A stated goal of the 1995 Forest Policy is to "strengthen wildlife management through the establishment of a network of national parks, wildlife reserves, and sanctuaries." The policy includes provisions to expand the protected area system first to 5 percent, and ultimately to 10 percent, of the land area, although no time frame is provided. Given that large area s in the north of the country are well forested and sparsely populated, this target is not unrealistic, in theory.
Two foreign conservation organizations, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Smithsonian Institution, have signed agreements with the Ministry of Forestry with a view to evaluating and implementing the recommendations of the Nature Conservation and National Parks Project. Many protected areas have suffered significant damage since the project ended, and, according to one foreign source, so me may not be worth preserving. The Wildlife Conservation Society is training department staff in wildlife survey methods and is helping develop management plans for a number of new protected areas. These include the Lambi Marine National Park in the Mergui Archipelago off the coast of the southern Tenasserim Division (gazetted in 1996) and Khakaborazi in the foothills of the Himalayas in northern Kachin State (gazetted in 1995).
Copyright © 1998. Logging Burma's Frontier Forests: Resources and the Regime (Washington, DC: World Resources Institute). This posting does not use the adopted name "Myanmar," given to Burma by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in 1988. The name Burma is used in accordance with the Burmese National League for Democracy, the United States Government and many other countries, and leading publications including The Washington Post, Bangkok Post, The Nation, and The Far Eastern Economic Review.