Forest Resources Exploitation And Management Towards Sustainable Forest Management The Case Of Pale Township Sagaing Region Myanmar

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL

DEVELOPMENT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY

--------------------

EI MOM KHIN

FOREST RESOURCES EXPLOITATION AND

MANAGEMENT TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOREST

MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF PALE TOWNSHIP,

SAGAING REGION, MYANMAR

MASTER THESIS IN FOREST SCIENCE

Hanoi, 2018

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND RURAL

DEVELOPMENT

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF FORESTRY

--------------------

EI MOM KHIN

FOREST RESOURCES EXPLOITATION AND

MANAGEMENT TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE FOREST

MANAGEMENT: THE CASE OF PALE TOWNSHIP,

SAGAING REGION, MYANMAR

Major: Forest Science

Code: 8620201

MASTER THESIS IN FOREST SCIENCE

Academic advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thi Thu Ha

Hanoi, 2018

i

Abstract

The management of forest resources in Myanmar falls mostly in the hands of

the government although communities surrounding these resources are recognized

stakeholders. This study focused on assessing the forest resources exploitation and

management within Pale Township, Sagaing Region, Myanmar. Focus group

discussions, key informant interviews and face to face household interviews with

structured questionnaires were the primary data collection methods. 211 households

were selected randomly from eight villages at which four villages are located inside

reserved forests and four villages are located outside reserved forests because their

livelihoods activities are dependent on the forest resources. SPSS (Statistical

Packages for Social Science) Software was used to analyze the quantitative data

while content analysis and SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, Opportunities and

Threats) were used to analyze the qualitative data. Results indicate that 78.2% of the

respondents rely on the forest resources such as fuel wood, bamboo and other non￾timber forest products for both subsistence needs and sale. But only 15.6% from

total respondents depends on forest resources as their main income source. Chi￾square analysis shows that household characteristics such as education level,

household size and main income sources are influencing the forest resources

extraction. According to independent sample (T-test), households inside the

reserved forests received more forest income than the households outside reserved

forest. One-way ANOVA results show that age, education and size of the household

did not significantly influence the forest income. Results of focus group discussions,

key informant and household interviews revealed that a significantly large

proportion of the respondents perceived the forest cover in these areas as declining.

Fuel-wood consumption was the main reason for deforestation and forest

degradation. Only 28% of the respondents reported that forest areas were increasing

because of plantation establishment. Chi-square test results show that location of

villages, gender and knowledge about sustainable forest management are the factors

influencing the participation of local people in forest management.

ii

Based on these findings, mitigation measures such as access to higher

education, alternative income generation opportunities, reduction of household size,

fuel-wood substitutes, awareness raising program for participation, sustainable

policies for NTFPs and community forestry that empowers local communities in

forest management were suggested to be enable the realization of the goal of

sustainable forest management.

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ....................................................................................................................... i

List of Table .............................................................................................................. vi

List of Figures .......................................................................................................... vii

Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... viii

1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1

1.1 General Introduction ...................................................................................... 1

1.2 Background of the Study ............................................................................... 2

1.3 Myanmar Forest Types and Situation ............................................................ 4

1.4 Rationale ........................................................................................................ 7

1.5 Goal and Objectives....................................................................................... 8

1.6 Research Questions ........................................................................................ 8

2 LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................... 9

2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 9

2.2 Sustainable Development .............................................................................. 9

2.3 Sustainable Forest Management .................................................................. 10

2.4 Instruments for SFM Implementation ......................................................... 12

2.5 ITTO Global Set of Criteria and Indicator Groups for SFM ....................... 13

2.6 Forest Resources Exploitation and Livelihood of Local People ................. 14

2.7 Participation of Local Communities in Forest Resources Management ..... 17

3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................ 20

3.1 Description of Study Area ........................................................................... 20

3.2 Research Design and Approaches ............................................................... 22

3.3 Data Collection ............................................................................................ 24

3.3.1 Primary Data Collection ....................................................................... 24

3.3.2 Secondary Data Collection ................................................................... 27

3.4 Data Processing and Data Analysis ............................................................. 28

iv

3.4.1 Quantitative Data Analysis ................................................................... 28

3.4.2 Qualitative Data Analysis ..................................................................... 29

4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ........................................................................ 30

4.1 Overview of Myanmar Forest Policy and Regulatory Framework ............. 30

4.1.1 Myanmar Forest Policy ......................................................................... 30

4.1.2 Forest Law (1992) ................................................................................. 31

4.1.3 Forest Rules (1995) ............................................................................... 32

4.1.4 Forestry Master Plan ............................................................................. 32

4.1.5 Forest Land Tenure Reform .................................................................. 33

4.1.6 Community Forestry Program .............................................................. 33

4.2 Local Forest Management ........................................................................... 33

4.3 Forest Cover Changes of Pale Township during 20 years (1998-2018) ..... 36

4.4 Demographic and Socio-economic Characteristics of Respondents ........... 39

4.4.1 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents ...................................... 39

4.4.2 Main Income Sources and Monthly Income of Households ................ 41

4.4.3 Expenditure of Households ................................................................... 43

4.5 Forest Resources Exploitation ..................................................................... 45

4.5.1 Primary Categories of Forest Products Collected ................................. 45

4.5.2 Fuel-wood Usage .................................................................................. 46

4.5.3 Timber Extraction ................................................................................. 47

4.5.4 Bamboo Exploitation ............................................................................ 49

4.5.5 Other Non-Timber Forest Products Usage ........................................... 50

4.6 Relationship between Forest Resources Exploitation and Households

Characteristics ....................................................................................................... 51

4.7 Income from Forest Resources Exploitation ............................................... 53

4.8 Perceptions of Local People on Forest Management .................................. 57

v

4.9 Factors Influencing the Participation of Local People in Forest

Management .......................................................................................................... 60

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................. 65

6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................... 69

7. REFERENCES .................................................................................................. 70

APPENDIX I: Household Structured Questionnaire Form ...................................... 79

APPENDIX II: Semi-structured Checking List for Key Informants Interview ........ 91

APPENDIX III: Field Photos………………………………………………………94

vi

List of Table

Table 1.1: Top Ten Countries for the Greatest Annual Net Loss of Forest Area,

2010-2015.................................................................................................................... 3

Table 1.2: Forest Cover Change in Myanmar ............................................................. 6

Table 3.1: Reserved Forests and Protected Public Forest in Pale Township ............ 22

Table 3.2: Table Numbers of Households and Sampling Intensity in each Village . 25

Table 4.1: SWOT Analysis of Forest Management .................................................. 35

Table 4.2: Land Use and Land Cover Types in 1998, 2008 and 2018 ..................... 36

Table 4.3: Demographic Characteristics of Respondents ......................................... 40

Table 4.4: Occupation of Respondents inside and outside RFs ................................ 41

Table 4.5: Main Income Source of Households inside and outside RFs .................. 42

Table 4.6: Main Income Sources and Monthly Income ............................................ 43

Table 4.7: Monthly Expenditure of Households ....................................................... 44

Table 4.8: Monthly Expenditure of Household for Each Item ................................. 44

Table 4.9: Forest Resources Exploitation of Local People ....................................... 46

Table 4.10: Other Non-Timber Forest Products Usage in Study Villages ............... 50

Table 4.11: Forest Resources Exploitation and Households Characteristics

Relationship ............................................................................................................... 52

Table 4.12: Total Monthly Income from Forest Products ........................................ 54

Table 4.13: Summary of Forest Income across Location of Households and Gender

................................................................................................................................... 55

Table 4.14: Test Summary of Forest Income by Different Villages ......................... 55

Table 4. 15: Test Summary of Forest Income by Age, Education and Household

Size ............................................................................................................................ 57

Table 4.16: Factors Influencing the Participation of Local People in Forest

Management .............................................................................................................. 62

vii

List of Figures

Figure 1. 1: Annual change in forest area (2010-2015) (FAO 2016) ......................... 3

Figure 1. 2: Forested area in 2015 and forest changes over 1990-2015 in Asia (FAO

2016)............................................................................................................................ 4

Figure 1. 3: Major Forest Types in Myanmar (Forest Department,2016) .................. 5

Figure 1. 4: Forest Cover Change in Myanmar, 1990-2015 (FAO 2015) .................. 6

Figure 3. 1: Location of Study Area ......................................................................... 21

Figure 3. 2: Location of Villages; inside and outside Reserved Forests ................... 25

Figure 4. 1: Land Cover Classification of Pale Township in 1998 (FD 2018) ........ 37

Figure 4. 2: Land Cover Classification of Pale Township in 2008(FD 2018) ......... 38

Figure 4. 3: Land Cover Classification of Pale Township in 2018(FD 2018) .......... 38

Figure 4. 4: Main Income Sources of Study Villages (Source: Field Survey, 2018)42

Figure 4. 5: Forest Resources Exploitation of Local People (Source: Field Survey,

2018).......................................................................................................................... 46

Figure 4. 6: Energy Source for Cooking (Source: Field Survey, 2018) ................... 47

Figure 4. 7: Source of Fuel-wood (Source: Field Survey, 2018) .............................. 47

Figure 4. 8: Purpose of Timber Extraction (Source: Field Survey, 2018) ................ 48

Figure 4. 9: Timber Extractor by Gender (Source: Field Survey, 2018) .................. 48

Figure 4. 10: Purpose of Bamboo Exploitation (Source: Field Survey, 2018) ......... 49

Figure 4. 11: Bamboo Exploitation by Gender (Source: Field Survey, 2018) ......... 49

Figure 4. 12: Forest Products Collection (Source: Field Survey, 2018) ................... 53

Figure 4. 13: Major Income Source of Households (Source: Field Survey, 2018) .. 53

Figure 4. 14: Forest Income by Different Study Villages (Source: Field Survey,

2018).......................................................................................................................... 56

Figure 4. 15: Knowledge about Forest Area Changes (Source: Field Survey, 2018)

................................................................................................................................... 58

Figure 4. 16: Knowledge about Forest Regulations (Source: Field Survey, 2018) .. 58

Figure 4. 17: Opinion about the Management Actions of Forest Department.......... 59

Figure 4. 18: Satisfaction of Local People on Management Actions ....................... 59

viii

Abbreviations

CBD: Convention on Biological Diversity

C&I: Criteria and Indicators

CF: Community Forestry

CFI: Community Forestry Instruction

CFUG: Community Forestry User Group

FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization

FD: Forest Department

FLEGT: Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade

FMU: Forest Management Unit

ITTO: International Tropical Timber Organization

MCPFE: Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forest in Europe

MSS: Myanmar Selection System

NGO: Non-governmental Organization

NTFPs: Non-timber Forest Products

PAS: Protected Area Systems

PFE: Permanent Forest Estate

PPF: Protected Public Forest

RF: Reserved Forest

REDD: Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest

Degradation

SFM: Sustainable Forest Management

SPSS: Statistical Packages for Social Science

SWOT: Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats

UNCED: United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

UNDP: United Nations Development Program

UNFF: United Nations Forum on Forests