Myanmar-Land Conversion and the Demand for Burmese Timber

Sep 30, 2014 | US Forest Service International Programs Seminar Series
Washington DC

Forest Trends, one of US Forest Service, International Program’s long standing partners, will present on Myanmar: Land Conversion and the Demand for Burmese Timber. The political-economic reforms in Burma/Myanmar are enabling regional and global market-based pressures on the country's expansive land and resources, especially its remaining high-value conservation forests. After decades of military mismanagement, the forest ministry has pledged ambitious conservation goals, despite major institutional and political challenges. Forest Trends reports on the political economy of Burma's timber trade, providing insight into the role of the country's burgeoning agribusiness sector as the country's new driver of deforestation. Myanmar and western governments seek a resumption of timber trade despite calls from within the country for a systematic overhaul in the country's bleak forest governance led by civil society and community forestry initiatives.

About the Speakers

Kerstin Canby is the Director of Forest Trends' Forest Trade and Finance Program, where she oversees the REDDX Initiative as well as the Forest Law and Governance work program. Her work focuses on the legislative, financial, and demand-side approach which promotes global trade and markets for legal timber, working intensively with governments from China, Vietnam, US and EU Member States. Increasingly, this work is highlighting illegal land use / conversion, the role of conversion timber in the global sourcing of wood fiber, and agricultural supply chains from legal or zero deforestation zones. The REDDX Initiative tracks international and national public finance for REDD+ and works with national partners and national REDD+ Focal Points to use the data for improved donor coordination, national gaps and needs analysis, and the development of national registrations and jurisdictional REDD+ programs. A significant portion of her time is spent on the China/East Asia region. Prior to joining Forest Trends, Kerstin worked at the World Bank.

Kevin Woods is currently a research fellow at International Institute of Social Studies (the Hague, Netherlands) and Chiang Mai University (Thailand) on land conflict, cooperation and climate change mitigation in Burma, and a researcher and analyst on Burma for Forest Trends (WDC, USA) and the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands). Kevin Woods is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at University of California, Berkeley at the Environmental Science, Policy and Management Department.

For more information and to R.S.V.P. contact Pari Henkai phenkai@fs.fed.us.