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Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand

The  second  one  happened  in  2013-2015.  Out  of  24  families,  totaling  of  127  people,  4  chin  people  got  punishment  of  one  year  in  the  jail.  They  were  involved  in  hunting  during  project  period  although  they  hunted  in  other  areas  120  miles  far  from  project  site  especially in  Ayeyarwady  Region.  Due  to  inflation  rate  becoming  higher  and  higher  year  by  year,  they wanted  more  income  to  cover  the  cost  of  children’s  higher  education. IV.  CONCLUSIONS At  present,  most  researches  have  focused  on  environmental  conservation  effects,  while  few  researches  have  focused  on  the  social  and  economic  impacts  of  protected  areas (Fortin  and  Gagnon,  1999,  Badalamenti,  2000;  Van  Beukering,  2003).  But  in  this  program,  we represent  a  coordinated  effort  on  the  small  group  of  local  people,  Chin  tribes,  for  their  sustainable  living  in  and  around  RYES.  More  diversified,  sustainable  and  secure  livelihood  options  with  local  authorities  will  reduce  both  poverty  and  pressure  on  the  region’s  globally  threatened  wildlife.  The  key  approaches  and  methods  used  in  this  project  were:  1)  supporting the  negotiation  of  incentive  agreements  and  training  of  joint  patrols  together  with  RYES  staff  to  reduce  poaching  and  HEC  in  RYES  ;  2)  capacity  building  and  awareness  raising  among  local  people  on  issues  of  sustainable  natural  resource  management  and  environmental protection;  3)  promoting  the  generation  income for  chin  families  through  CF  establishment  and agroforestry  practices  and  4)  supporting  better  and  sustainable  education  system  for  Chin  children. The  main  lessons  learned  during  the  project  were: • Conservation-related  activities  should  be  strategic,  and  focused  on  selected  community  to  achieve  the  most  impact. •  Technical  assistance  is  needed  for  project  implementation,  especially  for  livelihood- related  and  sustainable  forest  resource  use,  and  agricultural  practices. • The  program  has  to  respond  to  newly emerging  development  pressures,  especially  to  poaching  and  HEC  in  RYES. • Monitoring  should  be  done  frequently especially  on  their  income  and  household  expenses.  Because  although  they  have  had  some  improvement  in  their  livelihood  during  project  period,  this  has  not  kept  pace  with  Myanmar’s  inflation  rate. Overall,  we  learnt  that  the  approach  has  been  successful  though  it  took  more  than  7  years  even  for  small  communities  to  see  strong  results  and  we  can  use  this  stewardship  program  elsewhere  where  there  are  key  biodiversity  areas,  and  human-wildlife  conflict  sites. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This  work  was  supported  by  funds  from  USFWS,  AEF,  IEF,  and  British  Embassy  in  Yangon,  MANA,  and  FFF/FAO.  We  are  grateful  to  the  staff  of  RYES/NWCD  who  helped  in  many  ways  to  collect  and  generate  the  data  and  information  in  this  project.  REFERENCES 1 M . J . ,   F o r t i n   and  C.  Gagnon,  “An  assessment  of  social  impacts  of  national  parks  on  communities  in  Quebec,  Canada.”  Environmental  Conservation  26,  no.03,  1999,  200-211. 2 F.   Badalamen t i ,   A.  A.  Ramo s ,   E.  Voultsiadou,  J.S.  Lizaso,  G.D’ANNA,  C.  Pipitone,  J.  Mas,  J.R.  Fernandez,  D.  Whitmarsh,  and  S.Riggio.  “Cultural  and  socio-economic  impacts  of  Mediterranean  marine  protected  areas.”  Environmental  conservation  27,  no.  02,  2000,  110-125. 166 Proceedings  of  the  International  Conference  on  Climate  Change,  Biodiversity  and  Ecosystem  Services  for  the Sustainable  Development  Goals  (SDGs):  Policy  and  Practice  27-29  June  2016,  Cha-am,  Phetchaburi,  Thailand


Proceedings of International Conference on Climate Change, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services for the Sustainable Development Goals : Policy and Practice 27-29 June 2016 at the Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am, Phetchaburi, Thailand
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