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Health Archive Deadly malaria strain theatens Thai- Burma border Agence France-Presse - 6 April 2012 Deadly malaria that is resistant to drug treatment has spread rapidly from Cambodia to the border between Thailand and Burma, raising concerns of an uncontrollable epidemic, scientists said Thursday. A pair of studies published in The Lancet and the journal Science showed how the disease is moving fast into new territory and identified a region of the parasite’s genome that may be responsible for mutating in order to survive. The suspended Myitsone Dam Project Professor Qin Hui is a professor of history at Tsinghua University. After the decision to shelve a China-funded hydropower plant on the Irrawaddy River caused uproar in Beijing, Professor Qin Hui set off south to learn about the project and its opponents. He released on 28 March 2012 a three-part article about his findings. Text of Presidential Message to the Upper and Lower Houses The New Light of Myanmar - 1 October 2011 The message touches on a number of issues, including:
NLD leaders hail President's decision to suspend the Myitsone Dam project - Eleven Media Myanmar shelves controversial dam project Deutsche Presse-Agentur - 30 September 2011 Myanmar said Friday it will stop construction on a controversial hydroelectric dam in the north of the country, in a move expected to ease tensions with ethnic minorities. 'I have just received a letter from President Thein Sein,' Lower House Speaker Shwe Mann told parliament. 'Briefly, he has decided to stop the hydroelectric dam project in Mitzone, in keeping with the wishes of the people.'
Myanmar's new government vows not to harm the Irrawaddy Myanmar's new government will conduct an environmental impact study of a dam on the Irrawaddy River before going ahead with the project, which has been criticized by opposition figures and environmentalists, officials said Friday. 'We love the Irrawaddy,' Information Minister Kyaw Hsan told a press conference in Naypyidaw, the capital. 'We will protect the Irrawaddy just like other citizens would,' Kyaw Hsan said. The government spokesman said a downstream environmental impact study of Myitsone dam in the Kachin State will be carried out before the hydro-power plant is put into operation.
Burma's Environment: People, Problems, Policies Burmese Pythons Mongabay.com Myanmar environmental website Daily Telegraph - 27 October 2010
The monkey, measuring almost two feet high with a tail even longer than its body size, has an extraordinary upturned nose and full lips. It is the largest snub-nosed monkey species in the world. Little is known about the habits of the black monkey with a white beard, but locals say it is easy to find the animals because it sneezes when it rains.
 Protecting tigers in a troubled land Time - 4 August 2010
Hot weather brings water shortages Myanmar Times - 13 May 2010
Myanmar forest redues by 14% in 35 years Bernama (Yangon)) - 15 April 2010
World Bank faces tiger trap in Burma IPS - 12 February 2010
Turtle thought to be extinct seen in Myanmar MNSBC - 7 September 2009
The rare Arakan forest turtle, once thought to be extinct, has been rediscovered in a remote forest in Myanmar, boosting chances of saving the reptile after hunting almost destroyed its population. Texas researcher Steven Platt and staff from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society discovered five of the brown-and-tan-spotted turtles in May during a survey of wildlife in the Rakhine Yoma Elephant Sanctuary. The sanctuary contains thick stands of impenetrable bamboo forests, with the only trails made by the park's elephants, said Platt, of Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas.
Mekong dolphin is nearing extinction - Myanmar Times 22-28 June 2009
Pollution in southeast Asia’s Mekong River has pushed freshwater "Irrawaddy" dolphins in Cambodia and Laos to the brink of extinction, a conservation report said on June 18, sparking a furious denial. The WWF (World Wildlife Fund) said only 64 to 76 Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) dolphins remain in the Mekong after toxic levels of pesticides, mercury and other pollutants were found in more than 50 calves who have died since 2003. Country Profile on Environment
This report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency, although dated November 1999, contains an excellent assessment of current environmental issues in Myanmar as well as Fact Sheets on major environmental data, the organization of environmental responsibility and relevant legislation. We invite you to visit the web-site of the "Friends of Rainforests in Myanmar" ["FORM"]
Many Communities in the world rely heavily on their natural environments to sustain their everyday lives. However rainforests, the very lungs of the world, are continuously destroyed in many countries. This causes global warming which is posing as the greatest threat to these natural environments. FORM strongly believes in protecting such natural environments with rainforests in order to give opportunity to the communities to improve their quality of life. To achieve our mission FORM is working with following objectives:
As the World Bank embarks on its latest foray to protect Asian forests that are home to wild tigers, one of the continent’s iconic predators, a visible trap looms in military-ruled Burma. The challenge for the Bank stems from a need to find a balance between its new interest as a conservationist - through its Global Tiger Initiative (GTI) - and a policy that shackles the Washington DC-based international financial institution from being directly involved, including doling out financial aid, to the South-east Asian nation.
Myanmar's forest-covered area has reduced by 14 percent in 35 years, registering 40 percent of the country's total land area now, according to figures of the Food and Agriculture Organisation available here Thursday. The percentage dropped from 60 percent in 1975 to 41 percent in 2010, the statistics show, reports China's Xinhua news agency. Forestry experts attributed the depletion of forest mainly to the excessive extraction of timber. Meanwhile, Myanmar's forestry authorities have planned to reduce timber production and export during this fiscal year of 2010-11, which began this month, as part of its bid to prevent forest depletion, according to the forestry circle.
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Special Themes
• International Crisis Group• Google Map of Yangon
• Myanmar CSO Statistics
• ILO in Myanmar
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