Myanmar- ‘Quick profits’: Activists fear for environment under military rule

By Dilip -

There are already signs that the coup has prompted an increase in illegal mining and logging, and regime economic policies are set to compound the environmental destruction at a time when activists and communities are unable to push back. Within months of the February 2021 coup, there were already signs that military rule could have disastrous consequences for Myanmar’s natural environment. 

From far northern Kachin State, reports began to emerge that illegal rare earth mining in remote territory controlled by a military-affiliated Border Guard Force had begun to ramp up. The region is one of the world’s major sources of several types of heavy rare earths, which are exported over the border to China for use in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones. But the mining process is environmentally damaging; it involves toxic chemicals that are pumped through the mountains and often seep into waterways. As one miner told Frontier last year, “In the areas we worked on the mountains, there’s nothing left, not even a small bird. Anything that drinks the liquid we put in the mountains will die. Nothing can live there.” For Myanmar’s environmentalists, news of an increase in illegal mining was not surprising....

https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/quick-profits-activists-fear-for-environment-under-military-rule/?utm_source=pocket_mylist


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