The Irrawaddy
Forest department investigates sizeable seizures of smuggled timber
The forest department has launched an internal investigation in response to sizeable seizures of smuggled timber since late January. On Jan. 24, authorities seized more than 30 tons of smuggled teak from two containers at the Myanmar Industrial Port in Yangon. Further investigations led to ...
Local protesters block road to Letpadaung copper mine
The Sagaing Division chief minister will likely visit the controversial Letpadaung copper mine later this week after protesters prevented vehicles from leaving the compound on February 21 and demanded the mine cease operations. “We blocked five trucks carrying copper from leaving the mine,” U Pho La ...
Malaysian aid ship docks in Bangladesh
A Malaysian aid ship arrived in Bangladesh on February 13 carrying aid for hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who have fled from Arakan State, many citing abuses by the Myanmar’s security forces. A representative of the mission on the ship said it would unload ...
Economy expected to average 7.1 percent growth over next three years
Myanmar’s economy is expected to grow by an average of 7.1 percent per year in the next three years, amid easing inflation and a rise in investments in infrastructure and sectors such as light manufacturing and hospitality, the World Bank said in a report on ...
Wa State suffers as fewer Chinese come to party
In a remote casino in northeastern Burma, China’s pervasive campaign against graft has taken its toll. Hundreds of local traders and farmers place petty bets as low as 10 cents, outnumbering a few Chinese who were once the VIPs of a gambling hall decorated with ...
Imagined urban futures of Yangon
As a newcomer to the city earlier this year, I noticed that urban development and planning in Yangon was a topic that often came up in many discussions, be it with colleagues or during other informal encounters. The general sentiments among locals and foreigners were ...
Nickel and Dimed on frog mountain
Our motorbikes crossed flimsy bamboo bridges in western Sagaing Division, a landscape still showing the devastation of 2015’s floods. Shifting gears up a twisting, muddy hill trail took us over the border to Chin State. There, several villages are tucked into the forested slopes of ...
Yangon’s extreme poverty needs action: report
In a one-room hut in north Yangon, a middle-aged woman has a trick for those evenings when the children complain of hunger and she has run out of money and rice. “I ask them to drink extra water and go to bed,” said mother-of-seven Daw ...
The Salween Peace Park: a radical, grassroots alternative to development in Karen State
A path has opened for environmental conservationists and rights advocates to strengthen their fight against gold mining and other socially and environmentally destructive projects in the rich forests of Karen State in eastern Myanmar: the Salween Peace Park. The 5,200-square-kilometer Peace Park is a radical ...
Palm oil projects destroy local livelihoods: report
More than 1.8 million acres of palm oil plantations in Myanmar’s southern Tenasserim Division do more harm than good for local Karen villagers, causing land conflict, damaging livelihoods, destroying biodiversity, and polluting the environment, according to a new report. Companies and businesspeople have taken over ...
