99 The Myanmar National Sustainable Development Strategy – NSDS UNEP 2009b also clearly mentioned the three
perspectives of sustainable management of natural resources, integrated economic development and sustainable social development.
Action needed to improve and revise current policies, regulations and ongoing thrusts: • The 1992 Forest Law and 1994 Protection of Wildlife and Wild Plants and Conservation of Natural Areas Law
should be reviewed and revised to be in line with current developments of national and international trends; • The Forest Rules and Community Forestry Instructions 1995 should be upgraded to legal status or incorporated in
the Forest Law, so as to assure or guarantee land allocation for CFs and boost public interest in CF establishment; • Before rapid CF expansion, there is a need for review of existing CFs, as roughly 50 percent of them are suboptimal
and may not benefit local communities. • Formulation of rules and regulations so the Environmental Conservation Law 2012 can be adopted and implemented
effectively is urgently warranted. • The National Forest Master Plan NFMP 2001 should be reviewed and revised as necessary.
• Private investments in forest land restoration such as establishment of commercial plantations by private companies should be strongly promoted.
• In highly vulnerable areas such as the Central dry zone, hilly regions and the delta area, conservation of remaining natural forests should remain the priority over establishment of new plantations by clearing existing natural
vegetation. • Alternative household energy sources are needed in order to reduce high dependency on forests for daily household
energy requirements fuelwood, charcoal etc.. There is a need for a complementary energy policy for fair share and management of the nation’s rich energy resources such as oil, gas and hydropower.
6.2 National strategy for forest and landscape restoration
6.2.1 Public awareness
Raising public awareness about the importance of forests and inducing public participation in forest resource management are crucial themes for achieving SFM and successful forest and landscape restoration. Two out of six imperatives of the
1997 Myanmar Forest Policy address public participation and awareness-raising:
• Community participation in forest management; and • Public awareness about the vital role of forests for the well-being and socio-economic development of the nation.
The 1992 Forest Law also focuses on awareness and participation in the conservation and sustainable utilization of forest resources, and stresses the importance of collecting and updating resource information; planning; continuous monitoring
of all forest operations; and maintaining ecological balance and environmental stability.
The major institutions striving for public awareness-raising on forestry-related issues are the Forest Department and the DZGD of MOECAF. The Forest Department has formed an extension division to take responsibility for forestry and
environmental extension, information sharing and disseminating knowledge on sustainable forest and land management, forest degradation and the importance of restoration. The DZGD on the other hand is launching village-level environmental
education programmes in all 54 townships of the Central dry zone of Myanmar. The main aim is to educate rural communities about the importance of trees and forests for their daily livelihoods and how they can participate in conserving
and restoring the heavily degraded forest resources of the area. In addition, these two departments are encouraging and assisting communities to plant trees in degraded forests, barren lands, village tracts, farmyards and household compounds
for fuelwood and other forest products.
In recent years, environmental NGOs and civil society groups in Myanmar have played an important role in promoting environmental knowledge and awareness. Their willing involvement should be highly encouraged and MOECAF should
create a platform for all non-government and government organizations to share knowledge and work together on forest landscape restoration.
6.2.2 Planning, monitoring and evaluation Planningpolicy development framework: Environmental issues are now being incorporated into the national
development plans. Myanmar’s NSDS is the country’s most recent commitment to long-term national development planning. The vision is ‘Wellbeing and Happiness for Myanmar People’. Three goals, each with their own specific strategies,
are specified:
• Sustainable management of natural resources; • Integrated economic development;
• Sustainable social development.
The first goal suggests strategies for forest resource management, sustainable energy production and consumption, biodiversity conservation, sustainable freshwater resource management, sustainable management of land resources and
sustainable management for mineral resource utilization.
100
National Forest Master Plan NFMP, 2001: As forest resources play an important role both in socio-economic development and biodiversity conservation, the former Ministry of Forestry now MOECAF formulated the NFMP covering
a time span of 30 years from 2001 to 2030 in order to maintain the forest biodiversity of Myanmar. The NFMP’s strategic areas are: a management of natural forests, b establishment of forest plantations, c establishment of community
forests, d growing trees in homesteads and non-forested areas and e promotion of wood-based industry value-added forest products.
The NFMP mandates an increase in PFE constituted by reserved forests and public protected forests to 30 percent and of PAS to 10 percent of the total country area. These targets reinforce and replace those set by the Forest Policy of 1995.
Furthermore, the NFMP encourages the registration of unclassified forests into community or private forests.
Some of the NFMP’s ambitious targets are to: •
Establish CF as an integral part of the strategy to achieve SFM and obtain forest products on a sustainable basis; •
Make a significant contribution towards lowering the annual deforestation rate of 220 178 ha per year; •
Achieve 919 000 ha of CF by 2030 covering a little over 1 percent of the country’s total land area – the current CF area is about 42 000 ha; and
• Obtain 4.13 million m³ of woodfuel.
Dry Zone Greening Department Action Plan, 2001: In view of increasing reforestation and afforestation activities, particularly in the Central dry zone, the former Ministry of Forestry now MOECAF formed the DZGD in 1997 covering
Mandalay, Sagaing and Magway. This has been outlined earlier in this paper. To provide general guidelines on effective implementation in the long run, the department has prepared a comprehensive plan for greening the dry zone as well as
tackling desertification and drought. A 30-year master plan comprising five-year intermediate plans has been formulated and activities are being carried out accordingly by following the four strategic objectives cited above.
6.2.3 Monitoring and evaluation
An effective monitoring and evaluation ME system is essential for every sustainable development programme. Currently the Environmental Conservation Department ECD under the guidance of MOECAF is responsible for overall observation
and monitoring of the environment and the methodology for the elaboration of environmental impact indicators.
The Forest Department and DZGD have developed their own sets no links with other line ministries or departments of criteria and indicators for ME of forestry-related programmes and projects. The Forest Department has sufficient
capability to monitor land-use changes through integrated use of remote sensing and geographic information systems. The forest cover of Myanmar has been assessed four times 1955, 1975, 1989 and 1997 in order to determine the total forest
cover area, to evaluate the dynamic status of forests and to analyse forest-related changes.
There is a need to develop an integrated ME system composed of all institutions related to SLMSFM such as the MOAI, MOECAF and Ministry of Mines. The combined team shall monitor and make continuous assessment on SLMSFM
programmes or projects, whereas evaluation is the periodic assessment of the relevance, success, cost-effectiveness and sustainability of these programmes or projects.
Staff capacity and infrastructure at all levels need to be built up in order to implement this important task in line with international standards.
6.2.4 Financing
In Myanmar, about 15 percent of the country’s total land area is degraded forests which need to be rehabilitated either by natural or artificial means, or both. The current budgetary allocation for the forestry sector accounts for only 10 to
15 percent of the revenue generated by the sector. In real terms it may be well below 5 percent. This means the present budgetary allocation severely limits forest management and also efforts towards conservation and restoration.
6.2.5 National budget
Financial flows towards securing SLM and relevant cross-cutting areas including land, forest and water; trade and markets; environment management; climate change; food security; poverty reduction; security; and so forth need to be
strengthened and monitored as an ongoing process.
Financial resources for environmental and natural resource management are allocated to sectoral ministries or agencies. Of total expenditure of US7 864.5 million, only US519 million about 6.6 percent was allocated to the institutions most
closely linked to the management of natural resources agriculture, forestry, livestock, fisheries.
The new Environmental Conservation Department of MOECAF, established in late 2012, is meant to assume a more active coordinating and integrating role for environmental matters. In this context, it is critical that its annual budget be increased
for better performance and to allow for provisions for financing future ME activities.
