What to do when your neighbor submits land you say is yours for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site? Make a counter-claim.
That’s Myanmar’s plan, anyway, after the Lay Nyay Forest Reserve, in Tanintharyi Region, was recently included in a map of the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex which Thailand wants designate a heritage site, according to the Myanmar Times.
But Naypyitaw says part of it belongs to Myanmar and, in response, has submitted a claim that the area, Lay Nyay Forest, be dubbed UNESCO World Heritage. Officials have also asked that the border be fenced off.
The issue was discussed at the World Heritage Committee convention in Turkey last week but talks were cut short by the failed coup attempt and postponed until a meeting in Paris in October.
“This dispute is because of the lack of a clear border fence between the countries,” Kyaw Zaw, director of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, told the Times.
“So we submitted a request for Thailand to reconsider the area and also submitted a request for the appropriate Myanmar department to fence the border area.”
Touché.
Hopefully it can all be hammered out in a civil manner. Than Zaw Oo, director of the Myanmar branch of the World Heritage Site committee, said Thailand “understands” the concern.
“We do not object to their national park,” he told the Times. “We’ve just submitted a request to reconsider the area of the park.
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