Promoting locally inclusive wetlands conservation – experience from Myanmar

The document highlights the rapid degradation of wetlands in Myanmar, noting a 25% loss in the Upper Chindwin River basin between 2000 and 2020. It critiques existing government-led initiatives for being tokenistic and limited primarily to Ramsar sites, leaving smaller wetlands vulnerable. Based on a project in the Hkamti region, the authors demonstrate that community leadership—through village working committees and alternative livelihood planning—enhances resource management and monitoring. The brief recommends establishing a community-led management framework, diversifying funding, and integrating wetland conservation across sectoral policies like agriculture and tourism.

• The Upper Chindwin River basin experienced a 25% reduction in wetland area from 2000 to 2020, impacting a key biodiversity area.
• Myanmar's wetlands have seen significant decline, including a 0.7% annual decline and the loss of approximately 475 km2 of peatland between 1999 and 2019.
• As of 2020, Myanmar's wetlands covered over 80,000 km2, but the majority are human-made, with rice paddy fields accounting for 61% of the total extent.
• Current government-led wetland management is often ineffective because community participation is tokenistic and lacks the decentralization of power or local decision-making authority.
• In the Hkamti region of the Upper Chindwin basin, community-led action plans and the establishment of village working committees have improved sustainable resource use and monitoring capacity.
• The development of alternative livelihoods, such as organic farming, sustainable aquaculture, and pig farming, has reduced direct community dependence on wetland resources.

APA

Saluja, R., Prasad, S., Maung, W., & Piman, T. (2025). Promoting locally inclusive wetlands conservation – experience from Myanmar. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/locally-inclusive-wetlands-myanmar-sei2025-028.pdf

Chicago

Saluja, Ridhi, Satish Prasad, Win Maung, and Thanapon Piman. Promoting locally inclusive wetlands conservation – experience from Myanmar. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2025. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/locally-inclusive-wetlands-myanmar-sei2025-028.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Saluja |first1=Ridhi |last2=Prasad |first2=Satish |last3=Maung |first3=Win |last4=Piman |first4=Thanapon |title=Promoting locally inclusive wetlands conservation – experience from Myanmar |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=May 2025 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/locally-inclusive-wetlands-myanmar-sei2025-028.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{saluja2025promoting, author = {Saluja, Ridhi and Prasad, Satish and Maung, Win and Piman, Thanapon}, title = {{Promoting locally inclusive wetlands conservation – experience from Myanmar}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2025}, month = may, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/locally-inclusive-wetlands-myanmar-sei2025-028.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }