EARTH ISLAND JOURNAL • SPRING 2020 39agreed for the park’s management,
from the bottom-up.
As the staccato notes of a traditional
Karen harp rang out in the background,
multiple speeches reiterated the vision
of the park: “Instead of massive
dams on the Salween River, we see
small hydropower and decentralized
solar power. Instead of large-scale
mining and rubber plantations, we
call for ecotourism, sustainable forest
management, agroforestry, and organic
farming. Instead of megaprojects that
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and a thriving ecosystem where people
live in harmony with nature.”
T
HAT VISION COMES TO LIFE once
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of the longboat, the heat sweeping over
us in waves. We hike up to a ramshackle
trading post stocked with a bizarre
array of items: purplish mottled eggs,
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batteries, a Chinese-English dictionary.
A stripped-down pickup arrives and
we climb in. We drive up an impossible
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our wake. As we ascend, the Salween
River reappears, in our rearview; the
trees of sloping dry forest surround us.
The shift to evergreen is sudden.
The temperature drops and the air
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changes from sandy browns to blood
red and orange. Reaching the top of the
ridge, a cool mist blows from the north.
The view west plunges down into folds
of lush forest, cut by river valleys and a
patchwork of Karen agricultural plots,
fallows, and forests in various stages of
managed succession across the land-
scape. After clearing another KNLA
checkpoint, we switchback down into
one of those valleys. The winged fruits
of dipterocarp trees litter the forest
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The Salween Peace Park is over 85
percent forested and home to some of
the richest biodiversity remaining in
Asia. It lies at the heart of the Indo-
Burma hotspot, one of 36 areas in the
world that Conservation International
has prioritized for conservation. It
remains little studied. A 2008 KESANwildlife survey likened it to “the
dark side of the moon.” Biodiversity
assessments undertaken by KESAN
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populations of endangered species like
tiger, Asian elephant, gaur, banteng,
Phayre’s leaf monkey, and Hoolock
gibbon, as well as multiple endemic bird
species. There is also an abundance of
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plant species, half of them endemic.
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remaining stands of natural teak on
Earth, endangered orchids, a variety of
edible and medicinal plants, and more
— is critical for the 70,000 Karen who
live within the park, spread out over
some 350 communities.
Deh Bu Nor is the largest of those
communities, and the seat of Mutraw
District, which is largely administeredby the KNU. It lies along one of the
Salween River’s biggest tributaries, the
Yunzalin. In midafternoon, a dry heat
is blown through town by lashing winds
coming up the river valley.
We are welcomed by the district
leadership into a wooden house on
stilts. Like most structures in this part
of Southeast Asia, it is mostly open-
air, the roof hewn from dried tree
leaves. The incongruous signs of both
insurgency and bureaucracy are visible:
military grade walkie-talkies on top of
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A group of men sit cross-legged
on Thai-style plastic mats, clad in
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Karen shirts. They chew betel nut as I
ask about the peace park, what it will
take to protect the area, and how they
think Karen territory will look in 100
years. Saw Ten Der, the district chief,
does not hesitate: “For hundreds of
years, since long before the days of
the British, we have managed these
lands. Through decades of attacks by
the Tatmadaw, [and] rich outsiders
stealing our timber, mining our soils,
we have stood up. We will not give up
now. In the Salween Peace Park we are
defending Kawthoolei, for the Karen
people.”S
AW TEN DER’S RESOLVE is
striking given the many pressures
on the Karen and the park. Perhaps
most threatening at the moment is the
wave of investment that has come in
since the military began opening the
country, investments that are quickly
transforming Karen territory, and
Myanmar’s forest frontier at large.
Although the country’s forest area —
totalling more than 29 million hectares
— is still the biggest in mainland
Southeast Asia, its deforestation rates
are among the highest in the world.The Salween Peace Park is home
to some of the richest biodiversityremaining in Asia.