It is home to myriad rare creatures and even, legend says, a dragon. Pilgrims believe that gold in the surrounding hills is one of nine Buddhist miracles to grace the region.
But the precious metal in the ground around Indawgyi Lake in Kachin State is proving to be more of a curse than a blessing: Now scientists are estimating that damage caused by pollution from gold mining in the area could cause what is currently Myanmar’s largest lake to shrink by one-third within 10 years.
Debris from illicit mines in the surrounding reserve combines with pollution from mines further away to fill the water and threaten rare wildlife. Studies show that since 2007 more than 170 acres of water have thickened into a muddy delta – and conservationists fear the rate of shrinkage will increase (click below to compare aerial views of Indawgyi).
“If nothing happens, the southern part of the lake could disappear and fisheries collapse within a decade,” says Frank Momberg, the Myanmar director for Flora and Flora International, an environmental organisation that has been monitoring the reserve. Although he cautioned further research is needed, Momberg postulated that as much as 33 percent of the lake’s water could disappear by 2026.
The prospect of such a dramatic decline and other mining-related damage threatens the future of the few elephants, leopards, bears, and other endangered or at-risk animals that have survived in the remote reserve while most of the rest of their species have been wiped out.
But it also threatens the livelihoods of local fishermen who have relied on the lake’s vast 100 square miles (260 square kilometres) of water for generations, as well as the nascent eco-tourism industry, which could support traditional communities amid sweeping national modernisation.
“If the lake disappears, what happens to us?” says a young volunteer at the lake’s signature Shwe Myitzu Pagoda, which appears to float mystically above its waters.
It is a question on the mind of many of the more than 35,000 people who live in Indawgyi Wildlife Sanctuary, the 300-square-mile reserve that encircles the lake, located about five hours west of Myitkyina.
One of the largest lakes in Southeast Asia, Indawgyi and its environs supports more than 650 species of animals, including many considered endangered or vulnerable. It also provides a home to thousands of migratory birds from as far away as Siberia each winter. These birds are now under threat, as heavy metals exposed by mining practices have entered the food chain.
Also at risk are at least three endemic species of fish found nowhere else in the world. Momberg says FFI surveys have found other new species in small streams that feed into the lake.
“If gold mining would spread to these streams it would lead to extinction,” he says. “There is still a chance to discover new species to science.”
A false hope
Tourists who flock to Myanmar’s smaller but more famous lake, Inle in Shan State, can see the grim consequence of decades of unchecked environmental degradation there. Commercial floating fish farms have polluted the water with chemical pesticides and fertilisers, while uncontrolled tourism development has been blamed for deforestation around the area, leading to predictions that the lake could be gone within a century.
But Indawgyi should have been different. The Myanmar government designated the region for ecological conservation in 1999, and submitted a proposal with UNESCO to register the reserve as an ecological World Heritage Site in 2014.
It’s been named an official community-based eco-tourism site by the Myanmar government, and the entire wetland was declared a protected site of international importance in February by the Ramsar Convention, an agreement by 179 governments to preserve wetlands across the world.
But in reality, little protection is on offer. According to “At What Price? Gold Mining in Kachin State, Burma”, a report published in 2004 by the Pan Kachin Development Society, mining in the area started increasing in the 1990s, at the same time that the military junta was supposedly enacting conservation measures.
Residents say mining has risen again sharply in the past few years, despite the reserve’s ongoing application for UNESCO recognition as a place of “outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation”.
At Inn Chit Thu, an eco-tourism outfit fostered by the FFI in Lonton village, guides have begun distributing handy maps to travellers with the lake’s most famous features highlighted – alongside the sites of several mines. Marked with a golden arrow, nearby Maing Naung village is recommended because “the gold diggers are also here”.
A tough life
Maing Naung, one of 39 villages inside the reserve, is about 7 kilometres south of Lonton at the southwestern corner of the lake. In an earthen-floor teashop near the centre of town, gem trader U Zaw Min gestures over his shoulder toward the forest west of the shop.
Up there, he indicates, in those hills – that’s where you’ll find the gold mines.
He says the mines lure men from across the country – Sagaing Region, Mandalay and as far away as Yangon, digging and sifting along creek beds for around K5000 (US$4.50), or a percentage of what they find, per day.
“The miners pretend they are not miners,” U Zaw Min says, nodding at a couple of hard-eyed excavators sitting at a table nearby. “They know it’s illegal. But it’s their livelihood.”
It’s a tough life. Like those working in the notorious jade mines of Hpakant, just 60km away, many are addicted to heroin or methamphetamines.
“Drugs are as common as vegetables around here,” U Zaw Min says.
Residents say attempts to limit the impact made by illegal mining are made more difficult by the fact that many excavations lie in territory controlled by the non-state armed group, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).
Miners claim the organisation levies taxes on them, an allegation echoed by local campaigners but denied by a representative of the group.
Gem trader U Zaw Min explains the situation.
“The gold near the village has been mostly mined, so they go about 20 minutes west into KIA territory. The boss of the gold mine pays a tax to be allowed in.”
Ma Su Hla Phyu, an Inn Chit Thu volunteer, says the government officers have little hope in interfering in the KIA’s affairs. Most villagers in the area are loyal to the armed group, which has been engaged in a decades-long civil war with the Tatmadaw over demands for autonomy and rights to natural resources in Kachin State, she says.
But Ma Su Hla Phyu also complains that some government inspectors charged with protecting the reserve are more interested in taking bribes than safeguarding the lake.
“The gold miners pay KIA protection money and also government inspector bribes. It’s not a tax – they are paying for access,” she says.
She added that even higher-ranking authorities show little inclination to enforce a proper clampdown.
“When the head of government shows up, they [the miners] all stop and pretend they don’t mine.”
But there is no pretending the damage caused by mining does not exist. Research by the FFI conducted in May 2015 shows that invasive plant life is growing on a newly formed delta that spreads out from the shore near Maing Naung.
“The development of a new delta due to the sedimentation and the reduction of the lake size is only part of the problem,” Momberg says. “A more widespread impact is caused by suspended sediments.”
Digging deep for solutions
The principal problem, according to the FFI, is that sediment, dislodged by small- and large-scale excavators, blocks oxygen and sunlight from penetrating the water, in the process killing delicate the plant life that feeds fish and bird populations.
More than 5500 acres of the sanctuary have been damaged, including the 170 acres of water now filled with sediment. Local fishermen say nets are showing low yields, and farmers have seen their paddies begin to drown in mud.
The mining also leads to deforestation. Overhead photos of the area west of Maing Naung reveal a spattering of brown pits sprinkled around the hills – pits where evergreen and deciduous forests used to be (click to see detail below).
The scale of the destruction is remarkable, and yet authorities from the state level down seem reluctant to take real action – despite ambitions at the Union level to gain UNESCO recognition and increase eco-tourism.
U Kyaw Zaw, director of the Ministry of Resource and Environmental Conservation, told The Myanmar Times the ministry had previously spoken with the Kachin State government asking them to enforce the ban on miningwithin the reserve to strengthen their chances of a UNESCO listing.
“We got the reply from the Kachin State government that they already told miners they must cease work,” he said.
“We need cooperation from the Kachin State government as well as regional people if we are to gain UNESCO recognition for this as a wildlife sanctuary. It is not something the Union ministry can implement,” he said.
But the Kachin government remained elusive when it came to discussing what measures it is taking to protect the lake, or addressing allegations that its inspectors are taking bribes. The Myanmar Times was unable to get a response on these issues from anyone at the relevant state-level department.
As for the KIA,U Daung Khar, conflict negotiator for the armed group’s political wing, the Kachin Independence Organisation, declined to comment on whether the KIA controls gold mines in the reserve and denied any taxes are collected.
But the issue of who will have ultimate control of such mines, he said, is a key aspect of Myanmar’s wider peace
“This issue [land management] is a big issue in the whole of Kachin State,” he said. “We want to have some shared power in the administrative process of the national resources. This is part of our
Peace, federal resource-sharing, stamping out corruption – these are all long-term goals for Myanmar’s new government and unlikely to happen in the immediate future.
In the meantime, locals and migrants continue to hunt for gold around Indawgyi. The mud continues to pile up, and the lake continues to shrink.
Momberg believes the best conservation solution might be to involve all mine operators in a dialogue on how to mitigate sedimentation and subsequently legalise the operations by issuing licences valid for clearly defined but limited time periods.
Such action might mitigate further damage, but for the worst-affected areas, it might be too little, too late.
“Even with legalising the mining operations,” Momberg said, “it’s unlikely that the mining area will be rehabilitated any time soon.”
Source: MMTimes
