Myanmar forest-cutting continues despite government efforts

Myanmar, which has suffered phenomenally high levels of forest loss over the last couple decades, is experiencing a major problem of enforcement for its legislative attempts to conserve natural resources. In the northern province of Sagaing especially, illegal logging still takes place, largely for export to the foreign markets of China and India. People tend to attribute the problem to corruption, because these commercial loggers are often able to bribe government officials to look the other way when transporting their illicit goods to market. The communities in these hills already suffer from a lack of resources such as healthcare and education, and their marginality in terms of government services and oversight seems to translate into oversight for local forest protection as well. It should be noted that the communities don't necessarily benefit economically from logging, because loggers come from other provinces to take advantage of local resources in Sagaing.