Identifying Conservation Issues in Kachin State

Kachin State in northern Myanmar is home to many biological hotspots, including subtropical moist forests, hill forests, alpine meadows and broadleaf and conifer forests (Olson and Dinerstein 1998). Global Witness (2005) reported considerable unease about the scale of illegal forest activities in Kachin State. Kahrl et al. (2004) analysed the China–Myanmar timber trade and its implications for forests and livelihoods in Myanmar’s Kachin State and the Yunnan Province of China. They found that China’s demand for timber was an underlying cause for the unsustainable harvest of valuable forests in Kachin State. This chapter discusses data resulting from a study complementary to an earlier one by Webb et al. (2004). Findings and analysis in this previous study were based on a literature review, remote-sensing data and stakeholder interviews in Yangon and Mandalay.