To ensure the transfer of a stable and healthy environmental ecosystem to present and future generations, the Government is making efforts with the target of increasing forest cover to 50 per cent of the country’s total land area. In doing so, it is necessary to implement measures at the regional and state levels to further increase forest cover across the country.
To date, a total of 1,337 forest reserves and protected public forests have been established, covering 26.11 per cent of the total area in Myanmar. In addition, 62 nature conservation areas have been designated, covering 6.59 per cent of the country’s total area. According to 2025 assessments, forest cover accounts for 42.15 per cent of the country’s land area. As forest cover increases, ecosystem services are also expected to improve further, benefiting a wide range of living organisms.
Internationally, forests are being depleted due to excessive logging, illegal timber extraction, rising demand for timber driven by population growth, the expansion of industrial activities and urban areas, and the conversion of forest land into other forms of land use. According to the 2025 Global Forest Resources Assessment report, forest area declined by an average of 10.18 million acres annually over the decade from 2015 to 2025. As a consequence, the world is increasingly experiencing climate change and natural disasters.
In responding to climate change, the conservation and protection of forests and natural ecosystems is one of the most effective Nature-based Solutions. Areas with tree cover are 2°C to 8°C cooler than urban areas without trees. Trees naturally help regulate heat, creating a cooler shaded environment, and the process of evapotranspiration from leaves also contributes to cooling the surrounding air.
In Myanmar, special emphasis must be placed on expanding green spaces, including the development of urban forests, greening roadside areas, and expanding urban parks. Hence, plantations are being established in 13 districts of the dry zone, along railway lines, along both sides of ASEAN highways and other roads, in the Bagan ancient cultural zone, around the Inlay Lake area, in coastal regions, designated urban green areas, and village fuelwood plantations for rural communities.
In order to ensure greenery and environmental beauty across urban and rural areas throughout the country, priority should be given to continuously establishing trees, forests, and green forest landscape areas. People have to promote increased investment in forest-based green economic development activities as a foundation for the country’s sustainable development. That is why all the people of the nation have to make efforts for forest conservation as a national duty.
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