Myanmar’s rich forests are among its most valuable natural resources, but they have been plundered by logging that helped fund the former military regime that ran the country for 49 years, before reforms began in 2011, according to the report.

In April 2014, Myanmar banned export of raw timber logs to slow deforestation and boost its own production. By 2010, forest cover had shrunk to 47 per-cent of land area from 58 percent in 1990, Forestry Ministry data show.