This month, we started a new research project that aims to track forest cover in certified community mangrove forests in Myanmar and provide information that may improve the process of certification and the policies supporting these forestland tenure activities. Specifically, the project aims to track mangrove forest change in 70 certified community forests of Myanmar, mainly in Ayeyarwady, Yangon, and Tanintharyi Regions. The research team will measure land cover change over time using annual Landsat time-series to quantify the amount of mangrove forest change since the late 1980s.
Assessing outcomes in certified community mangrove forests in Myanmar.
In this paper, we highlighted the tenuous future for mangroves in Myanmar and magnified arguments for greater protection for a critical coastal ecosystem, which is particularly important as Myanmar strives to become more integrated into the regional and global markets for agriculture and aquaculture products. The fate of mangroves in Myanmar will be tied to the effectiveness of conservation policies while under pressure to convert to more lucrative but environmentally harmful land uses.
In this study, we investigated the dynamics and drivers of informal gold mining in Sagaing Region, northern Myanmar to shed light on the conditions needed for alternative livelihood and enforcement interventions to succeed.
Investigating the new deforestation dynamics of rubber in mainland Southeast Asia.
Here, we demonstrate a systematic approach--identify, characterise, explain--for investigating a land-cover regime shift by integrating two complementary analytical frameworks.
I am happy to announce our recently accepted paper for publication in Conservation Biology journal. The paper entitled, Untangling the proximate causes and underlying drivers of deforestation and forest degradation in Myanmar, is the product of our research lab, and a study led by Ms Cheng Ling Lim and Dr Graham Prescott under the supervision of Prof Edward Webb (our lab’s lead principal investigator) and Prof Alan Ziegler (our collaborator and lead principal investigator of the Wet Lab at the NUS Department of Geography) [1].
Evaluating the drivers of land change influenced by economic development in the context of governance transformation in Myanmar.
Understanding the interactions of stakeholders, resources, and policy towards sustainable use of natural resources in Myanmar.