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A survey of rivers and lakes utilizing pioneering DNA know-how has shed new mild on Myanmar’s wealthy biodiversity, but additionally revealed some spiralling threats.
By Anton L. Delgado and FRONTIER
At first look, the syringes stuffed with murky water don’t appear to indicate a lot. However new know-how can detect dozens, if not lots of, of species from these samples extracted from rivers and freshwater lakes all through Myanmar.
Earlier this yr, a crew of largely Myanmar scientists working for world conservation non-profit the World Huge Fund for Nature, higher generally known as WWF, collected water samples in northern Kachin’s Putao all the way down to the Ayeyarwady Delta to develop a baseline research of the nation’s aquatic biodiversity. Utilizing new environmental DNA know-how, the research was the primary of its sort within the nation.
There was good and dangerous within the findings. The survey confirmed the continued presence of greater than 400 species, together with the critically-endangered Irrawaddy dolphin and the weak helicopter catfish. Nonetheless, researchers additionally discovered that the threats to Myanmar’s aquatic wildlife, together with industrial air pollution and invasive species, are extra widespread than beforehand thought.
The outcomes have been by no means meant to be printed, mentioned U Pyi Soe Aung, the conservation director at WWF-Myanmar. However the shocking outcomes tipped the scales, prompting Pyi Soe Aung and his colleagues not solely to go public, however to incorporate their names within the research.
The latter was a uncommon choice given the insecurity created by the February 2021 navy coup. Within the practically two years because the coup, the junta has often violently focused its critics, together with environmental activists.
“There are dangers to utilizing our names within the analysis, however credibility is vital after we discuss conservation. We need to spotlight the significance of defending these species,” mentioned Pyi Soe Aung.
To mitigate the dangers and prioritise the science, the research prevented highlighting something that is likely to be politically delicate, regardless of widespread calls for from the Myanmar public that worldwide organisations within the nation communicate out towards the junta, or function underground in order to keep away from partaking the regime in any approach.
Pyi Soe Aung added that the issues recognized within the survey have been actually world in nature. “From an ecological perspective, there’s a tipping level and as soon as this level is reached, you possibly can by no means return,” he mentioned.
Ko Kyaw Ye Htet, an environmental activist who based the Myanmar Local weather Strike, a protest motion, agreed that the menace to the world was existential. “If we don’t remedy this collectively, we are going to go into extinction,” he mentioned. “That is hell for everybody – it’s not only a political or social difficulty, it’s a massive menace to the human species.”
Sport-changing tech
As they transfer by means of water, fish shed DNA in numerous types, from scales to waste, that may linger for weeks. Utilizing eDNA know-how, water samples with these remnants can reveal a full image of the species in a given space. Pyi Soe Aung mentioned the know-how is being pioneered throughout 35 websites within the Larger Mekong – a area that features Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and components of China – however notably in Laos and Thailand. Cambodia, although, has used it to search out and preserve critically endangered crocodiles.
WWF-Myanmar partnered with NatureMetrics, a United Kingdom-based lab, to analyse the samples. Mr Benjamin Barca, head of conservation for the lab, believes eDNA is a game-changer for conservation.
“Prior to now, we might strategy a physique of water with a mixture of strategies. Most of those are handbook, sensible strategies and most of them are fairly invasive,” Barca mentioned, citing netting traps and electro-fishing.
Handbook strategies additionally require longer durations of preparation and bigger groups of researchers. Particularly in conflict-torn nations reminiscent of Myanmar, the place the chance of discipline work is already excessive. However utilizing eDNA reduces dangers for each scientists and ecosystems, Barca mentioned.
U Thadoe Wai, a freshwater ecologist with WWF-Myanmar, labored with native companions all through the nation to gather the water samples. He mentioned the breadth of samples, mixed with the brand new know-how, allowed a much more detailed image of Myanmar’s aquatic wildlife to emerge.
“There haven’t been many DNA collections or a lot cataloguing of native aquatic species in Myanmar earlier than,” Thadoe Wai wrote within the report. “We had situations the place DNA confirmed up that we will establish all the way down to the household stage, however to not specify what species it was.”
“There’s a superb probability that a few of that DNA comes from species which might be as but undescribed by science,” Thadoe Wai mentioned. “That’s why we should shield the remaining secrets and techniques of those underwater worlds earlier than we will totally perceive them.”
Curse of the tilapia
The readability of the findings additionally put the threats to aquatic wildlife into sharp focus, and given the post-coup disaster, these threats are prone to worsen.
“We will see which organisms are sharing an area, establish impacts that will manifest from pressures like air pollution or invasive species, the place they like to remain, the locations they’re avoiding,” Thadoe Wai wrote within the report. “If air pollution or some other menace have been to be current in these areas, these endemic species are at excessive danger of being endangered… or worse.”
The survey discovered fewer fish species in water our bodies near cities. Thadoe Wai believes this is because of air pollution, which has doubtless elevated over the past two years.
Within the aftermath of the coup, public companies reminiscent of rubbish assortment have been suspended as the brand new junta struggled to manipulate. As extra plastic and strong waste crammed streets and entered lakes and rivers, threatened species have been put underneath even better stress, in line with Pyi Soe Aung.
One other main menace flagged by the survey was the unfold of the invasive Nile tilapia. The fish has thrived in current many years on the expense of native species such because the hilsa, however the extent of the injury was beforehand unknown.
The researchers discovered that, because of the tilapia and different potential components reminiscent of overfishing, the hilsa fish had been worn out in sure areas of the nation. That is trigger for alarm as a result of the fish isn’t solely prized in Myanmar as a supply of meals and a cultural image, however can be economically invaluable. A 2015 research indicated that Myanmar accounts for 15 p.c of the worldwide hilsa catch.
“Nile tilapia has been a long-time difficulty in Myanmar, however we didn’t have correct assessments,” mentioned Pyi Soe Aung. “Prior to now we knew that there have been Nile tilapia in some areas, however these outcomes present that they’ve been distributed throughout the nation, which is extra regarding. We thought that they might be in Yangon and in Inle Lake however no – they’re in every single place.”
The menace to Myanmar’s fisheries from Nile tilapia is man-made. Tilapia farms have been launched to the nation within the Nineties to spice up its exports. These plans failed, partly attributable to worldwide sanctions on Myanmar and burdensome taxes imposed by the earlier junta, resulting in a provide surplus and finally inflicting home demand to rise. Not lengthy after, Nile tilapia grew to become a staple in eating places throughout the nation.
Consultants say the fish is now a necessary supply of protein within the nationwide weight loss plan, and Myanmar is way from distinctive on this respect.
“Around the globe, tilapia is launched as an aquaculture commodity. It’s a consequence of worldwide meals wants and we can not refuse [it],” mentioned Veryl Hasan, a lecturer at Indonesia’s Airlangga College, who has studied the enlargement of Nile tilapia throughout the archipelago.
Hassle started in 2008, when numerous tilapia escaped from fish farms in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady Delta once they have been flooded by the storm surge generated by Cyclone Nargis. The inhabitants of Nile tilapia, which reproduces 30pc sooner than different strains of tilapia, boomed within the wild, pushing out native fish such because the hilsa.
Round Yangon, the nation’s largest metropolis, the hilsa appears to have disappeared. Pyi Soe Aung mentioned that this was the survey’s most regarding discovery, partly due to the implications for fishers, since different fish are a lot much less invaluable.
“When you fish for the entire day for different fish, the full catch you get will likely be equal to 1 hilsa,” mentioned Pyi Soe Aung. “It’s costly as a result of individuals like to eat it – it’s a part of our tradition and our conventional meals.”
‘We want good governance’
Though by no means sturdy to start with, environmental regulation in Myanmar has deteriorated because the coup. This has exacerbated the threats to Myanmar’s biodiversity, which specialists say can solely be addressed by a respectable, accountable authorities.
The junta’s ministry of environmental conservation and pure sources is led by U Khin Maung Yi, who has been sanctioned by the US for benefiting from Myanmar’s pure sources. The regime has dabbled in conservation, largely by designating choose forests as protected areas in conflict-torn areas reminiscent of Sagaing and Magway. On 1 December, junta-run media mentioned efforts have been underway to breed hilsa, however with a concentrate on export income relatively than conservation.
Activist Kyaw Ye Htet mentioned these efforts would do little to assist the surroundings and have been doubtless disingenuous. “I imagine what the navy junta is doing is nonsense. Once we say environmental conservation, it isn’t simply planting a tree. They’re those who’ve exploited the pure sources of the nation for many years, so how can they assist in an actual technique to remedy the difficulty?” he mentioned.
The Nationwide Unity Authorities, a parallel administration shaped in April final yr to oppose the junta, additionally has a pure sources and environmental conservation ministry. Nonetheless, with solely a restricted means to manipulate territory and a struggle towards the navy to battle, its priorities lie elsewhere.
The NUG instructed Frontier in June that 90pc of its funds was going to the armed battle. Its deputy environmental minister Khun Bedu mentioned solely a “very small” quantity was being allotted to conservation, however he thought this made sense given the circumstances.
“For the [ministry] funds we battle – we should not have many donors supporting us. However the NUG agrees that the funds going to defence is suitable,” Khun Bedu mentioned.
In actual fact, Khun Bedu’s personal ministerial position takes a again seat to his submit because the chairperson of one of many largest resistance teams to have shaped because the coup, the Karenni Nationalities Defence Power, which operates in Kayah State and neighbouring areas.
With no earlier expertise engaged on the surroundings, Khun Bedu, who’s ethnic Kayan, admitted that he was named deputy minister primarily based on “what positions have been obtainable.” His appointment got here at a time when the NUG was attempting to assemble an ethnically various cupboard and likewise construct bridges with ethnic armed teams.
Though WWF has deliberate extra surveys that would shed further mild on Myanmar’s environmental plight, Kyaw Ye Htet thinks little can change till the political disaster is resolved.
He mentioned that even communities dedicated to conservation can do little amid oppression and raging battle: “Individuals’s homes are being burned down and they’re fleeing their villages, so on this situation how can they participate in environmental conservation and local weather motion?”
“I don’t see a chance for enchancment within the foreseeable future,” he mentioned. “It can take time to overthrow the junta and arrange real democratic governance and we’d like good governance to make sure environmental conservation.”
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This story was produced in collaboration with Southeast Asia Globe
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