Publications

This brief aims to help decision-makers across sectors in Myanmar incorporate climate change risks into planning and investment decisions by summarising key messages from a detailed technical analysis of climate change in Myanmar that is released alongside this report.

Specifically, this brief does the following:

• Provides climate risk information, including observed historical climate and future projections of temperature, rainfall, sea level rise and extreme weather events.
• Highlights how climate change will affect sectors such as biodiversity and ecosystem services, coastal zones, health, agriculture, infrastructure, water resources, and urban areas.
• Provides on-the-ground examples of how climate risk information is being used by the Myanmar Climate Change Alliance (MCCA) to support local planning in the Ayeyarwady Delta and the Central Dry Zone.
• Supports a flexible adaptation approach, providing a range of possible future climates in Myanmar, which helps address changes and impacts already underway and guides planning for changes that are likely to worsen in the future for Myanmar‚'s people, ecosystems, and economy.

Based on analyses of 19 observed weather stations, the climate in Myanmar is already changing:

• Between 1981 and 2010, average temperatures increased by 0.25C.
• The pace of warming has been faster inland than in coastal areas, and the rise in daily maximum temperatures has been greater than the daily average.
• Annual total rainfall increased slightly between 1981 and 2010, with a greater rate of increase in coastal areas than in inland ones.
• In coastal areas, the increases occurred throughout the year, while in inland areas the increases occurred mainly during the monsoon season.
• Research suggests that the summer monsoon season has become shorter by approximately one week, on average (Lwin, 2002).

Global Guidance for Life Cycle Impact Assessment Indicators, Chapter 6 “Land use related impacts on biodiversity.” L. Milà i Canals, A. Antón, C. Bauer, C. de Camillis, R. Freiermuth, T. Grant, Michelsen, M. Stevenson. United Nations Environment Program, 2016.

Giant pandas have a small population size, long generation time, low reproductive rate, and feed almost exclusively on bamboo, all of which make them less able to adapt to a changing climate. Explore these and other traits which make giant pandas vulnerable to climate change, as well as recommended climate-adaptive management strategies.

Peru has a historic opportunity to secure the investments in protected areas that have been made by the government of Peru and donors over the past 20 years. The opportunity is an innovative public-private partnership—called National Parks: Peru’s Natural Legacy—that brings together government commitments, international cooperation and private donors to create a permanent source of funding to properly manage the protected areas.

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.

The February 2017 Asia High Mountains Project Newsletter with stories on the Second Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection (GSLEP) Program Steering Committee Meeting and release of the new TRAFFIC snow leopard crime report titled An Ounce of Prevention. (4 page Newsletter)  

Countless companies, governments, NGOs, and indigenous peoples‚' organizations have committed to eliminate deforestation from the production of major agricultural commodities. While this global ambition shows great promise, considerable challenges lie ahead. In particular, these challenges include both a lack of transparency and traceability within commodity supply chains and the issue of illegality across production landscapes, which can leave stakeholders vulnerable to a number of economic, social, and environmental risks.

World Wildlife Fund-US, with support from Global Forest Watch, developed the Jurisdictional Risk Assessment to explore potential applications of public data platforms (such as Global Forest Watch) that allow companies, governments, and other end-users to assess certain jurisdictions and their potential association with illegal deforestation. This tool can help companies and governments prioritize and strengthen their traceability and due diligence efforts. Using palm oil and Indonesia as a pilot commodity and geography, we developed a set of key indicators that approximate deforestation risks at the district level based on the extent and rate of deforestation in areas where deforestation is not permitted to occur (e.g., in primary forests, protected areas, peatland, and Forest Estate) and through deforestation activities that are considered illegal (e.g., use of fire) in Indonesia.

Among other important considerations, the JRA is based primarily on historical remote sensing data and does not quantify social risks (e.g., land insecurity and labor rights). It is not intended to be used as a standalone tool with regard to procurement and sourcing decisions. However, the JRA can complement other sources of information‚ – in particular, local knowledge and consultations‚ – to paint a broader picture of deforestation risks that may be associated with illegal deforestation.

Click here for the JRA methodology.

Click here for the database.

With support from Global Forest Watch, World Wildlife Fund-US (WWF) developed the Jurisdictional Risk Assessment to explore potential applications of public data platforms to help companies, governments, and other end-users assess certain jurisdictions and their potential association with illegal deforestation. This tool can help companies and governments prioritize and strengthen their traceability and due diligence efforts. Using palm oil and Indonesia as a pilot commodity and geography, WWF developed indicators to assess potential risk to forested ecosystems and their management in Indonesia by district. The sets of indicators represent: 1) primary forests, 2) peat lands, 3) protected areas, and 4) the forest estate (specifically, production forests and limited production forests). Depending on the ecosystem or managed area type, historical rates of deforestation, fire occurrence, and incompatible zoning of land uses (particularly by oil palm concessions) were selected as ways of evaluating risk. We used datasets from Global Forest Watch and associated websites, augmented by additional external sources. Download the PDF for more details on the JRA’s methodology.

One of the biggest priorities for WWF‚'s wildlife team is to secure time-bound commitments and implementation of elephant ivory bans from three of the largest consumer markets and scale up consumer outreach efforts to reduce desire for elephant ivory. Reducing consumer demand for elephant ivory and mobilizing public support for policy change and enforcement are essential to combating illegal elephant ivory trade.

In an effort to tackle the challenge of "desire reduction" of consumers, WWF commissioned a guide, Reducing Desire for Elephant Ivory: A Psychosocial Guide to Address Elephant Ivory Consumption that presents a new lens through which to view conservation campaigns and their audiences taking on complex dimensions (psychological, cultural, social, and emotional) of elephant ivory consumption.

The purpose of the guide is to support efforts that directly address the active market for these goods and to build upon campaign strategies and amplify their effectiveness. In 2017 we would like to pilot this guide with our demand reduction work and with partners.

Watch: An innovative approach to reducing consumption of illegal products

Answers to important questions in regard to the 2016 Plowprint Report, such as: What is the methodology behind the report? Why was it developed? And, What is WWF doing to slow grassland loss?