The Myanmar Times recently reported that in the past nine months, despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and government bans, timber smuggling in the Sagaing Region has remained rampant. According to U Aung Tun Win, Forestry Minister of Sagaing Province, 7,232 hops tonnes of illegal timber were seized in the nine-month period from October 2019 to June 2020, compared to the same period in the previous fiscal year That's not much different from the 7,747 Hopps tons.
“We thought that the Covid-19 pandemic would drastically reduce timber smuggling, but in reality it didn’t happen,” Anton Win said. In Sagaing Province, the illegal timber tree species seized include teak (teak), pyinkado (pyinkado), southwestern wood lotus (thit yar, camellia), ingyin (Liuan), Fruit red sandalwood (padauk, rosewood) and olive-colored rosewood (ta ma lan, white rosewood). 643 timber smugglers were arrested, 223 trucks transporting timber were intercepted, and others included 12 excavators, 14 trailers, 126 motorcycles, 6 tricycles, 51 motorboats, and 30 small trailers. 1 elephant, 2 guns, 11 with trailers, 201 wood machinery and 89 chainsaws.
Sagaing province has 67% of Myanmar's forests and has 190 protected areas. In these reserves, logging of any kind is prohibited. In 1975, Myanmar's forest cover was 61 percent, but in 2010 it was only 47 percent, environmental groups said. From 1990 to 2020, the average annual forest coverage in Myanmar decreased by 0.95 percentage points. Myanmar authorities issued a timber logging ban in the 2015-2016 fiscal year, but illegal logging has never stopped, causing huge losses to the country.
According to Myanmar's "New Light" Global New Light on June 18, 2020, the logging target of the Myanmar National Timber Company (Myanma Timber Enterprise, MTE) in the new fiscal year from 2020 to 2021 is teak (Teak) 8 000 Hops tons , other hardwoods (hardwood) 200 000 hops tons, down 90 000 hops tons from the previous fiscal year, because the indicator for the 2019-20 fiscal year is 10 000 hopes tons for teak and 285 000 hopes tons for other hardwoods .
An official from the Myanmar National Timber Corporation (MTE) said that the government’s logging quota is shrinking every year. MTE does not provide forest property ownership leasing services, but only rents vehicles, and the logging work is done by private companies. Foreign timber traders are allowed to use elephants for logging, hauling, road building and transportation. The current Myanmar government has set production targets since the 2017-2018 fiscal year, and although the wood production business was contracted by the previous government with private companies, only recently have logging licenses been granted to local residents. Currently, Sagaing produces 10 000 hops tons of timber per year, other areas with active timber harvesting are Magway, Bago, Taninthayi, Ilo Ayeyawady, Shan, Kachin, Chin and Nay Pyi Taw.