Description:
"Myanmar’s natural assets
– including its forests, soils
and coastal waters and the
biodiversity they embody –
makes up its natural capital,
providing critical benefits
to the Myanmar people,
helping to protect them
against natural hazards and
ensuring reliable sources
of clean water for drinking and irrigation
as well as opportunities for ecotourism.
Myanmar’s natural capital is also the
source of other tangible and intangible
benefits that support human well-being
and underpin economic development. To
secure those benefits, we need to understand which areas and ecosystems best
serve the people and infrastructure dependent upon them, as well as how these
benefits can be protected or enhanced in
the face of climate change.
The assessment presented in this report
shows where and how Myanmar’s natural
capital contributes to clean and reliable
drinking water sources, reduced risks
from floods inland and storms along the
coasts, and to maintaining the functioning of reservoirs and dams by preventing erosion. The results highlight areas
that provide high levels of ecosystem
services, where natural capital provides
the greatest benefits to people and infrastructure. This initial assessment has focused on identifying important ecosystem
service provisioning areas that benefit the
greatest number of people at a national
scale, emphasizing benefits to cities and
other large population centres. Benefits
to rural populations and to vulnerable
subgroups are critical as well, and they
should be considered in greater detail as
a next step.
In addition, many of these areas important for ecosystem services provision
coincide with areas important for biodiversity conservation. The effective management of these areas of synergy can help
guarantee benefits to Myanmar’s people,
infrastructure and wildlife not just now,
but for decades to come.
Securing natural capital is especially
important in the face of climate change. As rainfall becomes increasingly
variable and extreme events like heavy
storms and droughts more frequent and
intense, the role of forests in protecting
rivers and streams from sediment will
become more central in maintaining the
quality of drinking water and improving
the functioning of reservoirs and dams.
The value of other ecosystem services
will also become more apparent. Importantly, although climate change might
make these services more valuable, the
locations of hotspots areas important
for ecosystem service provision are not
expected to change over the next several
decades for the services assessed here, so
that protecting these areas would provide
long-term benefits. While conservation
of existing natural capital alone cannot
eliminate the impacts of climate change,
protecting and enhancing natural capital
benefits is a critical component of climate
change adaptation.
Incorporating natural capital information
into planning and development processes
can ensure that its benefits are put to
work in the service of the people and for
the prosperity of the economy. Natural
capital assessments can support planning and development across and within
key sectors, including energy, transport,
agriculture, and health, while strengthening climate resilience and promoting
adaptation planning. The natural capital
assessment provided here can support
development and management decisions
that launch Myanmar on a more sustainable and inclusive path toward economic
development..."
Source/publisher:
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Date of Publication:
2016-06-03
Date of entry:
2019-07-23
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Countries:
Myanmar
Language:
English
Local URL:
Format:
pdf
Size:
3.56 MB
Resource Type:
text
Text quality:
- Good