A forested mountain range connecting wildlife populations split by the Irrawaddy. GPS collar data shows tigers use the corridor to move between otherwise isolated habitats.
A bridge of trees
The Bago Yoma is a range of rolling hills running north-to-south in central Myanmar, forming a massive forest range. For large mammals, these forests are an essential habitat, but they are flanked and fragmented by increasing human development. The corridor provides provide a safe passage for wildlife, connecting larger forested areas and allowing animal populations to interbreed. Without this genetic exchange, isolated groups of animals face a higher risk of local extinction.
This forested bridge is especially important for wide-ranging predators. Conservation organizations use technologies like GPS collars to understand exactly how animals navigate these landscapes. Data from these collars provide precise location points multiple times a day, showing migratory routes, hunting grounds, and the specific paths animals take to avoid human infrastructure. While tiger populations in the Bago Yoma are currently considered functionally extinct, conservation efforts aim to restore the habitat and prey base to support their future return. Elephants actively use the corridor, and GPS tracking has been instrumental in developing strategies to mitigate human-elephant conflict in the region.
The teak heartland
The Bago Yoma range has a long and complex history with one of the world's valuable hardwoods: teak (Tectona grandis). For over 150 years, these mountains were the heart of Myanmar's timber industry, managed under a system first implemented by the British in the 1850s. The "Myanmar Selection System" was a form of selective logging intended to be sustainable, but decades of over-harvesting and a surge in illegal logging severely degraded large portions of the forest. By 2015, Myanmar had lost an estimated 15 million hectares of forest since 1990.
The ecological damage prompted a 10-year logging ban in the Bago Yoma region to allow the forests to recover. Today, The area has of different forest types, including moist upper mixed deciduous and drier forests, interspersed with bamboo-dominated stands where the canopy has been opened by logging. A camera trap survey conducted in 2020 in the North Zarmari Wildlife Sanctuary, part of the Bago Yoma range, recorded 25 different mammal species, indicating that despite the pressures, the forest still holds a notable diversity of life. The area supports populations of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), gaur (Bos gaurus), and leopards (Panthera pardus).
💡Fun Facts
The Bago Yoma mountains were historically the world's most important source of high-quality natural teak.
A reforestation technique called "Taungya forestry," where cultivators plant teak alongside their own crops, was first attempted here in 1856.
The region hosts several primate species, including the recently identified Popa langur (*Trachypithecus popa*) and the Western hoolock gibbon (*Hoolock hoolock*).
Along with large mammals, the forests shelter rare birds, including the near-endemic Plain-pouched Hornbill (*Aceros subruficollis*).