Last month I highlighted a new book by American conservation advocate Dr Alan Rabinowitz. The Myanmar Times has recently run an interesting article on his efforts to create wildlife sanctuaries in Burma. Anybody with an interest in the environment of mainland Southeast Asia, or thinking about taking the contentious step of working alongside Burma’s generals, will find his work an important case study. It is, for better or for worse, one way of doing business in Burma these days.
Alan Rabinowitz in The Myanmar Times
March 26th, 2008 by Nicholas Farrelly · 3 Comments
Tags: Burma · Kachin State
3 responses so far ↓
1 kevin // Mar 28, 2008 at 3:11 pm
it is worthy of taking note of WCS-Burma and Rabinowitz’s work, especially their nature conservation strategies in kachin state, northern burma. there has been some pieces published on this topic critically examining their work, most recently a review of rabinowitz’s new book in irrawaddy.
the way WCS operates in burma, or how conservation as a process unfolds in non-democratic countries, says more about ‘conservation’ than the government and military elite that co-opt it.
anyone interested to learn more?…
2 aiontay // Mar 29, 2008 at 10:47 am
I’d be interested. Definitely.
3 sai // Jul 7, 2008 at 1:46 pm
It is rather interesting that Rabinowitz’s approach is still traditional human-less appraoch. I have been following forest conservation in Burma. Rabinowitz hasn’t been able to realize the importance of human survival, but he is only talking about the numbers of tigers. Zoa Noam’s articles in the Irrawaddy and elsewhere are good critiques of Ranbinowitz.
Burmese exiles are no different either. Arguments made by the exiles against conservation is that it generates revenue for the generals. But they rarely talk about the negative impacts of such conservation on local communities.
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