In the post-independence period fire protection plans excluded natural forests, focusing on plantations, young regeneration areas and ecologically sensitive areas. Special emphasis was placed upon the protection of successfully regenerated areas in the Central Dry Zone. It was decided that according to Myanmar's situation, fire protection should be provided for five years for teak plantations and ten to fifteen years for eucalyptus and pine plantations. Nowadays fire protection in Myanmar has more or less followed the trends. Since fire protection is a costly undertaking, available resources still determine the extent that protection can be achieved. According to available data, in 1997-98 the planned target to be put under protection was 153 500 ha, out of which 53 percent could be protected effectively. The forested area under protection in 2000-2001 will be 105 000 ha (U Saw Edah, pers. comm). Thinn (1999) reports that peoples' awareness and wilful participation has been the strength behind successful protection from forest fires in Myanmar. However, slash-and-burn cultivation (Taungya) has been an age-old practice with many ethnic races who live in the mountainous areas of the country and is still being practised widely. This is the main cause behind forest fires occurring in Myanmar. However, as it is carried out merely on a subsistence scale, and as the areas that fall under this practice are buffered in by the natural forests, the spreading of fire to adjoining areas is minimal. Besides, burning is normally done under close supervision of the villagers.
As all forest estates, apart from those on private lands and community forests, are owned by the State, Forest Fire Brigades are not organized by the private sector as is the case in many countries. Protection measures are instead undertaken solely by the Forest Department, in cooperation with other ministerial departments and the local people. The fire hazardous period is normally for about four months from mid-January to mid-May. This is the period when public awareness campaigns are carried out through various mediums. Also, villagers are rallied to partake in fire-watch duties and assist in various pre-emptive activities such as construction of fire lines and fire traces, prescribed burning, etc. In 1992, the new Forest Law was enacted, defining the offences clearly and prescribing more severe penalties for offenders. In 1992-93, Forest Conservation Committees were formed at the National, State/Division, District and Township levels. These committees involved the related ministries, the Chairmen of the State/ Division, District and Township Administrative bodies as well as the local military commanders with forest management and forest fire conservancy responsibilities. In 1996-97, a new directorate called the Dry Zone Regreening Department was formed to rehabilitate once forested areas of the Central Dry Zone and provide fire protection.
Myanmar Foresters have traditionally placed prevention above suppression of forest fires, as they had understood that forest fires once out of control were almost impossible to suppress. The priority focus was therefore placed upon the monitoring of combustible fuel, and this was normally controlled by prescribed burning in situations where surface fires had not consumed them. Because the forests are predominantly natural, and mostly of the Tropical Evergreen type, the forest floor is naturally damp and the undergrowth mostly moist and green. The leaves and branches that fall each year are consumed by the annual surface fires, so fuel does not normally accumulate enough to pose a threat. Also, as the annual fires are mostly surface fires they cause very little or no adverse impact to the soil. They do not consume the forest litter to the extent that forest soils are deprived of nutrients or its capability to conserve water.
