| Forest Resource
Base |
Huge, but renewable natural
resources
|
Land Use Status of Myanmar
|
Forest Cover
| Sr.
No. |
Forest
Cover |
Area (kmm) | % total
land Area |
|
|
|
|
|
| 1.
2. 3. |
Closed
Forest Degraded Forest Forest affected by Shifting Cultivation |
293,262
50,963 154,389 |
43.3
7.5 22.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Total | 498.621 | 73.6 |
Forest
Resources
|
|
Myanmar is known to have about 7,000 plants species, of which 1,071 are endemic. Recorded vegetative species are shown below.
|
Common scene of a forest environmen
|
The status of permanent forest estate (PEE) at the beginning of 2000 us given in Table 1.
A double blaze for resource security |
A boundry pillar, demarcating a reserved forest |
Growing stock of teak trees
Table
3 shows that forest in Myanmar contain some 2.2 billion cubic metres
of standing growing stock of timber. Allowing a conservative growth rate
of 1.5 m3/ha/yr in the productive closed broad-leaved forest, the total
annual growth could amount to about 33 million cubid meters.
Deforestation Rate (between 1975 and 1989)
Shifting cultivation,
leading to deforestation in a hilly region
The 1989 forest cover appraisal revealed that closed and degraded forests, considered as actual forest
cover constituted approximately 51% of the total area of the country. The actual forest cover had decreased at
an annual rate of 220,000 ha or 0.64% of the actual forested area during the period of 14 years from
1975 through 1989. However, the physical transfer of forest land into non-forest uses in the same period
was only about 15,000 ha annually.
Mangrove ecosystem-an important source of food fuel |
|
Well protected Than-Dahat Dry Forest on holy Sagaing mountains |
High-quality Deciduous Indaing (Dipterocarps) Forest |
||
|
Typical Dry Upper Mixed Deciduous Forest of Bago Yoma |
Hill Evergreen Forest of Rakhine Yoma |
||
|
|||
Bamboo Forests
Bamboo resources in Bago Yoma
Bamboos grow abundantly throughout the country either mixed with tree species or in pure stands.
Pure stands of Kayin wa (Melocanna bambusoides) stretch over an area of about 8,000
km2 in Rakhine State in the west. Considerable sizes of pure bamboo stands are also present in Tanintharyi Division in the southern most stretch of the country. The Kayin wa in Rakhine
has an estimated growing stock of 21.34 million metric tons capable of producing around 830,000 metric tons of pulp
annually, while pure bamboo stands in Tanintharyi having a growing stock of about 6.09 million metric tons could provide an
annual pulp yield of 247,904 metric tons, if the bamboo forests are managed under a cutting cycle of 10 years.