Paul Sein Twa, winner of the 2020 Goldman Environmental Prize for Asia, has spent his life defending Karen culture and its special synergy with nature in Myanmar.
The Goldman Environmental Prize, whose winners were announced on 30 November, recognises an "environmental hero" from every continent, and Paul Sein Twa, a 47-year-old man from Myanmar, has won the prize for Asia. Sein Twa is the co-founder of the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (Kesan), established in 2001 with the aim of supporting indigenous Karen communities by protecting their territory and heritage.
In 2016, Sein Twa and Kesan succeeded in creating the Salween Peace Park, a 546,000-hectare space "that promotes peace, cooperation, and the conservation of cultural, environmental and natural resources through a bottom-up approach that places people at its centre."
The Karen are an ethnic minority group in Myanmar, where they represent approximately seven per cent of the population. Towards the end of the Second World War they began a struggle for self-determination and independence that continues to this day, and they have clashed many times with the Myanmar army and central government. Decades of conflict have led to significant internal displacement, and hundreds of thousands of Karen have fled to refugee camps along the border with Thailand. A nationwide ceasefire was agreed in 2015, but tensions remain high and there have been near-constant skirmishes ever since.
The Karen people have historically regarded the region encompassed by the Salween River basin in south-east Myanmar as their homeland. Government persecution of this minority has, however, led to the planning of dams, mining projects and roads throughout the region, threatening the environment and the way of life of the local population. There are also testimonies that the Myanmar army has imposed "forced labour, systematic rape, the recruitment of child soldiers, massacres and the deliberate destruction of villages, food sources and medical services."
Sein Twa, who grew up near the Salween River along the Thailand–Myanmar border, has a deep connection with the region, its landscape, its language, its culture and its spirit. He has spent most of his life working to protect this land, collaborating and consulting with local communities that depend on the environment and its biodiversity for their survival. The idea of creating a peace park grew out of successful examples of this strategy, such as the Cordillera del Cóndor between Ecuador and Peru, the Selous-Niassa wildlife corridor between Tanzania and Mozambique, and the Emerald Triangle straddling the borders of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.
Traditional practices are central to the mission of the Salween Park, which revolves around the concept of kaw: "A complex arrangement that integrates indigenous ecological knowledge, protected natural areas, mountain fields cultivated through rotation, a ban on hunting key species, and peaceful conflict-resolution mechanisms." This is also "a physical area and a social institution for sustainable governance of the territory," where conservation work and organic farming practices combine to sustain society and livelihoods in harmony with nature. To make the peace park a reality, Sein Twa collected signatures, held public consultations, educational meetings and workshops, and helped organise a community referendum that overwhelmingly approved the park's charter and governance structure.
The Salween Peace Park, which extends across more than half a million hectares, encompasses 27 community forests and three wildlife sanctuaries. A wide variety of species, many of them endangered, are thereby protected from extractive activities and other harmful mega-projects. Among the animals that find refuge in the park are tigers, pangolins, Asiatic and sun bears, gaur (jungle cattle) and hoolock gibbons.
"Our forests, mountains, plains and rivers are our refuge, the home of our protective spirits, our pharmacy, our sources of food and the places where we find comfort and tranquillity. They are the foundations of our culture," Sein Twa declared, underlining the Karen people's connection with nature and the environment.
Sein Twa has also denounced the abuses still being carried out by the Myanmar government, which has continued to persecute and kill Karen people even after the ceasefire. One of the most recent examples is the killing of a forest defender by the armed forces in March 2020. Sein Twa is also critical of so-called "development projects." Rather than having a positive effect on the territory and its people, these efforts pursue a type of growth that is "unsustainable, disrespectful and unjust."
We need a model of human development that rejects violence and greed, that humbly learns from the cultures and traditions of indigenous peoples, supports Nature and respects and meets the needs of all beings on our planet.
Paul Sein Twa
Sein Twa has praised the global movement of indigenous peoples seeking to protect their ancestral homes and the way of life handed down by their ancestors, and acknowledges that the struggle is far from over. Sein Twa hopes the prize will raise global awareness of the struggle of the Karen and other indigenous peoples, but knows that there is still much to be done. The work of protecting the planet from the capitalist and consumerist plundering of natural resources never ends.
Translated by Elettra Tsikoudis