A lake’s future depends on decisions made far beyond its shoreline. What happens on nearby land, what washes into the water, and how neighboring villages manage shared resources all shape its health. Protecting it requires people to keep working together as those pressures change.
In northwestern Myanmar, that ongoing work is at the heart of our partnership with Friends of Wildlife (FoW). Together, we are supporting Indigenous Naga communities as they strengthen local governance and wetland management around Naung Sai and Naung Yan Lakes, two ecologically vital water resources within the Chindwin River watershed.
The lakes support biodiversity and local livelihoods. Their future is closely tied to the communities around them and to the resources and relationships those communities can draw on to care for them.
From the FoW’s Biodiversity Heroes Training, 2019
From a workshop to a lasting commitment
Our work around these lakes grew out of a broader investment in conservation training in Myanmar. Through FoW’s Biodiversity Heroes trainings, people living near protected areas from across the country come together to learn, exchange ideas, and develop conservation projects for their own communities. Governance and participatory decision-making are central topics.
Participants from the Naga region who came to one of the trainings later requested support to protect their wetlands. FoW began working with the local organization now known as the Naga Conservation Association to help carry that effort forward.
An early milestone, reported in 2021, was a locally organized workshop attended by 136 people from the four villages around Naung Sai Lake. Participants identified practical next steps: conservation activities in each village, exploring how to establish community forests, posting signs around the lakes, and monitoring their work.
Those early plans helped establish a foundation for continued wetland protection. Today, the work includes strengthening the local governance needed to sustain that commitment.
Community members place awareness signs around the lake
Caring for water means looking beyond the water
Pesticide runoff is among the significant challenges facing the lakes. It illustrates why wetland conservation requires attention to the surrounding landscape: activities outside a lake can affect the water within it.
A cleanup can remove waste people can see. Addressing runoff requires a different kind of sustained effort; understanding where pressures originate, considering how to reduce them, and coordinating across the places and people connected by water.
Poor infrastructure adds another difficulty to this work. Concern for the lakes is essential, but communities also need practical support to turn that concern into consistent management.
This is why strengthening local governance matters. In everyday terms, governance concerns how people make decisions together, agree on responsibilities, and follow through. For a shared water resource, those relationships are part of its protection.
Khin Nyo Linn, Dr. Teri Allendorf, and Tun Oo talking with the village leader
The work of staying with it
Some conservation activities produce an immediate, visible result. The ongoing work of wetland management can be harder to capture in a photograph. It involves maintaining cooperation, revisiting problems, and continuing to care for a place after an initial project or training has ended.
The aim is lasting protection for these critical water resources, supported by local institutions and a shared commitment to their future.
A healthy lake needs ongoing care. Supporting the people and partnerships that make that care possible is a long-term responsibility we share.
Donate to Community Conservation today to help sustain partnerships like this one, so communities can keep working together to protect the lakes and wetlands they depend on.
Smiles all around at the Biodiversity Heroes Training workshop