Pyithu Hluttaw Speaker Thura U Shwe Mann says action is needed by the government and the parliament to ensure that villagers who cut timber for their own use are not jailed under laws designed to protect the nation’s forests from logging operations.
“This issue must be solved by the respective ministries and the parliament working in collaboration,” Thura U Shwe Mann told the PyithuHluttaw on March 17.
The issue could not be solved by the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry alone, he said.
Thura U Shwe Mann said the issue needed to be addressed by a committee comprising representatives from the parliament, the ministries of Environmental Conservation and Forestry and of Home Affairs and the High Court.
The Speaker’s comments followed an exchange in the parliament between U Khin Maung Shwe (Union Solidarity and Development Party, Tamu Township, Sagaing Region) and the Minister for Environmental Conservation and Forestry, U Win Tun.
U Khin Maung Shwe has asked whether it was right that such cases involve only the Department of Forestry.
He said that if villagers collecting timber for personal use were brought before the courts, they were almost always likely to receive a jail sentence.
“In earlier times, those collecting wood for personal could apply for a permit from the Department of Forestry to cut timber,” U Khin Maung Shwe, urging that the permit system be reinstated.
U Win Tun said that under the forestry laws, permission was not required to cut wood for personal use.
U Win Tun said that villagers who needed to cut timber for personal use could avoid the possibility of a jail term by applying for a permit from their township administration office.
