Myanmar

“We gave three years of hard work in planting these trees. Now they are growing tall. Soon, they will be the biggest assets of our people,” he says, pointing at the forest and the tiny dot of houses that appear on the horizon. The restored mangrove forest in Shwe Thaung Yan sub township in Ayyerwady region of Myanmar. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS Mangroves in…

Conyat Create Equipping businesses with the tools and knowledge to become more sustainable, Conyat Create’s 10-strong team of mostly women work from an office full of reclaimed materials in Hlaing township. Conyat Create. (Facebook) Citing Myanmar’s vulnerability to climate change as one of her main motivators, Howe realized that “not only businesses but the wider community didn’t understand sustainability.” “Our consumption of plastic is over…

Merchandise exports grew by an estimated 15%, following a 0.3% fall in FY 2016/17, with the report crediting the 2.8m tonnes of exported rice – the highest level in half a century – as a key factor behind the increase. While agricultural growth was below overall GDP expansion of 6.8%, the ADB said it expects the sector to grow robustly in the present financial year…

The vice president, who is also chairman of the National Natural Disaster Management Committee, assured that he will do all he can to utilize the power of the government to mitigate the impact of the monsoon on townfolks, especially in the central plains. On Wednesday, U Henry Van Thio observed the construction of a riverbank protection wall along the Myitthar River between Kalay and…

Worldwide, 35 percent of the world's mangroves are now lost. Only 16 percent of the original cover is left in the vulnerable Delta Region where the mangroves are being destroyed at rates three to five times higher than global deforestation. "At the moment, mangrove conditions are severely degraded," says Win Meung, a seasoned ecologist who heads a mangrove regeneration project in Myanmar. "In the…

The scaling out of climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices (CSA T&Ps) using community-based adaptation (CBA) strategies is a potential solution to food security and nutrition challenges in Myanmar. To realize this goal, the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR), with support from the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security in Southeast Asia (CCAFS SEA), has worked for the establishment of Climate-Smart…

The promising gains in connectivity mean there is vast potential for innovative solutions aimed at including the 80 percent of people who are outside the formal financial system. But digital financial services via mobile technology – also known as financial technology, or in tech – can do more than make financial transactions safer, quicker and more efficient. They can also serve as the rails upon…

As she watches her workers haul in this year's harvest, the 35-year-old is in a triumphant mood, ascribing her victory over the seasonal scourge to advice received via the app about effective pesticide use. "We used to just farm the way our parents showed us," she told AFP, in her village of Aye Ywar west of Yangon. "But after getting the app, I now see…

At a workshop on practical lessons obtained from establishing policies for natural disaster response held on Monday, he said that for that to happen, cooperation will be sought with the Rural Development Department and the Department of Relief and Resettlement. “I envisioned the nation to be one that can withstand the impact of climate change,” said U Hla Maung Thein. Moreover, he is…

One of the seven giant paper mache elephants that make up the sculpture piece ‘We Love Our Momos’ was made with old newspaper clippings of environmental stories which includes coverage of the brutal killings of elephants for their skin to waste disposal problems in Yangon. ‘We Love Our Momos’, on display from November 4 to 6 at Mahabandoola Park in downtown Yangon, is part of…

“We (FAO country programme) are focused on … food security, nutrition, and food safety,” said Xiaojie Fan, FAO’s representative in Myanmar, at the celebration of the organization’s 40th anniversary in Myanmar held in Yangon last Friday. She said FAO also wants to help Myanmar “strengthen the governance and sustainable management of land, forest, and natural resources; and enhancement of more resilience of…

Myanmar's coastal areas of Tanintharyi, Ayeyawaddy and Rakhine are abundant with coral reefs, mangroves, sea grass beds, mud flats, estuaries and sand dunes, playing an important role in environmental diversity and the sectors of agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. However, part of the mangroves are being damaged by locals, who clear the areas for prawn breeding, fishing, mining, waste disposal and oil spilling, while the…

The bus ride to Hakha, a city in Myanmar's northern Chin State, begins with a prayer for a safe journey. It's just after dawn on a drizzly gray Monday in the provincial border city of Kale. I was supposed to leave the day before, but although Myanmar is a predominantly Buddhist nation, Chin is a Christian state, so no buses depart on Sunday. Eleven of…

According to the 2016 Climate Risk Index, Myanmar is the second most vulnerable country in the world to the effects of climate change. The intensity and regularity with which cyclones make landfall have increased with every year, with the delta region affected by tropical storms and the dry zone impacted by debilitating droughts. Researchers at the Center for Climate System Research at Columbia University, in…

Mangroves protect coastlines in the face of storms and rising sea levels, absorb carbon from the atmosphere, and boost fish stocks, experts say. Yet Myanmar has lost more than 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of mangroves since 1980, said Arne Fjortoft, founder and secretary-general of Worldview International Foundation (WIF), which has worked with two local universities to restore mangroves in the Southeast Asian…

Myanmar’s conflict-ridden areas are not only populated with soldiers and rebels, they are also home to indigenous communities which aim to protect the forests of their ancestors. This is the case of the villagers starring in The Kheshorter: Indigenous Karen’s Community Forest, a documentary screened on August 9 at the Orchid Hotel, in Yangon. The 26-minute film is a look into the indigenous Karen people’s…

An estimated 13.5 million people, or a quarter of Myanmar's population, live in houses built with materials that can deteriorate rapidly such as bamboo, wood and leaves, a report by the government and the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) showed. Some 3.8 million new or improved homes need to be built to address the problem, said the report, which is based on census data. "Without durable…

The risks of coal Despite coal’s reputation for contributing to global warming, TTCL intends to employ ‘high energy, low emissions’ (HELE) technology to mitigate the adverse environmental effects resulting from coal burning. As previously reported, this ‘clean coal’ technology has attracted interest from a host of countries, including Australia, India and China. HELE technology is still under-researched. For instance, the best methods of dealing with…

Energy demand is set to double this century, with the world’s population reaching 11 billion, up from 7.5 billion today. As the world changes, so will the energy system that powers it, driven by the need to reduce carbon emissions and – crucially for Asia – tackle air pollution that blights so many lives. In Myanmar, for example, the majority of households still use basic…