Climate change and the Myanmar economy
Individual Documents
Sub-title:
When Hurricane Irma hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, Carlos Melendez couldn’t contact the staffers or customers of his San Juan-based technology firm, Wovenware.
Description:
"Melendez learned a lesson that would help his business during the next storm, that disaster preparedness includes being able to communicate with people when the emergency is over. He quickly signed up with an online messaging service – and got to use it two weeks later when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico.
“The amount of damage was a situation we had never had before here on the island,” Melendez says. But because he was now able to communicate with employees, he could determine how they were, arrange to meet with those able to get to the office and let customers know Wovenware was working despite the widespread devastation and lack of power and resources.
Small businesses in the United States have already contended this summer with earthquakes in Southern California and Hurricane Barry in the Gulf Coast and Midwest, and the most intense portions of the Atlantic hurricane and Western wildfire seasons are still ahead. But many owners don’t prepare for potentially devastating natural disasters, leaving them to learn during a crisis what they should have done differently. And even companies that do plan can be unprepared for the unique circumstances of a particular disaster – no owner in New Orleans could have predicted they’d be unable to operate for months, even years, after Hurricane Katrina turned the city and some of its suburbs into a ghost town in 2005..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Times"
Date of entry/update:
2019-08-26
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Individual Documents
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Description:
"Myanmar’s natural assets
– including its forests, soils
and coastal waters and the
biodiversity they embody –
makes up its natural capital,
providing critical benefits
to the Myanmar people,
helping to protect them
against natural hazards and
ensuring reliable sources
of clean water for drinking and irrigation
as well as opportunities for ecotourism.
Myanmar’s natural capital is also the
source of other tangible and intangible
benefits that support human well-being
and underpin economic development. To
secure those benefits, we need to understand which areas and ecosystems best
serve the people and infrastructure dependent upon them, as well as how these
benefits can be protected or enhanced in
the face of climate change.
The assessment presented in this report
shows where and how Myanmar’s natural
capital contributes to clean and reliable
drinking water sources, reduced risks
from floods inland and storms along the
coasts, and to maintaining the functioning of reservoirs and dams by preventing erosion. The results highlight areas
that provide high levels of ecosystem
services, where natural capital provides
the greatest benefits to people and infrastructure. This initial assessment has focused on identifying important ecosystem
service provisioning areas that benefit the
greatest number of people at a national
scale, emphasizing benefits to cities and
other large population centres. Benefits
to rural populations and to vulnerable
subgroups are critical as well, and they
should be considered in greater detail as
a next step.
In addition, many of these areas important for ecosystem services provision
coincide with areas important for biodiversity conservation. The effective management of these areas of synergy can help
guarantee benefits to Myanmar’s people,
infrastructure and wildlife not just now,
but for decades to come.
Securing natural capital is especially
important in the face of climate change. As rainfall becomes increasingly
variable and extreme events like heavy
storms and droughts more frequent and
intense, the role of forests in protecting
rivers and streams from sediment will
become more central in maintaining the
quality of drinking water and improving
the functioning of reservoirs and dams.
The value of other ecosystem services
will also become more apparent. Importantly, although climate change might
make these services more valuable, the
locations of hotspots areas important
for ecosystem service provision are not
expected to change over the next several
decades for the services assessed here, so
that protecting these areas would provide
long-term benefits. While conservation
of existing natural capital alone cannot
eliminate the impacts of climate change,
protecting and enhancing natural capital
benefits is a critical component of climate
change adaptation.
Incorporating natural capital information
into planning and development processes
can ensure that its benefits are put to
work in the service of the people and for
the prosperity of the economy. Natural
capital assessments can support planning and development across and within
key sectors, including energy, transport,
agriculture, and health, while strengthening climate resilience and promoting
adaptation planning. The natural capital
assessment provided here can support
development and management decisions
that launch Myanmar on a more sustainable and inclusive path toward economic
development..."
Source/publisher:
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)
Date of entry/update:
2019-07-23
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
Category:
The forests of Burma/Myanmar - general, Biodiversity - Burma/Myanmar-related, Climate Change - Migration Burma/Myanmar, Sustainable/alternative development in and for Burma, Climate change and the Myanmar economy
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Description:
"This policy brief looks into climate risks to three
selected industries (agribusinesses, garment
industries, building businesses) in order to illustrate
potential impacts on and key vulnerabilities of
businesses in Myanmar, dominated by small and
medium enterprises.
Businesses and industries in Myanmar are already
facing enormous losses and damages associated
with climate change. In future, climate change will
likely cause huge production losses and physical
damages to farmers, agro-processing firms, retailers
and other agribusinesses. The garment industry will
face unreliable electricity supply, disruptions in all
transport modes, physical damages to assets, and
declining health and well-being of migrant workers.
Building industries and businesses will be challenged
by more frequent disruption of operations, as well
as losses associated with long-term consequences
of climate change on supply of materials, health of
workers, quality of construction works and market
demand.
•
To enhance the resilience of businesses and
industries, Myanmar should: enforce environmental
laws, regulations and safety standards legislation;
mainstream climate change considerations into
sectoral policies, labour health and safety standards,
and social protection programmes; and develop
tailored information services, stimulate research,
raise awareness, support capacity-building of
businesses, and improve early warning systems.
Public institutions should work with the private
sector to safeguard a resilient future of the nation and
communities, including by engaging private sector
actors in adaptation planning and implementation,
and promoting public-private partnerships..."
Source/publisher:
Myanmar Climate Change Alliance
Date of publication:
2017-11-30
Date of entry/update:
2018-01-17
[field_licence]
Type:
Individual Documents
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Size:
515.97 KB
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