Search results

"The Makassar annals Translated and edited by William Cummings. Beginning in the 1630s, a series of annalists at the main courts of Makassar began keeping records with dated entries that recorded a wide variety of specific historical information about a wide variety of topics, including the births and deaths of notable individuals, the actions of rulers, the spread of Islam, trade and diplomacy, the built environment, ritual activity, warfare, internal political struggles, social and kinship relations, eclipses and comets, and more. These Lontaraq bilang were a clear departure in form and function from the genealogically-structured chronicles being composed about the ruling families of Gowa and Talloq in the same era. By the end of 1751, nearly 2400 entries had been completed. These records are a rich lode of information for scholars interested in virtually any aspect of life in premodern Makassar, and are a rare and precious resource for scholars of Southeast Asia. This is the first English translation and annotation of the annals. William Cummings is an associate professor of history at the University of South Florida. He is the author of Making blood white; Historical transformation in early modern Makassar, A chain of kings; The Makassarese chronicles of Gowa and Talloq, and numerous articles about Makassarese history and culture"--Publisher's description

Forestry has traditionally been one of Myanmar's most important economic sectors, generating more in export earnings in the period 2010-2018. It is estimated that the country will have lost 12 million ha of forest between 1990 and 2020 - the third largest absolute forest loss of all countries during that period. The government now aims to restore or reforest about 884,000 ha on reserved forest (RF) and public protected forest (PPF) land under its 2016-28 Myanmar reforestation and rehabilitation program (MRRP). A range of reforms is needed to encourage private sector investment. These include: (i) identification of sufficiently large areas of suitable land close to potential processing sites or transport infrastructure and planning of land-use allocation; (ii) improving the availability of information on identified areas and on the process of acquiring plantation leases; (iii) streamlining leasing procedures and terms and scope of leases, including possible private management of state plantations; (iv) simplifying regulations on harvest and transport of plantation timber; (v) reviewing the suitability of current fiscal incentives, including tax holidays; (vi) improving information on areas and productivity of established plantations; and (vii) identifying priority research and development needs and delivery mechanisms.