Over 200,000 mangrove seedlings planted in three Arakan State townships last year

27 Mar 2021

DMG newsroom
27 March 2021, Ann

More than 200,000 mangrove seedlings were planted across three Arakan State townships in 2020, according to Ko Myo Lwin, who headed up the mangrove afforestation effort.

The mangrove plants were grown from seeds collected in 2019, and were planted last year in Ann, Taungup and Kyaukphyu townships, Ko Myo Lwin said.

Most of the plants are Byu Chay Htauk and nipa palm, he said.

“I have collected more than 200,000 seeds of mangrove plants to grow if there is no armed conflict in the coming rainy season,” he added.

He has plans to plant next in Rambree, Myebon and Pauktaw townships, and is compiling a list of areas where mangroves can be grown, he said.

“There are difficulties as we have to grow them with a self-help system,” he explained.

Myanmar’s Forest Department compiles and updates information on mangrove forests throughout the country once every five years. The most recent tabulations, from 2015, found that Arakan State had 395,726 acres of mangroves in total, an Arakan State Forest Department official told DMG in July of last year.

Conservations say expansion of prawn and fish farms and over-harvesting of mangrove trees for firewood are the main reasons for mangrove depletion in Arakan State, shrinking the habitats of aquatic wildlife and reducing resilience to coastal erosion.