Ashen earth strewn with the limbs of once-mighty trees is all that is left of the fearsome forest in central Myanmar that Wa Tote remembers from her youth.
“We would only dare enter in a big group. The forest was deep and had many wild animals. Now we cannot even find a tree’s shadow to shelter under when we are tired,” the 72-year-old said.
At one point tigers were so common in the area that their bones were traded cheaply. Now they have vanished into memory.
Large swathes of the undulating landscape of the Bago mountains have been stripped bare by logging firms over recent years and the last remnants of wood are being burnt.
Locals say there are plans to replant the area with valuable teak trees — though even if they do, these will take up to 80 years to reach maturity.
Logging in Myanmar exploded under the former junta, as the generals tossed aside sustainable forestry practices in their thirst to cash in on vast natural resources.
Experts say an insatiable world appetite for precious hardwoods is threatening rare species and helping to drive deforestation in one of the last major areas of tropical forest in Asia.
The country lost almost 20 percent of its forest cover between 1990 and 2010, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
Widespread degradation of the most densely wooded areas means that so-called “closed forest” more than halved in size, from 30.9 million to 13.4 million hectares.
Experts say corruption and poor protection have enabled rampant illegal logging that lines the pockets of crony businessmen, soldiers and rebels groups alike.
A quasi-civilian government that replaced outright military rule in 2011 has sought to stem the flood of timber from the country with a ban on the export of raw logs which took effect on April 1.
“Our ban will be very effective. There will be cutting, distribution and finishing of timber products locally, so that we can also increase employment opportunities,” said the director general of the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Tin Tun. Wildlife group WWF said the biggest driver of forest loss has been large-scale conversion for agriculture, often after woodland is degraded by logging or the collection of wood for fuel.
It welcomed the export ban and said the government has also slashed quotas for teak and other hardwoods by 60 percent and 50 percent respectively for the coming fiscal year compared to 2012/13.
“But given the high volume of illegal logging and exports in Myanmar, it will take a long time before we see how effective the ban will be,” said WWF’s Myanmar conservation program manager Michelle Owen.
In mountainous northern Myanmar close to the Chinese border, logging roads score the landscape as firms drive ever deeper into pristine forests.
“Stopping logging has to happen now,” said Frank Momberg of conservation group Flora and Fauna International, which is struggling to protect the newly discovered and critically endangered Myanmar snub nosed monkey. There are thought to be barely 300 of the flat-faced primates left in the dense forests of Kachin state at the eastern tip of the Himalayas.
Large scale mechanical felling is stripping even steep hillsides, with the loss of tree cover causing landslides and further environmental destruction, conservationists warn.
Chinese workers have flooded into the area, fueling demand for the monkeys to be hunted for food and traditional medicine, Momberg said.
Other species also inhabit the threatened forests, including the red panda, Blyth’s Tragopan pheasant and the Takin, known as a goat antelope.
“A complete ecosystem is being destroyed by this radical logging,” Momberg said.
He said the loggers are supplying rare woods for a furniture industry in Tengchong, in China’s Yunnan province, using maple trees to make delicate carved tables and protected Taiwania conifers for “luxurious coffins.”
Flora and Fauna is setting up the approximately 250,000 hectare Imawbum national park with Myanmar’s forestry department and have created hunting-free zones with the support of local villages.
China recorded importing 10 million cubic meters of round logs from its impoverished neighbor between 2000 and 2013 — almost twice Myanmar’s officially registered global export trade of 6.4 million cubic meters for the period, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) campaign group.
Some 84 percent of logs imported into China went by land, despite longstanding rules barring exports from any other route than through Myanmar’s Yangon and Dawei ports, making them “legally questionable at best and downright illegal at worst,” the EIA said. In a recent report based on Myanmar forestry documents and global trade data, the EIA said the country was believed to have exported up to 3.5 times more logs than the volumes officially recorded between 2000 and 2014.
“Such a gap is indicative of widespread criminality and corruption in Myanmar’s timber sector,” the report said, estimating this vast shadow industry was worth up to $5.7 billion.
And despite the export ban, trucks loaded with logs were seen around the Yangon port after April 1, while more than 60 tons of illegal timber were recently found in trucks disguised as anti-logging festival floats.
Tony Neil, forest governance adviser at Myanmar environmental group EcoDev, said the current dry season has seen an “unprecedented” amount of timber crossing the China-Myanmar border, with several hundred trucks a day making the journey.
Demand is driven from all over the world, with timber “laundered” through ports in Malaysia and Singapore and the price of prized logs such as rosewood shooting up.
“It’s like an extinction frontier,” he said.
Myanmar’s forests seek life
Myanmar’s forests seek life
Why some women choose Galentines over Valentines and how they might celebrate
- O’Sullivan is one of many women who find it empowering to focus on female friendship rather than relationship pressures
- Other ways to mark Galentine’s Day include going to a play, hiking, karaoke, playing cards or just having coffee
Christie O’Sullivan of Trinity, Florida, has spent 21 Valentine’s Days with her husband, but her favorite celebration was one spent with a girlfriend before she got married.
They took the day off work, got massages, and went out for cocktails and a fancy dinner.
“For me, it was 10 out of 10. That whole day was intentional,” said O’Sullivan. She remembers it as empowering “on a day that’s usually filled with pressure to be in a relationship, or sadness because I wasn’t currently in one.”
Galentine’s Day became a pop culture phenomenon with a 2010 episode of the TV comedy “Parks and Recreation” that celebrated female friendships around Valentine’s Day. Amy Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, gathered her gal pals on Feb. 13.
“What’s Galentine’s Day? Oh, it’s only the best day of the year,” said Knope.
Honoring female friendships can happen any day of the year, of course. Whether on Feb. 13 or another day, here are some ways to create a fun-filled experience:
Making it a party
Chela Pappaccioli of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has been hosting a Galentine’s Day bash at her home for the last three years. She has a bartender and a DJ hired, and this year invited 45 of her nearest and dearest. So far, she has 34 confirmations, and is assembling gift bags for her guests to take home. There are no men allowed “unless the bartender happens to be male.”
The event may be extravagant, but Pappaccioli says it’s worth it.
“It’s an escape to just be with your girls, be silly, do something fun and just focus on the friendships you’ve created and enjoying each other’s company,” she says.
Learning how to do something new
Liz Momblanco of Berkley, Michigan, who describes herself as a “serial hobbyist,” invites her friends to take classes like cookie and cake decorating, calligraphy and stained glass.
“I enjoy learning something new and having a shared experience,” said Momblanco, who has attended day retreats for women that offer activities like floral arranging, yoga or a cold plunge.
Marney Wolf, who runs the retreat company Luna Wolf, says providing an opportunity for art and creativity builds community.
“It bonds you, whether it’s the smallest thing or really deep. You watch these grown women turn into almost like a childlike kindergarten response like, ‘Oh my gosh! Good job! You’re so talented!’ That little lift is the easiest thing to do,” she said.
Filling a Valentine’s void
Wolf takes care to schedule Galentine’s-themed retreats near Valentine’s Day because some women don’t have someone to spend Feb. 14 with.
“I know it can be a really lonely time for people and I think some take it for granted,” she says.
Pappaccioli said a couple of divorced friends come to her party, and “even if you’re married it can be depressing because your husband may not be doing what you want or your boyfriend may not support you in the way you want,” she says.
“It’s nice to know that you don’t need that. You can still celebrate the holiday, but turn it around a little bit and celebrate the relationships you want to.”
Creating different kinds of bonds
Galentine’s Day get-togethers can forge new friendships. And spending quality time with a friend provides an opportunity to put the phone away, avoid distractions and build memories.
O’Sullivan is a social media strategist for businesses but appreciates that her bestie Valentine’s Day was without cellphones.
“We could be fully present — no photos, no texts, no nothing,” she says.
“So while that means there’s no actual record of that day occurring, it also means the details became a core memory without it.”
Some celebrate Galentine’s Day by just going out for coffee or playing cards. You might go with a group of women friends to a play or museum, or take a hike or a workout class.
Other ideas include thrift store shopping, country line dancing, roller skating, karaoke, junk journaling, and getting manicures and pedicures.
