Tropentag, September 18 - 20, 2019 in Kassel "Filling gaps and removing traps for sustainable resources development"

Ecosystem-based Conservation of Myanmar's Southern Coastal Zone

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Myanmar

Abstract

Myanmar's recent Country Evaluation concluded that high economic growth has been achieved at the cost of increasing environmental degradation. Environmental impacts from climate change and pollution are additional and emerging threats, particularly to the health of the country's fragile marine and coastal ecosystems. The rate and intensity of coastal ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss and fishery stock declines will continue to accelerate unless resource governance is greatly improved and species and habitat conservation regulations are actually enforced. If future coastal zone development and resource use are not aligned strategically to protect and enhance marine conservation more effectively, coastal ecosystems will become increasingly degraded, fish stocks will continue to decline and some may even collapse. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations in Myanmar is going to implement a project named “Ecosystem-Based Conservation of Myanmar's Southern Coastal Zone” responds to the urgent need to apply integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) as a governance and sustainable management approach to address these issues. This project aims to improve marine and coastal zone management to benefit marine biodiversity, climate-change mitigation, and food security, which will be delivered through the following two Project Components. Under Component One, national and region/state capacities will be developed to plan and implement strategic coastal conservation management based on integrated coastal zone management principles. Under Component Two, equivalent local capacities will be built and integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) will be demonstrated in practice in one or more selected geographic areas of southern Tanintharyi Region, with a focus on the Myeik Archipelago. The Project will provide capacity development for integrated coastal zone management policy, planning and implementation nationally to benefit the Union and State/Region levels, as well District to local levels in Tanintharyi. The project's strategic focus will be on the mangrove forests in Tanintharyi, due to their significance both within Myanmar and globally but will foster the use of harmonised multi-sector approaches to mainstreaming environmental and resilience considerations into fisheries, forestry and coastal land use and marine resources management and conservation.

Keywords: Integrated coastal zone management, mangrove forests

Contact Address: Le Le Win, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 11061 Yangon, Myanmar, e-mail: queenlelegmail.com