The country's import of forestry products is almost non-existent except for a small quantity of paper products and some infrastructural inputs. The export earnings by the forestry sector, on the other hand, was 32.09% of the national total and teak and hardwood timbers are, by far, the most important products. Forest management in Myanmar, therefore, is focused on the sustainable management of natural teak bearing forests.
The systematic management of the natural forests in Myanmar dates back to 1856, making thus a history of 140 years. It is an exploitation cum-cultural system first known as the Brandis Selection System and later modified into the Burma Selection System or Myanmar Selection System (MSS). The MSS which became already well established by the year 1920 has ever since been practised throughout the country. The system involves adoption of a felling cycles of 30 years, prescription of exploitable sizes of trees, girdling or marking of exploitable tree, girdling of defective or deteriorating marketable teak trees, thinning of congested teak stands, removal of other trees interfering with the growth of both young and old teak, enumeration of trees left, doing special silvicultural operations in bamboo flowering areas, and fixing annual yield based on the Brandis formula.
Under the MSS, a Felling Series is divided into 30 blocks of approximately equal yield capacity. Each year, selection fellings are carried out in one of these blocks and the whole forest is therefore worked over the felling cycle of 30 years. When felling becomes due all marketable trees which have attained a fixed exploitation diameter are selected for cutting. For teak, the exploitable diameter limit varies with the type of the forests. In good (moist) teak forest, the diameter limit at breast height of 1.3 m is 73 cm and in poor (dry) teak forest, 63 cm. The fixed diameter limit for other hardwoods varies with the species.
Unhealthy trees that have not attained these exploitable sizes, but are marketable, are also selected for cutting if they are unlikely to survive through the subsequent felling cycle. If seed-bearers are scarce, a few high quality stems of and above the exploitable size may be retained as seed trees.
Trees left standing at the time of the selection are recorded, down to 39 cm diameter for teak, and 10 cm below the exploitable diameter for other species. This provided a reliable basis for calculating the future yield.
Trees of exploitable size are selectively marked within the bounds of the annual allowable cuts (AAC) carefully calculated for each Felling Series based on the principle of sustained yield management. The present AAC, which have been calculated and fixed since 1971, up to the year 2000 are 609,500 m3 for teak and 2,463,600 m3 for other hardwoods. Mature teak trees selected for exploitation are normally girdling and left standing for 3 years before being felled and extracted. This is to season the timber and make it floatable as logs are normally transported by floating down the steams and rivers. However, in more accessible areas, mature trees are some times also felled and extracted green.
The experience of 100 years or so with the MSS has manifested the system's sustainability and environmental friendliness.
Plantations play a minor role at present in Myanmar forestry. Although plantation forest is much more economically viable, Myanmar forest management focuses on the sustainable development of natural forest in the interest of biodiversity conservation and environmental stability. Plantings are done either to increase the proportion of commercially importance species and enrich the natural forests or to restore and rehabilitate the degraded forest lands.
Clear felling, coppice and coppice with standards systems are practised in the Local Supply Reserves and in fuelwood plantations.
Forest Department selects (and girdle in case of teak) mature trees for harvesting while Myanmar Timber Enterprise (MTE) is responsible for the harvesting of both teak and other hardwoods. The Enterprise operates 38 extraction and rafting agencies throughout the country. Felling is confined only to those trees of exploitable size selectively marked within the limits of the AAC.
Stumping and dragging of logs are done mainly by elephants and, to a lesser extent, water buffaloes. The use of animals in extraction of logs has proven to have the least impact on the environment and biodiversity. The MTE has in its possession, about 3,000 elephants and hires approximately 2000 from private owners for timber extraction. Mechanical extraction is not favoured as it is not considered to be economically feasible under the Myanmar Selection System, and is exercised only in limited areas. So far, heavy equipment have been used mainly for road construction, loading and unloading of logs, and transportation.
Harvesting and export of hardwood other than teak were permitted to the private sector from 1989 to 1993. However, due to their indiscriminate cuttings and failure to follow the procedures of the system, logging and log export by the private sector have now been banned. At present, MTE is the sole agency responsible for the extraction of both teak and other hardwoods and their export.
Excessive removal of vegetative cover, practice of slash and burn system and its shortened fallow period, and overgrazing are major factors causing watershed degradation. FD started establishing watershed protection plantations in 1979 so much so that by the end of the year 1995, a total area of 43,148 ha had been planted up. In addition, a UNDP/FAO aided Pilot Watershed Management Project for the Kinda Dam Watershed was initiated in 1987. The scope of the project was expanded to begin interventions in Inlay Lake (Shan State) and Phu-gyi Watershed (near Yangon). As a follow-up, Watershed Management for Tree Critical Areas Project, jointly undertaken by the Myanmar Government, FAO and UNDP started in 1994 for a 2-year period, and is still ongoing. The project MYA/93/005 have launched a management programme in a multi-disciplinary way by laying stress on participatory option of the hill dwellers in new approaches and incentive mechanism, for the social upliftment of the people. Awareness campaigns were also conducted.
In response to the request by the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, a special project to rehabilitate the watersheds of 53 important dams was proposed by FD and was approved by the Government in 1995. The total watershed area of the 53 critical dams is 3.6 million ha. of which 50% is under various kinds of landuse including agriculture and the rest is forested, but in various stages of degradation. A total area of 26,925 ha are to be rehabilitated starting from 1996-97, with a planting programme of 4,856 ha annually.
