Myanmar’s ceasefire regime: Two decades of unaccountable natural resource exploitation

By focusing on the role of the ceasefires and peace agreements in Myanmar's exploitation of its natural resources, this chapter explores Myanmar's transformation from an isolated and war-torn country into a conflict-ridden yet tightly controlled military state and regional investment hub. It provides a description of Myanmar's characteristics and history, including a discussion of the rise of the modern state of Burma and then Myanmar, from independence to the present, and a description of the ceasefires and peace agreements and their immediate effects. The chapter analyses the longer-term effects of the ceasefires and peace agreements on natural resources. The ceasefire agreements signed by the military government and the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) in the early 1990s shifted resources from fighting to timber extraction, and opened previously inaccessible forests to both government timber enterprises and KIO-controlled logging. The KIO initiated negotiations with the military regime to protect the headwaters of the N'Mai River and other rivers from deforestation.