TThis is an announcement to invite you to the CSEAS Colloquium for May 2016.

Date & Time: Friday, May, 27, 2016, 16:00-17:30

Place: Middle-sized Meeting Room (No. 332), 3rd Floor, Inamori
Foundation Building, Kyoto University

Title: Evolving Natural Resource Governance in Myanmar

Speaker: Dr. Adam Simpson

Abstract:
The struggle between environmental protection and the exploitation of
natural resources in Myanmar has historically been overwhelmingly skewed
towards the latter. In many ways the avaricious depletion of Myanmar’s
natural resources has only been limited by the capacity of the military
state and its associated companies. In some ethnic minority areas
conflict zones have reduced the opportunities for resource extraction
while in others, ethnic groups have exploited resources to fund their
insurgencies. While ceasefires are providing new opportunities for
exploitation a new national environmental protection regime is also
emerging to promote values associated with environmental protection and
more sustainable economic development. In addition, international
resource governance regimes, such as the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative, are providing international oversight of
domestic resource governance processes to ensure civil society
participation. The new NLD government has merged key natural resource
ministries and a centralised decision-making process centered on the
office of ‘State Counsellor’ Aung San Suu Kyi has resulted in
unnecessarily slow progress in some areas in the early days of the new
government. The eventual success or failure of these developments will
help determine the equity and sustainability of future natural resource
development in Myanmar. This paper assesses the progress, likely success
and implications of these new regimes.

Key words: Myanmar, natural resources, environmental governance,
governance, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, EITI

Presenter Info.

Adam Simpson is Director of the Centre for Peace and Security within the
Hawke Research Institute and Senior Lecturer in the International
Relations program within the School of Communication, International
Studies and Languages, University of South Australia. He is Adjunct
Research Fellow at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy, Griffith
University. He is currently Visiting Research Scholar at the Centre for
Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. He previously taught at the
University of Adelaide where he remains an Associate in the Indo-Pacific
Governance Research Centre. His research adopts a critical perspective
and is focused on the politics of the environment and development in
Southeast Asia, particularly Myanmar and Thailand. He has published in
journals such as Pacific Review, Third World Quarterly and Environmental
Politics. He is the author of Energy, Governance and Security in
Thailand and Myanmar (Burma): A Critical Approach to Environmental
Politics in the South (Routledge, 2014) and is lead editor of the
forthcoming Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar.

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