ABSTRACT
Myanmar is a country with many challenges and a unique set of frame conditions for sustainable forest management. This study discusses community forest management and forest cover change, contrasting the special situation of the Himalayan mountainous area in Shan state with the low-altitude-level dry zone area in Myanmar. The forest cover changes of Nyaung-Shwe township in the Shan state and Magway township of the dry zone area are analyzed using remote sensing tools for the years 2010 and 2020. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of community forestry (CF) in both regions are then discussed based on field observations and over 150 interviews from both regions in 2016 and 2018. The forest cover analysis shows a slight increase in forest cover in both regions but notices a shift to new forest areas. Given Myanmar’s current political crisis with its inaccessibility, the positive forest cover results should be interpreted carefully as the level of degradation wasn’t analyzed and could overshadow the positive trend. Based on the SWOT analysis, we found over six strengths, four weaknesses, six opportunities, and five threats common to both areas or specific to one of the regions. We conclude that given the difficult frame conditions of CF in Myanmar, with political instability, undeveloped markets, corruption, weak law enforcement, and high dependency on forests, the benefits of equitable community forest management with strengthened village institutions, conflict resolution, and collective learning can increase the well-being and resilience of the communities. The advantages of including the whole community in CF outweigh the higher transaction and establishing costs and should be prioritized. Increasing communication, trade arrangements, and knowledge transfer between community forests as well as the development of clear legal guidelines can provide short-term improvements on the local level, even under the current adverse political conditions.
