by the Forest Department in 1995. The main objectives of the CFI are:
• To achieve active participation by the rural population in tree planting on barren lands and to reforest degraded areas;
• To meet the basic needs of local communities; and • To support the economic development of the country and regain environmental stability.
Many foresters and related professionals welcomed the CFI as a major breakthrough in the Myanmar forestry sector as it establishes the shift from centralized police-style forest management to decentralized community-based forest
management. Since then, community forests CFs have been gradually established throughout the country and many international and national NGOs and civil society groups have encouraged and assisted their development. The total CF
area reached 33 070 ha in 2005 and rose to 47 204 ha with 29 945 user group members in 2012 MOECAF 2012. CF establishment is significantly higher in areas that are severely degraded and highly vulnerable to climate change, such as
the dry zone Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway regions, Shan Plateau and the Ayeyarwaddy Delta. Seventy-five percent of the CFs in the country is established in these regions.
The main reasons for establishing CFs in these critical areas is to rehabilitate the degraded environment, to improve local soil and water quality and to supply the basic needs particularly fuelwood and fodder of the rural poor, rather than for
commercial exploitation of valuable timber. Establishment of CFs according to the CFI has been seen as a promising way to rehabilitate degraded landscapes and to improve farming through enhanced soil and water quality to meet the basic
needs of very poor communities.
5.1.4 Development of the DZGD
The dry zone of Central Myanmar is the most critical region in terms of land degradation caused by continued deforestation Figure 4. All possible measures have been taken to prevent and check environmental deterioration and land degradation
since the 1950s. In 1954, a dry zone rehabilitation project was initiated by the Agriculture and Rural Development Corporation ARDC in collaboration with the Forest Department to carry out tree-planting activities in denuded lands. In
1994, the Forest Department implemented a special ‘Greening Project’ for the nine districts of the arid zone of Central Myanmar. During the project period, 7 280 ha of village plantations were planted on denuded lands in the vicinity of the
villages for greening purposes and to supply fuelwood, poles and posts.
Figure 4. Desert-like formation in the Central dry zone of Myanmar
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