Xinhua, Yangon :
Myanmar authorities suspended log export starting Tuesday to ensure sustainable utilization of forest reserves and enhance environmental conservation and the country’s biodiversity, sources with the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry said.
Exporting only finished or semi-finished wood products helps upgrade production technology and bring business opportunities for the local people, the sources said.
According to official statistics, Myanmar exported 485,600 cubic tons of teak log and 724,200 cubic tons of hardwood log in 2012-13, earning 327.5 million U.S. dollars and 209.8 million dollars respectively.
Suspension of log export would reduce teak and timber production compared with the past, U Tin Tun, director general of the ministry told Xinhua.
In this fiscal year 2014-15 starting from Tuesday, only 60,000 cubic tons of teak and 67,000 cubic tons of timber are expected to be produced, down from about 200,000 cubic tons of teak and 1.2 million cubic tons of timber annually in the past several fiscal years up to 2012-13, he said.
He noted that by official statistics Myanmar’s forest coverage reached 57 percent of the country’s total area between 1980 and 1990, but it has dropped to the present 47 percent. Meanwhile, license validity for saw mill and plywood as well as for wood-based mills has been extended from one year to five years since 2013, according to the ministry.
Myanmar authorities suspended log export starting Tuesday to ensure sustainable utilization of forest reserves and enhance environmental conservation and the country’s biodiversity, sources with the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry said.
Exporting only finished or semi-finished wood products helps upgrade production technology and bring business opportunities for the local people, the sources said.
According to official statistics, Myanmar exported 485,600 cubic tons of teak log and 724,200 cubic tons of hardwood log in 2012-13, earning 327.5 million U.S. dollars and 209.8 million dollars respectively.
Suspension of log export would reduce teak and timber production compared with the past, U Tin Tun, director general of the ministry told Xinhua.
In this fiscal year 2014-15 starting from Tuesday, only 60,000 cubic tons of teak and 67,000 cubic tons of timber are expected to be produced, down from about 200,000 cubic tons of teak and 1.2 million cubic tons of timber annually in the past several fiscal years up to 2012-13, he said.
He noted that by official statistics Myanmar’s forest coverage reached 57 percent of the country’s total area between 1980 and 1990, but it has dropped to the present 47 percent. Meanwhile, license validity for saw mill and plywood as well as for wood-based mills has been extended from one year to five years since 2013, according to the ministry.
