Recent Status and Sustainable Mangrove Conservation in Myanmar

Myanmar is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia with a continuous coastline of almost 3000 km extending along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. Global climate change and the associated risk of sea level and extreme weather events have further underlined the importance of mangrove as a buffer protecting coastlines in the tropics and sub-tropics. In Myanmar, due to over exploitation, the mangrove forest areas are decreasing at rapid rate and rising sea levels and increasing unstable weather coastal resilience is an issue of ever growing so that cannot handle environmental problems therefore need international collaboration and technology transfer for conservation of mangrove forest and to pursue to local people for sustainable mangrove ecosystem. Methodology includes field visits, direct observation, data gathering and interview survey. Some areas of the mangroves in the Ayeyarwaddy delta improved by the Forestry Department's rehabilitation programmes, including the establishment of the Department plantation, and the protection of natural mangrove forests in selected places in Ayeyarwaddy and Tanintharyi regions. Rapid and often unsustainable development is jeopardizing the fragile relationship between these crucial habitats and the livelihoods of rural people who make up a high proportion of the population of Myanmar.We need to do three programs for sustainable mangrove conservation in future plan, awareness program, conservation program and capacity building program. Sustainability entails a continuous process of decision making, so there is never and end-state just a readjustment of the equilibrium between development and the protection of the environment