Mangrove Restoration Program in Myanmar

Myanmar has the highest annual rates (~1%) of mangrove deforestation in the world and may have the third highest potential annual CO2 emissions (784 Gg CO2e yr-1) and would contribute to 18% of the total potential CO2 emission due to mangrove deforestation (Atwood et al. 2017). The Ayeyarwady Delta mangroves shrank by 64.2% between 1978 and 2011, from 262,300 to just 93,800 hectares (MONREC/REDD+ MYANMAR/UN-REDD, 2017). In 2017, the GoM endorsed GGGI’s support for a Coastal Landscape Restoration Program. GGGI’s early baseline assessment has identified that the establishment of community forests is seen as a useful avenue to attain coastal landscape restoration. Local communities recognize the value of conserving forests surrounding their dwellings both for protection against extreme weather events and as source of sustenance given the importance of habitat conditions for crab and fish populations. These were also identified as mangrove compatible value chains in the bioeconomy scoping assessment conducted in 2018. It is recognized that in the absence of these shelter-belts the exposure to extreme events is increased, therefore the local communities understand the value of restoring mangrove forests near their dwellings. Lack of clear and transparent rules for allocation of forest-carbon rights to local communities and project developers prevent the implementation of forest carbon projects for the voluntary or regulatory markets. International climate finance such as REDD+ phase III (results-based payments), CORSIA and Paris Agreement’s Article 6 -ITMOs and -ERs are foreseen as potential sources of climate finance that could allow to expand the initial progress attained by mangrove restoration projects/initiatives, based on verified compliance at the jurisdictional scale (at least). For this to materialize, several governance decisions (including carbon rights allocation and benefits sharing mechanisms), and technical capacity improvements are required. On the other hand, the absence of financial mechanisms to channel climate finance resources hampers to adoption of sustainable management and restorative practices based on community forestry.