Program background

The people of Karen State have traditionally lived in rugged rural areas rich in biodiversity, fertile soils, valuable minerals, lush forests and powerful rivers. The natural wealth of the land has been well paired with ethnic traditions, culture and knowledge intimately tied to the surrounding ecological system. Traditional activities include rotational farming/cultivation and herbal health remedies. In recent years however, Karen State’s natural wealth has been intentionally and increasingly sold off as natural resources to the highest bidder. The resulting degradation of the natural environment has reduced biodiversity, funded armed aggression, and increased the pace of impoverishment and landlessness of local people. Women have been particularly impacted by such developments. A recognized shift in climate patterns is making the situation worse.

The Burmese junta and neighboring countries have long been aware of Karen State’s natural wealth. In 1988, a bankrupt Burmese government mired in conflict with many ethnic groups in Burma, changed course and opened up the country to foreign investment in resource-rich frontier areas.  This policy was both an immediate and long term success for the military government, which immediately gained bilateral economic deals and political support from Thailand, a long-time hungry-for-resources neighbor. More importantly, armed opposition groups began to weaken and divide as they themselves engaged in resource extraction activities. It took only 5 years to instigate conflict of interests over lucrative logging concessions, including some within the Karen National Union (KNU) and to sow the additional seeds of discord that contributed to the devastating breakaway of Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) from the KNU in 1995. 

Resource expropriation deals have led to an unprecedented influx of foreign money into government and personal coffers. In Karen State, this inherently violent development has degraded and destroyed local environments, communities and ecologies, displacing residents and reducing the ability of locals to live traditional subsistence lifestyles.  Over the past five years, figures relating implemented foreign direct investment (FDI) in Burma show Chinese companies on top, with Thailand, France and Korea not far behind. Energy, resource extraction and development projects planned or currently operating in Karen State include mega dam projects; monoculture plantation projects; mining activity; and polluting and labour-exploiting industrial zone development.

With the natural resources and biodiversity of Karen State being controlled and attacked by well funded and determined predators, the ability of people living in rural areas of Karen State to subsist on the land is wilting. Armed conflict and the disruption of traditional lifestyles have led rural residents of Karen state to flee - becoming part of the over 145,000 people recognized as refugees in Thailand; the 446,000 IDPs in hiding, relocation sites and ceasefire areas; and the hundreds of thousands (if not more) of people working as both legal and illegal migrant workers in Thailand. The governments of Thailand and Burma manipulate each of these groups in the pursuit of political, military and economic aims.

Recent post-election fighting in the Thai-Burma border towns, debilitating and inflammatory demands by the Burmese military for ethnic armed groups to transition to Border Guard Forces and open preparations by armed ethnic groups for fighting after the election have increased the possibility of renewed conflict in Karen State.  Any increase in militarization intensifies threats to civilian populations in Eastern Burma. Common threats to civilian populations include murder, rape, torture, looting, forced labour, arbitrary taxation, land confiscation, hunger, the destruction of entire villages, violent resource expropriation, forced conscription, arson, climate change, crushing poverty and the crisis in health. 

Women are most vulnerable to many of these threats, in particular bearing the brunt of climate change and the crisis in health as well as suffering the worst violations committed by the Burmese military. Despite this, the KWO reports that women are taking increased responsibility for their families and communities in conflict areas.

Burmese weather experts point out that climate change has been shortening and shifting Burma’s monsoon pattern since 1977. Reduced rain bringing storm activity in the Bay of Bengal and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events has led to an increase in heat indices and a decrease in annual rainfall. Farming, the central traditional subsistence activity of most residents of Karen State, has been especially impacted by changes in climate and their flow on effects.

Traditional farming methods in Karen State follow a rotational crop cultivation pattern requiring large areas of land and traditionally minimum seven year renewal periods. Fallow land is allowed to regenerate and recapture released carbon while also serving as rich forage lands for both animals and humans. This farming method is extremely sensitive to water shortages, shortened renewal periods, extreme weather and pest events, land overuse, crop failure and farmer displacement. In 2008-2009 a combination of these factors produced a remarkable food shortage. Food shortages have continued into 2010. Crop failures in Karen State have forced many farmers and their families to abandon their fields and pursue other means of livelihood such as day labour, illegal logging, and work in rubber plantation.

The scale of displacement and poverty, and the situation of women in Karen State will become even much worse if conflict continues and responsible parties ignore the environmental and social impacts resulting from displacement, resource expropriation and climate change. The recently enacted constitution and elections provide no hope that a ‘democratic’ Burmese government will act to improve this situation. The 2008 constitution contains no provisions to protect local people against exploitation of their natural resources and no mechanisms for revenue transparency . In the recent election, the election commission actively denied many ethnic parties and their constituencies from participating. Humanitarian assistance from international aid agencies is without question needed. A recent independent report evaluating conflict and aid in South-East Burma shows that aid can be delivered effectively through local groups but requires that international donors to understand the local political contexts, operate with caution, and undertake continuous ‘do no harm’ analysis, regarding the relationship between aid and conflict. The report also acknowledges that security and livelihood concerns are deeply interconnected.

KESAN recognizes that ethnic civilians in conflict-affected areas are highly resilient and have a detailed and sophisticated understanding of threats to their safety, livelihood options and general well-being. Understanding, durability and adaptability are what allow Karen communities and organizations to continue to operate in conflict areas. However, altered climate patterns are changing the rules of subsistence living and adaptation for local villagers in Karen State. There is an urgent need, both at a global and extremely local level, to work with ethnic civilians to understand and reinforce the inherent sustainable nature of traditional Karen farming methods. There is also a need to understand the full extent and ramifications of widespread unsustainable resource extraction in Karen State.

Also on a local level, KESAN recognizes the need to creatively engage with local communities, Karen leaders, women’s groups, the KNU and the Burmese government to enhance livelihood security and sustainable development policy through the promotion of a rights-based approach. KESAN further recognizes that women are disproportionately impacted by most threats to civilians in Karen State and are a key ingredient in realizing change in conflict and disaster areas. There is an urgent need to empower and involve local women in sustainable livelihood policy design and advocacy. KESAN recognizes the need for international agencies to support and sustain local initiatives simultaneously through aid and by focusing their advocacy work on 'the responsibility of states to protect their citizens' or at least to ‘do no harm’ to them.