Washington, DC, 18 March 2026 — Forest Trends’ newest report, Forest Governance Without a Central Government: A Subnational Monitoring and Response Model from the Ethnic Territories of Myanmar, shows that environmental governance can continue even in the absence of a functioning national government. In Myanmar, where the 2021 military coup dismantled central oversight of natural resources, authorities in ethnic territories have demonstrated that forests can still be monitored and environmental threats addressed using satellite technology and local leadership.
Forest Trends partnered with the exiled National Unity Government’s (NUG) Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) to monitor more than 1 million hectares of protected forests across five townships in the Sagaing and Magway regions, using satellite alerts from Global Forest Watch combined with field investigations by trained local officers. Over nine months from 2024 to 2025, the system detected 55,340 deforestation alerts and investigated 209 hotspots, leading to enforcement actions including shutting down illegal mining operations and engaging with communities.
The monitoring also revealed a surprising finding: small-scale gold mining—not illegal logging—has emerged as a major driver of forest loss in these ethnic territories which contain a majority of Myanmar’s remaining forests. Mining accounted for roughly 30 percent of verified deforestation, while illegal logging and charcoal production together accounted for less than three percent of investigated sites.
“These findings highlight the emerging impact of small-scale gold mining, challenging assumptions about the drivers of forest loss in Myanmar,” said Kerstin Canby, Senior Director of Forest Trends’ Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance (FPTF) Initiative. “More importantly, the project shows that, with local leadership, credible forest monitoring and enforcement can develop even when central government institutions have collapsed.”
The findings also triggered immediate policy responses among local authorities, including specialized training on the environmental and health impacts of mining and new coordination between ministries responsible for natural resources, law enforcement, and mining regulation. Where deforestation was linked to internally displaced communities, authorities adopted outreach and awareness approaches rather than strict enforcement.
The report concludes that satellite monitoring, combined with local leadership, offers a promising model for environmental governance in fragile and conflict-affected settings. The approach could help sustain natural resource oversight in Myanmar during the ongoing political crisis and offer lessons for other regions where national governance systems are disrupted.
Download the full report, Forest Governance Without a Central Government: A Subnational Monitoring and Response Model from the Ethnic Territories of Myanmar.
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Forest Trends works to conserve forests and other ecosystems through the creation and wide adoption of a broad range of environmental finance, markets, and other payment and incentive mechanisms.
Forest Trends’ Forest Policy, Trade, and Finance Initiative aims to promote policies which harness the power of market incentives for the legal, sustainable, and equitable trade in timber and other commodities harvested from forest landscapes.