Decades of military dictatorship have frozen many of Myanmar’s old-world traditions in time — including its use of timber elephants. But with the government overhauling logging policies to reduce timber extraction, many of the animals are in danger of losing their jobs.
In Myanmar, there are an estimated 5,000 elephants living in captivity. More than half of them belong to a single government logging agency, the Myanmar Timber Enterprise. Elephants are chosen over machines to bring down trees because they do less damage to the forest.
Once the richest reservoir for biodiversity in Asia, Myanmar's forest cover is steadily depleting and the government blames it on illegal loggers. To combat the problem, legislators are overhauling forest policy. One key measure is to dramatically reduce timber extraction — even banning the export of logs starting in April.
Neighboring countries, which have already implemented similar measures, found that it saves forests, but leaves thousands of elephants unemployed — which is a problem.
Left in private hands, officials in Thailand and India have found that elephants are often exploited and abused. Meanwhile, the centuries-old tradition of elephant handlers, known as oozies in Burmese, and their compassionate, symbiotic relationship with elephants is fading.
Will elephants and their handlers, who’ve survived kingdoms and military dictatorships, survive democracy and the open market? Only time will tell.
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