Hukawng

HUKAWNG VALLEY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY

HUKAWNG VALLEY WILDLIFE SANCTUARY (near India in northwest Myanmar) is one of the remotest places in Myanmar and home to some the last large concentrations of wild life in Southeast Asia. Located between the Samgpang and Kumon mountains, it is has hardly any people living in and is virtually void of roads and villages. Much of the travel in the area is done on foot or by boat on the Tanai and Turung Rivers. Tanai is the largest town near the valley. The three ethnic groups that dominate the region are the Kachin who live in the lowlands and the Naga and Lisu who live in the highlands. For a long time the areas was controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA).

The Hukawang Valley is sometimes called the Valley of Death after the number of Allied soldiers that died here during the building of the Ledo Road in World War II. After the war much of the road was quickly reclaimed by jungle .Even though the KIA signed a peace treaty with the Myanmar government in 1994 the group refused to give up its arms and retained bases in the jungles in the valley. An effort is being made to convince local tribal people and miners to raise livestock so they rely less on wild game for meat. [Source: Alan Rabinowitz, National Geographic, April 2004]

Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary was nominated to be a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014.According to a report submitted to UNESCO: The Hukaung Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (HVWS) and its extension are located in northwest Myanmar and falls in both Sagaing Division and Kachin State and cover a total area of 17,890 square kilometers. HVWS and extension form a doughnut whose unprotected center covers the floodplain of the Chindwin River, the largest tributary of the Ayeyarwady River. The floodplain is inhabited by some 50,000 people [≈ population of Charlotte Amalie, capital city of Virgin Islands]. Established in 2001, HVWS covers 6,371 square kilometers. In 2004, the extension was established, adding 11,519 square kilometers [≈ Jamaica]. Hereafter, the two sites are referred to as the HVWS. To the east and northeast, it is contiguous with Bumhpabum WS and Hponkan Razi WS. To the north, it abuts Namdapha National Park (NP), which was put on India’s TL in March 2006 (UNESCO World Heritage Centre 2013a). Forest areas within HVWS are primarily evergreen. At higher elevations, mixed deciduous forest, evergreen hill forest, and pine forest are present. Globally threatened wildlife includes the Asian Elephant, Tiger, and White-bellied Heron. [Source: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar]

About 50,000 people [≈ population of Charlotte Amalie, capital city of Virgin Islands] live in the unprotected central valley, the majority of whom are Kachin. Naga and Shan ethnic groups also live in the valley. HVWS is an excellent example of large-scale conservation in Southeast Asia. It is the largest protected area in Myanmar and its size is augmented by its contiguity with other protected areas. Such protection on a landscape scale is critical for globally threatened wildlife with large home ranges, including the Asian Elephant, Tiger, and Rufous-necked Hornbill. HVWS contains an array of forest types and elevations, in turn providing habitat to a diverse assemblage of wildlife. The inclusion of a substantial portion of the unprotected floodplain (the hole in the doughnut) would greatly strengthen its OUV by preserving a vast central seasonally-flooded grassland (second only in size to the Tonle Sap in Cambodia) that can support high densities of charismatic megafauna.

Hukaung Valley Wildlife

Among the animals found here are tigers, clouded leopard, golden cat, Asiatic black bear, elephants, macaques, gibbons, great hornbills, green peafowl, barking deer, samar deer, and dhole. A survey of animals in the early 2000s estimated that “probably fewer than a hundred tigers remain in the valley.”

According to a report submitted to UNESCO: HVWS includes many highly threatened species. Its size and connection to other protected areas makes HVWS particularly important for wide-ranging wildlife such as the Asian Elephant, Tiger, and Rufous-necked Hornbill. The Hoolock Gibbon and Shortridge’s Langur are also present (Brockelman and Geissmann 2008). More than 400 species of birds have been documented, including the White-bellied Heron. HVWS also contains the Burmese Peacock Softshell Turtle, which is endemic to Myanmar. The conservation value of HVWS would be greatly increased by extending the boundary to cover the northern part of the floodplain. Inclusion of this area would be particularly significant for waterbirds and Indian Water Buffalo. [Source: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar]

Species of high conservation importance in HVWS include (Myanmar Biodiversity 2012): Mammals: Endangered: Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), Dhole (Cuon alpinus), Hog Deer (Axis porcinus), Indian Water Buffalo (Bubalus arnee), Tiger (Panthera tigris), Hoolock Gibbon (Hoolock spp.), Shortridge’s Langur (Trachypithecus shortridgei); Vulnerable: Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), Himalayan Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus), Gaur (Bos gaurus), Sambar (Rusa unicolor).

Reptiles: Endangered: Burmese Narrow-headed Softshell Turtle (Chitra vandijki), Burmese Peacock Softshell Turtle (Nilssonia formosa), Keeled Box Turtle (Cuora mouhotii); Vulnerable: Asian Box Turtle (Cuora spp.), Asiatic Softshell Turtle (Amyda cartilaginea), Impressed Tortoise (Manouria impressa). Birds: Critically Endangered: White-bellied Heron (Ardea insignis) Endangered: Slender-billed Vulture (Gyps tenuirostris), White-rumped Vulture (Gyps bengalensis), White-winged Duck (Carina scutulata), Masked Finfoot (Heliopais personata), Green Peafowl (Pavo muticus); Vulnerable: Wood Snipe (Gallinago nemoricola), Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus), Rufous-necked Hornbill (Aceros nipalensis)

Hukaung Valley Ecosystem, Poachers and Environmental Threats

Hukawang Valley Wildlife Sanctuary was established in April 2001. It covers about 2,500 square miles. Hunting is banned but goes on anyway. There are plans to add 5,500 square miles to the sanctuary, tripling it size, making it the largest tiger refuge in the world. In this area tiger hunting would be banned but the hunting of other animals for food would be allowed in “exclusion zones.” Animals such as tigers and leopard are hunted to supply body parts for the Chinese medicine market. Hunters are paid $8 for a bear foot which can be sold for hundreds and even thousands of dollars at restaurants in China. The major focus of conservation is not to get people to stop hunting for food but to get them stop hunting for profit. Hunters are encouraged not only to stop hunting tigers but also to stop hunting tiger prey such as sambar deer and wild boar, many of which have been killed to supply meat that feed an influx of gold miners to the area.

According to the report submitted to UNESCO: Its size makes HVWS an outstanding example of large-scale ecological processes. It contains multiple interacting ecosystems and biophysical processes, as well as substantial habitat for megafauna with large ranges. HVWS ranges in elevation from 170 meters to 3,225 meters. If it were extended to include about 500 square kilometers of floodplain north of the Chindwin, this criterion would be further strengthened by connecting the mountain forests to the valley grasslands. [Source: Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar]

Within HVWS, except for small areas impacted by artisanal mining, the habitat is generally in good condition. However, protection of commercially valuable wildlife is a challenge, due in part to its size. Although tiger conservation was a driving factor behind its creation, it currently has fewer than 50 individuals. Judging from a Landsat image taken in September 2013, there appears to be no significant human impacts in the proposed floodplain extension. This extension would contribute to the property’s wholeness by including the ranges of key species including waterbirds.

Concessions cover most of the floodplain and parts of HVWS itself. The Russian energy company Nobel Oil was granted oil exploration rights in 2008 to Block PSC-A, which covers a significant portion of HVWS. Since no extractive industries can be present within a WHS, this presents a significant barrier to its nomination as a WHS. Several large gold mines are present in the unprotected valley. The largest is in Shingbwiyang in the western part of the valley. Migrants engage in gold panning along the rivers, which typically involves the use of cyanide, mercury, or other toxic substances. Inmigration has also increased hunting for subsistence and commercial use. Agricultural plantation concessions are also present in the valley. The proposed extension was drawn to exclude any areas of apparent mining or agriculture.

Image Sources:

Text Sources: Myanmar Travel Information, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, Lonely Planet Guides, The Irrawaddy, Compton’s Encyclopedia, The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, burmalibrary.org, burmanet.org, Wikipedia, BBC, CNN, and various books and other publications.

Last updated August 2020

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