NAY PYI TAW, Feb. 14 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar authorities have taken back over 230,900 hectares of contract-breaching cultivating land plots in state-owned forest areas allotted to the private sector, an environment minister said on Tuesday.
U Ohn Win, minister of National Resources and Environment Conservation, told the House of Representatives (Lower House) that a total of 316,805 hectares including those areas for cultivating oil palm, industrial crops, teak and hardwood were granted to private enterprises for the undertakings as of Nov. 30, 2016.
The minister complained that the land plots were seized because some plots failed to complete the cultivation as scheduled, while others grew unpermitted crops or resold or transferred illegally.
Meanwhile, the government has no longer permitted the private sector to establish plantations such as rubber, oil palm and industrial crops in conserved forest areas throughout the nation, according to the report.
Myanmar is one of most resource-rich countries in Southeast Asia. However, statistics show that forest coverage in the country dropped to 42.92 percent in 2015 from over 57 percent in 1990.
