Improving water quality in villages near Rakhine Yoma Elephant Sanctuary
August, 2020
In our latest email update, we shared the news of three projects that Community Conservation is supporting in Myanmar.
We are proud to report that one of the three projects has safely been able to start the first phase: cleaning up plastic pollution in their villages.
The community leaders who proposed this project, U Kyaw Kyaw Heine and U Htet Naing Linn, observed that the water quality is very poor in the stream next to their villages near the Rakhine Yoma Elephant Sanctuary. Plastic waste and litter are accumulating, and the villagers there have limited knowledge about biodiversity and sustainable fishing practices.
The two community leaders have proposed working with youth volunteers in two villages to clean up the plastic. Ultimately, they hope to initiate sustainable fishing practices as well.
Here are some photos of the first task: cleaning up the plastic waste.
It is inspiring to see these young conservationists join together to benefit their villages and local wildlife.
How did this project come about?
Back in December, we supported our local partner, Friends of Wildlife, to hold the third “Biodiversity Heroes” training, which brought together 30 community members who live near 13 protected areas.
As part of the training, participants proposed projects that could promote the conservation of biodiversity in their home villages. Three of these projects stood out – we think these three could have a big impact.
This is one of those three projects. Thanks to Community Conservation’s generous donors, we will be able to help the villagers make their plans into a reality.
One of the strengths of a community-focused approach to conservation is that it’s so cost effective. The funds needed for this project totaled just $800.
See the video about one of the previous Biodiversity Heroes training sessions here. Thank you so much to our donors who helped support this!
