Myanmar

Myanmar is rich in natural resources, with a diverse climate ranging from coastal zones to mountainous regions. Agriculture, particularly rice and fisheries, is a key part of the country’s economy, providing livelihoods for over 60% of the population. The aquaculture sector is increasingly important, contributing to both food security and economic development.

However, water resource management is a critical challenge, with increasing pressures on water quality and availability due to climate change and unsustainable practices. Given Myanmar’s vast aquatic resources, sustainable aquaculture expansion presents both opportunities and risks that must be carefully managed to ensure long-term economic growth and nutrition improvements.

IWMI in Myanmar

IWMI’s focal areas in Myanmar are in advancing sustainable aquaculture and improving water resource management for food security and livelihoods. Through the Fish for Livelihoods (SAIL) project, IWMI researchers are investigating the constraints, risks, and opportunities related to small-scale aquaculture, particularly in terms of water resource availability and quality. The Aquaculture Decision Support Tool (Aqua-DST) helps identify priority areas for aquatic food production, particularly in the Upper Ayeyarwady River region, providing data-driven insights for more effective decision-making.

Additionally, the CGIAR Initiative on Aquatic Foods aims to enhance the resilience of aquatic food systems by scaling research and innovations that benefit both people and the environment. By combining data-driven decision support tools with targeted research, IWMI’s efforts are collaborating with local stakeholders in Myanmar to build a more sustainable, resilient aquaculture sector while improving nutrition and supporting local communities.

Country representative

Mark Dubois

Country Representative – Lao & Regional Representative – South East Asia

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Latest Myanmar publications

Displaying 4 publications

Decision support tool for sustainable aquaculture development (Aqua-DST) – a case study in the Upper Myanmar
2024
More... | Fulltext (1.73)

Case studies / Policies / Stakeholders / Resilience / Socioeconomic aspects / Water availability / Water management / Aquaculture development / Sustainable aquaculture / Decision-support systems
Record No:H053388

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The spatial politics of land policy reform in Myanmar and Laos
Journal of Peasant Studies, 2023
More... [DOI]

Land policy reform has dominated the development agenda across the Global South over the past two decades. In contrast with earlier distributive land reforms, contemporary policies reflect an amalgamation of neoliberal, state territorial, and social justice agendas. This paper demonstrates how land policy changes reflect the spatially extensive and multi-scalar politics of land contestation and control, employing the cases of Myanmar and Laos. Myanmar’s short-lived democratic transition enabled civil society actors to exert uneven influence on policy reform. In contrast, communist party and state dominance in Laos has constrained, although not wholly obstructed, policy intervention by non-governmental groups.

Social aspects / Farmers / Civil society / Donors / Non-governmental organizations / Government / Customary land rights / Land use / Land tenure / Land titling / Political parties / Land law / Land reform / Land policies
Record No:H051094

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Water stresses and responses in Myanmar’s Central Dry Zone
2023
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The Central Dry Zone (CDZ) of Myanmar is the heartland of the Burmese culture, and in many ways, it is socially and culturally coherent with the other rice-centred cultures of mainland Southeast Asia. In climatic terms, it is a semi-arid outlier in a mostly wet-tropical region. Climate change is exacerbating weather variability and water insecurity, and the CDZ thus epitomises the challenges posed by climate change for much of the region. This chapter describes two examples of interventions aimed at addressing water insecurity in the CDZ: pumped irrigation at Pyawt Ywar; and artesian groundwater in the Pale Subbasin. Both address the interconnections between social and physical drivers of vulnerability. They demonstrate the challenges and importance of working across institutional scales. These examples demonstrate that progress is possible at local levels despite a lack of (or inappropriate) national policy and regulations, which limit the scale, and possibly the long-term sustainability of such gains.

Aquifers / Tube wells / Groundwater management / Groundwater irrigation / Climate change / Surface irrigation / Surface water / Water scarcity / Arid zones / Water stress
Record No:H051669

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Scalar politics, power struggles and institutional emergence in Daw Lar Lake, Myanmar
Journal of Rural Studies, 2021
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This paper looks at scalar politics, power struggles, and institutional emergence in Daw Lar Lake in Karen state, Myanmar. It brings to light tensions between centralized and decentralized approaches in the country’s natural resource governance, and how these are manifested in the current legal stalemate with regard to the formal management status of the lake. Building on earlier research on legal pluralism and critical institutionalism, we look at: 1) how the current legal stalemate with regard to the formal management status of the lake is rooted in ongoing bureaucratic struggles between different government agencies; 2) local communities’ strategies to develop and implement their own vision of lake governance through the formation of the Daw Lar Lake Interim Committee; and 3) the extent to which the Interim Committee is able to mediate diverse and often competing local uses and claims to natural resources at (inter) village level, which are based on a mix of customary and ‘official’ legal entitlements and normative orderings. From a policy perspective, we highlight the need to identify pathways for collective action among and across different groups of resource users, as the latter will be crucial in addressing ongoing resource competition, managing cross-sectoral livelihood impacts and ensuring sustainable lake management.

Social aspects / Strategies / Households / Farmers / Livelihoods / Villages / Local communities / Land use / Water scarcity / Fisheries law / Community involvement / Government agencies / Bureaucracy / Legal pluralism / Institutions / Politics / Governance / Natural resources management / Lakes / Water management
Record No:H050609

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