Aung Tun Oo (ELP 2022) | Technical Advisor/Specialist, Radanar Ayar Rural Development Association, Myanmar
Myanmar, a country on the SEA mainland, has experienced both man-made and natural disasters, as well as climate change. Following the military coup in 2021, Myanmar is facing a major political crisis and armed conflicts throughout the country. On the other hand, the catastrophic effects of climate change and natural disasters are affecting the people's social and economic well-being. People and organizations working on environmental conservation projects in Myanmar believe there is hope for the people's welfare and the country's growth, despite the fact that there are significant hurdles ahead. According to our recent assessment, climate change is intensifying throughout Myanmar, where the farm households have been badly impacted by the negative effects of climate change, along with inadequate institutional arrangements and climate action implementation (Tun Oo et al. 2023).
In Myanmar, the military government has weakened the function of environmental conservation groups and organizations, imposing harsh limitations on Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and local Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). According to our recent capacity need assessment, CBOs and CSOs are not being targeted to enhance the adaptive capacity of those stakeholders to the impacts of climate change and lack the financial and infrastructure resources required to participate in knowledge-sharing workshops or training in Myanmar. When the WWF became aware of the crisis in Myanmar and the lack of adaptive capacity of those stakeholders/organizations in Myanmar, the WWF-Cassagnol supported our efforts to empower the capacity of those stakeholders working for Myanmar's climate resiliency.
As a holistic approach to attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Nature-based Approach (NbA) has gained favor among environmentalists and conservationists. The NbA recognizes that ecosystems are crucial to providing necessary benefits and services to humans. In our project, the social, ecological, and governance aspects were taken into consideration as we built and applied a Community Resource Integrated Management Planning (CRIMP) model based on the NbA design. The CRIMP model is an inclusive, integrative, and innovative resource management concept because the communities with which we worked with had numerous livelihood activities and resource sharing phenomena for their food and nutrition security. For instance, in the areas of our project where aquaculture (fish farming) households also use the same water sources for fish production, rice farming households use water harvesting practices for rice production. The issue at hand is how the community is adjusting to climate change's effects in terms of how resources are shared both within and across community members. Young researchers and stakeholders from CBOs, CSOs, and local NGOs were all asked to participate in the implementation of the CRIMP model, and they received both formal training and hands-on experience. The key project success stories and outcomes are briefly presented as the following.
- For the case studies, youths from the community who had participated in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and were unable to obtain jobs due to the ongoing political unrest in Myanmar were chosen as the young researchers and enumerators (age ranged between 19-32 years). Those young researchers and enumerators (10 persons) were trained intensively during the project and hired for the field-based implementation of the project. They were worked together with their community leaders and farmers to enhance resource management in their communities.
- The stakeholders of both permanent and temporary employees from those local CBOs, CSOs, and NGOs (21 organizations) were invited to both the case studies sessions and training sessions. They have received updated training in community-based climate change adaptation and resilience planning modules as well as ecosystem-based resource management. At the conclusion of the project, those organizations have increased their proficiency and comprehension of the courses in Community-based climate change adaptation, Nature-based solution approaches, Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture Management (EAAM) and integrated resource management (CRIMP) processes.
- The stakeholders from CBOs, CSOs, and local NGOs were taught how to manage resources using ecosystem-based strategies (Awareness), and they also took such methods and techniques into consideration and incorporated them while designing their projects and programs in Myanmar.
- Stakeholders are leveraging the knowledge and abilities they have acquired from this project in their communities where they are implementing the projects. They are also looking for funding opportunities through the new networks and collaboration in order to expand the planned community-based resource management activities at the regional and district levels.
Despite the fact that it appears impossible to address the climate crisis due to the political crisis and a lack of government concern for environmental and natural resource conservation present in Myanmar, stakeholders from the private sector, CBOs, CSOs, and local NGOs may be a source of hope for conservation efforts. This project has empowered and strengthened the adaptive capacity and resiliency of local stakeholders in Myanmar through the WWF-Cassagnol fellowship program. Knowledge is Power (KIP), and the knowledge acquired by the people and stakeholders involved in this project will continue to address Myanmar's climate crisis and environmental challenges.