Timber Legality and Traceability in Myanmar’s Forest Supply Chains: Institutional Development and Implications for Verification, Market Access, and Trade

Abstract

Myanmar has developed a range of legality assurance and traceability mechanisms to support legal timber production and respond to evolving international market requirements. This study examines the institutional development of timber legality assurance and traceability in Myanmar’s forest supply chains and its implications for verification, market access, and trade. A qualitative research design was employed, combining thematic analysis of 200 publicly available documents collected between January and May 2026 with descriptive analysis of timber production and trade statistics from successive editions of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) Biennial Review and Assessment of the World Timber Situation. The trade analysis used annual production, import, export, and domestic consumption data for 2010–2024 together with direction-of-trade statistics for 2013–2023. The findings show that Myanmar has established formal institutional arrangements for timber legality assurance through the Myanmar Timber Legality Assurance System (MTLAS), the Myanmar Timber Chain of Custody (CoC) Process, the Myanmar Forest Certification Scheme (MFCS), and the Digital Timber Traceability System (DTTS). Documentary evidence indicates progressive institutional development while providing comparatively limited evidence regarding operational effectiveness. Descriptive trade analysis identified structural changes in timber exports and increasing orientation towards regional Asian markets. The review demonstrates that the principal challenge lies not only in establishing legality assurance mechanisms but also in maintaining transparent, reliable, and independently verifiable information capable of supporting evolving international due-diligence requirements.