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KACHIN STATE – In commemoration of World Environment Day on June 5, the Kachin National Forum (KNF) has called for effective action against businesses and business owners who are harming the environment.
“When the previous civilian government was leading, it could not be fully resolved, but it was still responsible. Now it has turned extremely bad. When things get out of control, no one can take responsibility. Just by looking at the Irrawaddy River, you can see that it is changing dramatically,” said a KNF official.
KNF also urged the international civil society organisations to take effective actions on businessmen who are conducting excessive activities that harm the environment such as rare earth mining, gold and jade mining, Chinese tissue banana plantation and activities that cause deforestation.
Therefore, KNF requested that the relevant organizations take responsibility to stop activities that damage the environment.
To commemorate World Environment Day in Kachin State, civil society organizations led and conducted activities like planting trees and collecting garbage in some areas.
In Kachin State, after the junta council illegally seized power, gold and mineral mining increased, and there are more than 200 gold mining blocks in just Khambu area above Myitsone, and there are around 70 business owners, according to the Myanmar Mineral Monitoring Network’s research last May.
Research by ISP MYANMAR and GLOBAL WITNESS has shown that, in addition to jade mining in Hpakant and rare earth mining in the mountainous areas above the Irrawaddy River, there has been an increase in environmental destruction since the coup, such as Chinese banana plantations, cutting down forests.