Displacement and Dispossession: An Environmental Collapse
Jack Jenkins Hill, a recent podcast guest, is a Ph.D. student at University College London, devoting the last decade to studying deforestation, mining, and natural resource governance in Myanmar, with a focus on the impact on indigenous communities. He delves into the history of natural resource exploitation dating back to the colonial era and its continuance by successive military regimes, leading to the 2021 estimate of over $33 billion from natural resource exploitation. He discusses deforestation driven by agribusiness, illegal logging, and the ecological and human impacts, highlighting how the forests are a site of conflict and spiritual significance. Hill addresses the dangerous expansion of mining and the environmental and health concerns it raises, emphasizing the broader impact on global climate change and extinction due to Myanmar's extensive rainforests. He also warns of the ongoing damage to civic space and the environment, leading to a potential precipice of climate and ecological collapse worldwide.
“We can see processes of displacement and dispossession working together. These processes of dispossession are usually done through legal mechanisms, recognized by law, something that the communities who’ve been displaced never had.”
Host: And so let's talk about the lawfulness here because there is a very, very, very large criminal logging enterprise in Myanmar, which, once again, I think we often understate, and we don't think of illegally cutting down trees as being a particularly noteworthy criminal enterprise. It seems almost small peanuts, particularly when we contrast it with things like the globally renowned drug trade that flows through cluster Myanmar. But it's actually a very, very large ecological problem and also a very large industry financially. So, what is driving this illegal logging activity? What's going on with this?
Jack Jenkins Hill: There are several different drivers, and one of the primary drivers has been agricultural conversion. Particularly over the last 10-15 years, during the transition period, there was a significant expansion of agribusiness activities. For example, large expansion of palm oil in the south, banana plantations in the north, and large expansion of rubber too. So, these expansions of agriculture or agribusiness are accompanied by what we call conversion timber. This involves the logging of those areas to make way for that kind of expansion, which has been incredibly lucrative for those involved. So, that was one of the primary ways that so much logging took place. In addition to that, we also see different other forms of logging. Some of that is legal, normally done inside reserved forests and public protected forests, which we might consider areas where forests are well managed. But these areas have been completely logged out. And then we have smaller forms of logging, which is done through traders, and it has become increasingly militarized. Both in the past and what we can currently see now as well. So, we have a few different ways that this takes place.
Host: And so, you spoke about the conflict and the tension. You speak about the upland areas, predominantly ethnic minority and also very likely to be religious minority groups who live in the more mountainous regions. You talk about the connection they have with the forests. So, I'm wondering, is the conflict between them and the central government supported exploitation? Is the conflict predominantly over financial revenue, the actual right to economically exploit the forests? Or is there a deeper cultural desire to preserve this land for the sake of preserving it and not for any financial purpose that is being stymied by these centrally supported exploitation industries?
Jack Jenkins Hill: I wouldn't say that it's a financial conflict. I would say it's probably much more of a territorial conflict. People, through different periods of conflict and also land-based investment, have lost large areas of their territory. So, this becomes a very significant issue for people who depend on their lands and forests. It's not only the logging that has displaced communities, but also conservation has also been a significant issue. For instance, in Kachin, if we look at Tanintharyi and other areas of the country, we see large protected areas, many of which were established during periods of active conflict in the 90s or early 2000s. These protected areas have sought to displace thousands of people from their forests and lands. So, it's not only a battle over logging and accumulation, but also people have been displaced by other processes of forest control, primarily conservation.
Host: So, let's talk about this dispossession because you said this word. It's a very interesting word because it's very open-ended. Are we talking about the central government using legal mechanisms to acquire this land, like in America, this would be called eminent domain? In Australia, this would be called compulsory acquisition. Or are we talking about people coming in and making the region or the territory simply incapable of continuing to sustain those populations, and therefore driving them away? Not by force of law, but under the fear of not being able to survive otherwise. What's the actual mechanism of this dispossession?
Jack Jenkins Hill: It happens in a couple of different ways. But when we think about dispossession in Myanmar, we're looking at processes tangled up with armed conflict. Normally, in these areas, communities have been displaced due to periods of armed conflict. It's during these times when people's security of the land is the least, and people have already been displaced. They might have gone to border areas or cities with the plan to come back when the fighting has subsided. It's during this period that new plans are made for those lands. Protected areas are established, or palm oil concessions and other mining operations are set up. In this way, we can see processes of displacement and dispossession working together. These processes of dispossession are usually done through legal mechanisms, recognized by law, something that the communities who've been displaced never had. So coming back and establishing a life in the territory that has always been yours becomes something very difficult.