Mangroves in Myanmar

Abstract

The mangrove extent in Myanmar, according to the most recent forest resources assessment in 2020, has been estimated as 1.12 million acres. Among three main tracts of mangroves—Rakhine coastline, Ayeyarwady delta, and Tanintharyi coastline—the mangroves in the Tanintharyi coastline have now turned into the largest areal extent despite the fact that the Ayeyarwady delta had the largest in the past. With a large share of the Bay of Bengal Large Marine Ecosystem, coastal and delta ecosystems including mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds, beaches, and dunes largely flourish throughout the Myanmar coastline. In this context, the Tanintharyi coast showed the highest species diversity of mangrove flora while the least species diversity was observed in the Ayeyarwady delta. Provided that a total of ten prominent provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services were considered, fishery nursery and habitat has shown its highest value in the mangrove ecosystem services, followed by coastal protection. In particular for the latter services of coastal protection, local communities and their tremendous properties were saved, and lifelong lessons were learned during the deadliest impacts of Cyclone Nargis 2008. The mangrove ecosystems in Myanmar, however, have been alarmingly threatened due to overexploitation of fuelwood and charcoal production; mangrove conversion to other land uses such as rice fields, shrimp farming, and salt pans; coastal and delta development with human settlement; improper revenue collection on mangrove products in forest management; and climate change and natural disasters. One of the major measures to tackle the existing issues and problems is community-based forest management, called “community forestry (CF)” in mangroves that is a remarkable initiative since 1995 in the aspects of partnership, participation, and decentralization in managing the mangroves in Myanmar. In connection with the findings on the CF study regarding the regeneration of some resilient mangrove species after the impact of Cyclone Nargis, coppice management would be supportive and beneficial to local communities in their own mangrove management. The case study in the chapter demonstrated as well that most of the local stakeholders had fairly sufficient awareness and attitudes to enable active participation in mangrove restoration although there were slight differences between the different stakeholders. In particular, poorer attitudes were observed in some migrant communities compared to the settled communities. In develo** a mangrove management strategy, inclusiveness should, therefore, be one of the key take-home messages by prioritizing the subsistence needs of the local people plus economic benefits.