Local - Typhoon season, World Bank Fails and memories

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Cyclones: political ecology perspective

"Cyclone Catarina from the ISS on March 26 2004" by Earth Observations Laboratory, Johnson Space Center. - NASA Modifications by Tomf688. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

We are in the peak of tropical storm season - between May and September. Cyclones, typhoons and hurricanes are essentially regional words for the same thing and with some variation in wind speed categorization. Cyclones are responsible for recent flooding, property and coastal damage and loss of life in many countries.  Since March, typhoon Chan-hom, Soudelor, Maysak, and Noul have had estimated $1.79 billion USD in damage.

Understanding the full impacts of cyclones requires a political ecology perspective. In a country already struggling to regain a footing economically, Myanmar suffers from massive human rights issues, environmental degradation, political unrest and war. Like so many countries that match this description, Myanmar’s troubles are compounded when natural disasters strike; the most recent flooding resulting in hundreds dead and millions displaced.

Economic:

Cyclones harm human life and society indiscriminately, but the impact on a developing nation is staggering and compounded by annual cyclone occurrence.  Hsiang and Jina 2014 study suggests that combined effects of global warming and increase cyclone activity can lead to combined global loss of $9.7 trillion USD (an excellent summary here).

Following an event like this, Myanmar’s natural resources should go towards immediate relief and long-term reconstruction. However, this is financial capital that could have been used to get the country from its present point, say point B to point C that must now necessarily be used to get the country from point A back to point B.

In addition to stagnating growth potential, national and international financial assistance is necessarily diverted from development to relief. Local projects become redesigned to address the new natural disaster or long-term problems. Potential global aid transitions to address the economic crisis cyclones leave in their wake.

Socio- Political:

Ethnic identity is a massive part of Myanmar culture. Geographic location often reflects specific ethnic identities. The growing number of IDPs and ethno-religious tension contribute to the social and cultural insecurities. Just one example is Myanmar’s hesitation to publicly address the Rohingya population.

Additionally Myanmar’s political scene is complicated and long. Like all countries in political transition, decade old decisions made by previous governments continue to impact the present political atmosphere. Similar to other regional countries the previous military junta happens to be the same ‘democratically elected’ representatives in the current government.  Some meaningful change appeared to be within reach, but the upcoming election and military fears have shown that the true power is still held within the military. Military conflict, protests, and opposition to the current government also contribute to the unstable and uncertain future in this country.

Here again cyclones have an impact on the seemingly unrelated social and political aspects of Myanmar life. Politically sensitive areas and marginalized populations become more marginalized as government aid is unequally distributed. The already unpublicized conflicts continue to wage but are now masked in the background even more by the natural disaster.

Specifically in Myanmar, the timing of the floods couldn’t be worse as the elections are just about to begin and voter registrations, as well as electoral candidates, are sidelined in the wake of the cyclone’s destruction. One of the more dangerous problems is internal and international belief that a few successful government interventions may lead to broader support of the existing political party. As is the case in many natural disaster relief situations, the groups who get effective aid tend to become supporters of those providing the aid, thus making the distribution of aid a very politically motivated decision.

The Environment:

Cyclone impact on the environment is closely tied to land use. Poor agricultural practices and deforestation leads to massive landslides in mountainous regions and serious flooding in the deltas. This also contributes to loss of entire crop yields which reduces food access country wide. Outdated or nonexistent infrastructure contributes to long term property damage.

Coastal regions suffer slightly differently. Like inland locations, erosion rates increase but as a result of both rising ocean water and delta flooding. Land becomes permeated with salt and becomes unproductive for many years.  Fisheries suffer from upstream debris and pollution in the waterway and damage to fish habitat.

A partial solution:

Solutions exist that can help to address some of these environment problems. Coastal impacts of cyclones can be reduced by strategic regrowth of once extensive mangrove forests. A solution India has implemented with success. Mangroves reduce the impacts of rising waters on arable land by providing a buffer zone for impact. It also helps to protect fisheries from damage and reduces erosion.

Environmental policy that encourages sustainable agriculture methodology can go a long way to reducing land damage and flooding. Additionally, stricter development policies focused on reducing exposed earth, for example, from excessive logging, strip mining, or unregulated construction can reduce flood damage, erosion, and mud slides.

From an environmental perspective, these solutions seem limited to impacting only the environment. Broadening the scope from environmental to include socio-political and economic perspectives produces a more impactful solution. For instance, reducing damage has economic implications. In a developing country, preemptive environmental policy is a useful strategy to prevent economic setbacks and further marginalization of at risk groups during natural disasters.

Of course environmental policy and reform is only one piece of the solution to the issues in Myanmar. But, proper implementation and enforcement can have long lasting impacts on the country beyond simply the environment. Support for environmental protections should be one of the strategic steps for Myanmar’s development plan.