Deforestation surge continues amid deepening uncertainty in Myanmar
Carved out of the of the narrow isthmus that connects the Malay Peninsula to the rest of mainland Southeast Asia, Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region rises from the Andaman Sea in the west to the forested Tenasserim Hills that border Thailand in the east.
While much of Tanintharyi’s coastal low-lying land has been converted for human use, intact forest landscapes remain in the mountainous interior, where globally threatened species, such as endangered tigers (Panthera tigris), Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) and Malayan tapirs (Tapirus indicus), and critically endangered helmeted hornbills (Buceros vigil), Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) and Gurney’s pittas (Hydrornis gurneyi) cling to existence.
Carolyn Cowan
