IRRAWADDY DOLPHINS IN BURMA

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Burma's Irrawaddy Dolphin Faces Extinction

http://www.mizzima.com/mizzima/archives/news-in-2005/news-in-Aug/2-Aug-05-2.htm

By Sein Win

August 2, 2005

 

It's not only Visayas's or the Philippines' marine biodiversity that is at the

receiving end of unsound fishing practices, pollution, over-fishing and other

factors. Burma's also does.

 

Irrawaddy dolphin, named after Burma's longest river, lands on the list of

endangered species because of chemical poisoning brought by the gold mining

industry and destructive fishing practices. The 59 dolphins found in the upper

part of the river in 1998 have been reduced to as few as 37 after four years.

 

Gifted with natural environmental resources, the 1200-odd miles of the Bay of

Bengal, the country at the coastal fringe of the South East Asian country, now

known as Myanmar (formerly Burma), have a vast pool of genetic material for

marine life and varieties of abundant coastal habitats.

 

However, aside from the two to three meter long Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcella

brevirostris), at least four species of fishes including 'Giant catfish', two

species of crocodiles, five species of turtles and one more aquatic mammals

found in Burma are officially listed as " endangered species related to the

fisheries. " This according to a paper submitted last

month by the delegation of Burma's Department of Fisheries for a regional

technical conference held in Iloilo City.

 

There is more bad news on marine turtle. There were some 1.5 millions eggs of

Olive Ridley found in the Irrawaddy division or delta region of Burma in 1931,

and an estimated five thousands green turtles nested in 1911. However, only

about 100 nests of olive turtles and 300 nests of green turtles were found in

2003.

 

The marine species are threatened by the steadily encroaching fishers. The

cash-strapped military junta ruling the country is accused of corruption and

lack of transparency. These are other factors are driving the species into

extinction or away from the waters of Burma.

 

Burma has enacted the fisheries law since 1989, which has provisions banning the

use of explosive substances and chemicals to catch fish. It also provides

penalties like long-term imprisonment. Apparently the laws were not enough to

end destructive fishing methods.

 

Mercury runoff from hundreds of licensed and unlicensed gold mines along the

Irrawaddy River in upper Burma also kills marine life. The gold mines are run by

local and Chinese companies, many of them owned or have close ties with armed

groups that have cease-fire agreements with the ruling military junta that is

also called Peace and Development Council.

 

Local fishers plant fine mesh nets to the riverbed, which haphazardly trap

dolphins, fish and other animals that swim to them. This method is strongly

criticized by conservationists.

 

In some cases, authority themselves committed human rights violations when

punishing destructive fishing practices. Thirteen fishers from Thai-owned

fishing boat using dynamite and explosives to fish were shot dead by the troops

of the Light Infantry Battalion 267 patrolling the Jalan Island in Botepyin town

of Thaninthayi Division in Southern Burma on July 13, 2005.

 

Illegal fishing continues despite the clampdown. There are about 20 fishing

vessels operating in that area alone. The relatives of the dead fishers said

that troops were bribed in previous occasion. Poverty also drives local youths

to risk with their lives to earn.

At the suburb of the Burma's capital Rangoon, teenage boys with high voltage

batteries looking for eels is not a strange scene. Electric fishing kills

everything in range, allowing them to easily pick up dead fish from the surface

of water. Farther from Rangoon, electric fishing is even more rampant. The

extension of aquaculture along the costal line has

dealt severe blow to the aquatic species and the ecologically balancing mangrove

forests. The interests of limited business are calling the shots over that of

local communities and the national economy. The government is promoting

eco-tourism at the some parts of the delta but failed to balance development and

conservation. Devastation in mangrove forest leads to the flood and storms,

bringing more hardship to the people in the coastal region.

 

Dozens of trucks carrying various wild lives, including tortoises and snakes

from Burma, go past the borders to neighboring countries, especially the

north-eastern border to China. Some 500 tons of snakes from Burma were imported

to the Chinese border town of Ruili

alone for food and traditional medicine from 1996 to 1999, according to a survey

from the wildlife monitoring group TRAFFIC. Although the billboard in the

China-Burma border checkpoint warns that carrying four-legged animals over the

border is illegal, the

illegal traffic of fisheries, snakes continue because smugglers bribe police and

forest department officials.

 

The Department of Fisheries is the competent authority conducting conservation,

protection in secrecy Burma. The Myanmar Fisheries Federation is acting as a

non-government organization working on fisheries supporting activities.

 

But government's effort is not enough to conserve natural resources as community

participation and NGO's persuasive activities are essential. A free press can

educate the people and enlist community participation.

 

However, given the military generals' allergies to criticism, the inability to

disseminate what the researches and without the way of getting information out

to the publics, the existing NGOs are useless.

 

There is also the need to discuss governance, how much good or bad o it would

decide the substantial development of the country.

 

(This article was originally published in The Examiner, the weekly newspaper in

Iloilo city, the central Philippine.)