ALARM in collaboration with Smithsonian Institution mapped forest cover change over 12 years in Myanmar through a consortium of international academic organizations and environmental non-government groups including GMAP and American Museum of Natural History in order to assess how rapid economic and development changes are affecting Myanmar, detailed information about the condition of remaining forests is urgently needed and to increase access to information about forests, and to expand technical capacity for forest mapping by civil society organizations. The condition and spatial distribution of Myanmar’s intact and degraded forests were assessed with special focus on changes in intact forest between 2002 and 2014.

Results showed that forests still cover 42,365,729 ha or 63% of Myanmar, making it one of the most forested countries in the region. However, only 38% of these forests can be considered intact (meaning forest that has a canopy cover greater than 80%).Between 2002 and 2014, intact forests declined at a rate of 0.94% annually, totaling more than 2 million ha of forest loss. Losses can be extremely high locally, such as in the 9 townships that are hotspots of intact forest loss. Large expanses of intact forest still remain in parts of Kachin, Sagaing, and Tanitharyi, but those areas will face increasing pressure as economic development in Myanmar continues.