Saving Chindwin’s Biodiversity
Channel: Stockholm Environment Institute
Date: 14/06/2019

~11 mins. in Myanmar language with English subtitles, June 2019. 

Myanmar’s Chindwin River Basin is home to a wide range of ecosystems from upland forests to riverine lowlands and seasonally flooded wetlands. These habitats are home to 370 bird species, 16 mammal species including tigers, 5 reptile species, 82 butterfly species, and 155 fish species of which 54 are endemic to the area. 

The six million people living in the basin depend on the basin’s natural resources for their livelihoods getting fuel, food, and medicinal plants as well as using the seasonally flooded wetlands for fishing and riverbank gardens for planting crops.

 “Saving Chindwin’s Biodiversity” gives the perspectives of the people living in the basin who talk about their lives and livelihoods, the threats to the natural resources such as from mining, and their ongoing efforts to urgently protect the basin’s natural resources before it’s too late.
 
The film is an outcome of the Chindwin Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (CBES) study, a two-year assessment by Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI). CBES aims to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem service values by supporting local communities and state agencies in the Chindwin River Basin in Myanmar.

Producer (script, editing, sound): Rajesh Daniel
Camera: Wichai Juntavaro
Associate producers/interviews: May Thazin Aung, Than Htway 
Translators: Thant Zaw Soe, Ei Phyo Wai Aung
CBES project leads: Thanapon Piman, SEI; Prof. Win Maung, Myanmar Environmental Institute (MEI)
Project supported by: Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)
Produced in collaboration with the Sagaing Regional Government (Myanmar), state agencies, academics, researchers and media in Myanmar.  Special thanks to the local communities in the Chindwin Basin and the Chindwin River Basin Organization (CRBO).