As Myanmar cautiously embraces democracy and opens its markets to the world, environmentalists are watching to see what toll outside capital will have on the country's natural resources, according to a report from freelance journalist Charles Schmidt posted at Yale's e360.com.
Sanctions against the Myanmar's ruling military regime virtually shut it off from the rest of the world for years; however, in 2010 pro-democracy reformer Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest, and in 2011 a new president, Thein Sein, promised a new path of reform and opening markets. Most recently, on Nov. 19 Barack Obama became the first sitting American president to visit Myanmar.
Years of isolation helped preserve Myanmar's remote areas by denying access to credit and foreign investment, Schmidt wrote. With those barriers now falling, infrastructure investment could threaten its Northern Forest Complex, a 12,000-square-mile tract spanning its border from India to China, which is home to tigers, bears, elephants, and hundreds of bird species-as well as its famed "golden teak" that historically accounted for much of Myanmar's annual timber exports.
The capital influx cuts both ways, though, and the new money could also help environmental nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working inside Myanmar. "It used to be that all of us in the civil society struggled with limited funding sources," Than Myint, country program director in Yangon for the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, told Schmidt. "But now with the political opening, we're seeing more funding agencies and organizations coming here, and what we hope is that with their help we can expand our activities."
