The impact of gold mining and agricultural concessions on the tree cover and local communities in northern Myanmar

Abstract

Myanmar offers unique opportunities for both biodiversity conservation and foreign direct investment due to projected economic growth linked to natural resource exploitation. Industrial-scale development introduces new land uses into the landscape, with unknown repercussions for local communities and biodiversity conservation. We use participatory mapping of 31 communities, focus groups in 28 communities, and analyses of forest cover change during 2000-2010 using MODIS vegetation continuous fields images, to understand the social and environmental impacts of gold mining and agricultural concessions in Myanmar's Hukaung Valley (~21,800 km²). Local communities, particularly the poorest households, benefit from work and trade opportunities offered by gold mining and agricultural companies but continue to depend on forests for house construction materials, food, and income from the sale of forest resources. However, gold mining and agricultural concessions reduce tree cover, potentially reducing access to forest resources and further marginalizing these households. Our analyses do not provide evidence that long-term resident communities contributed to forest cover loss between 2000 and 2010. We argue that landscape management, which recognizes local community rights to customary community use areas, and appropriate zoning for commercial land uses and protected areas could contribute to both local livelihoods and protect biodiversity throughout Myanmar during economic growth.

Figure 1. Tree cover and tree cover change in Hukaung Valley, Northern Myanmar.

(A) Decreases in percentage tree cover in the Hukaung Valley landscape between 2000 and 2010 are high close to gold mines and inside the southern Yuzana biofuel concession. (B) Percentage tree cover in the Hukaung Valley landscape in 2010 and location of mapped community use areas (CUAs). Figures generated in ArcGIS from MODIS VCF data layers at 230 m resolution, as described in the methods section.

Figure 2. Changes in the socio-economic system and interactions with the ecosystem associated with industrial-scale extraction of natural resources in the Hukaung Valley Landscape.

Interactions in the modified socio-economic system associated with these changes are shown in black, interactions present before 2000 are shown in grey.