The Problems with Burma’s Logging Ban

Apr 4, 2014 | Casey Hynes, asiancorrespondent.com
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Burma’s recent announcement of a ban on exporting unprocessed timber logs seems like good news for the country’s environment and economy. The proposed ban is meant to stimulate development of a domestic wood-processing industry and curb logging rates, which would protect Burma’s forests. Concerns have been raised in recent years over resource extraction projects that benefit other countries but leave little for the locals, and damage farmland and the environment in the process. So a move to curb logging and protect the country’s forests appears to be a positive. But many say the ban won’t be as effective as it claims to be, and that a reduction in logging could have farther-reaching effects on the country’s working elephant population.