The Necessity: Collaboration for Coherence in Myanmar. Climate Change Response

Climate change is the great global challenge of the 21st century. Because of climate change, undesirable disasters became intense and has caused loss of many lives and billions of dollars’ worth of properties. To respond to climate change, the United Nations founded the body called United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with the global agenda to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions and to promote adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Each of the member countries of UNFCCC has committed to contribute to climate change mitigation and adaption and formulate its action plan in the form of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs).

Myanmar submitted its Intended National Determined Contributions (INDC) to the UNFCCC in 2015, and the NDC was submitted in 2018. According to the NDC, the government has to increase the use of renewable energy, biofuel, and implement the 30 Years Forest Master Plan (for reforestation and afforestation, including REDD+) and adaption activities such as early warning systems, disaster risk reduction activities and climate smart agriculture.

Some of the elements of the INDC, such as reforestation and REDD+, are implemented primarily in land under the management of Indigenous Peoples’ in Myanmar. The UNFCCC has recognized that Indigenous Peoples are both vulnerable to the effects of climate change and have a key role to play in adapting to climate change. Both climate change itself and the actions taken to mitigate climate change will have a significant impact on the livelihoods and lifestyle of Indigenous Peoples’ in the future. However, in Myanmar there has not yet been a dialogue on climate change policies and responses with a focus on Indigenous Peoples (IP). This workshop was held to start to fill this gap by bringing government, CSOs and IP representatives to discuss how to bring coherence to Myanmar’s climate change response focusing on the role of Indigenous Peoples in both mitigation and adaptation.