The Culture and Conservation of Myanmar’s Inle Lake

Inle Lake is home to communities based entirely around the water, while fears of ecological damage have locals and conservationists concerned.

Inle Lake, positioned between mountains in Myanmar, is home to 17 different villages with unique cultures and traditions. Inle lake is the second largest lake in Myanmar, roughly 14 miles long, and is in the center of the Shan state. The lake is populated by the local Intha people, whose livelihoods are developed around the water. Bamboo houses are built on stilts above the water, to allow plenty of airflow in the humid environment. Additionally, the stilt houses add the advantage of flood protection, letting the water flow between dwelligns. Locals rely on water transportation, making the stilted houses perfect for boat access. Another notable unique aspect of Inle lake is the style of paddling fisherman use, curving on leg around the ore while standing in the boat. 

Daily life on Inle lake is centered around the water, including their gardens. Locals grow floating gardens that are made of reeds and other plants. The gardens are floating (and not on stilts, like many of the structures are on the lake), making them very resistant to floods. The gardens are used for growing vegetables, especially tomatoes, due to the climate. Locals use the gardens for personal produce and to sell the vegetables they grow as a source of income.

A popular textile of the region comes from lotus weaving, a tradition that many local women take part in. The villages Kyaing Khan and In Paw Khon are considered centers of lotus weaving. However, women all around Inle Lake create textiles from lotus weaving. Women started the practice roughly 100 years ago, weaving textiles from lotus flowers that grow on the lake. 

Of the communities on the lake, Ywama Village is one of the most well-known, specifically for its floating market. The market is held every five days and is made up entirely of vendors and customers in boats. The market includes everything from vegetables and fish to clothing.Ywama also is home to an important religious site on Inle lake, the Phaung Daw Oo pagoda. This Buddhist monastery houses five images of the Buddha that were brought to the area in the 12th century. The images have been continuously covered in gold leaf, to the point where the images of the Budhha are completely covered. Buddhists visit the monastery and apply gold leaf as a sign of respect, leading to layers upon layers of gold. Every year a festival takes place during the month of Thadingyut (October/ November), which consists of boats carrying the images of the Buddha to the different villages on the lake. The festival is 18 days long, and each boat stops at each village for a night. Unfortunately, in 1965, a boat capsized during the festival, and one of the images was lost in the water. The image was then miraculously found back in the pagoda. Since then, it has remained in the pagoda even during the festival.

While Inle Lake has a thriving culture and a long history, there are fears about Inle Lake’s long-term conservation, as the region has experienced several droughts, including a severe one in 2010. Soil erosion, deforestation and pesticides in the water are some of the main concerns for conservationists. The Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry partnered with UN-Habitat in 2011 to create a plan to conserve Inle Lake in response to the significant drought the year before. Additionally, the main concern was that the heavy inflow of tourists caused an increase in the use of motorboats that resulted in more spillage and contaminated the water. In 2018 the United Nations Development Program launched an initiative to draft a law through local and state governments to conserve the lake. By February 2019, the Conservation Law was passed and is considered a major step forward in the conservation process. Inle Lake is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve. It is widely acknowledged as an important cultural and ecological place to preserve.

Despite being isolated from other major tourist attractions in Myanmar, Inle Lake still has travelers visiting at an increasing rate. Roughly 20 miles from the closest airport, the roads to Inle Lake can be long and rough. The fastest route is to fly to Heho, but some visitors drive the long hours from Bagan, Mandalay, Thazi or Kalaw. Once you arrive at  Inle Lake, there are hotels available that cater to travelers.  In addition to the long journey to Inle Lake, high levels of unrest and conflict due to the military taking control in a coup in early February 2021 makes travel in the region difficult. Many have fled Myanmar after the coup, and the potential danger has made travel in the area unadvisable.

Dana Flynn

Dana Flynn is a recent graduate from Tufts University with a degree in English. While at Tufts she enjoyed working on a campus literary magazine and reading as much as possible. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she loves to explore and learn new things.

Study Predicts African Great Apes Will Lose 94% of Their Territory 

A new study about  the effects of climate change, land use and human population growth on African great apes found that they may lose up to 94% of their habitat by 2050. 

A mountain gorilla in Uganda. Rod Waddington. CC BY-SA 2.0 

Great apes are humanity’s closest relatives. They are also a highly endangered group of animals, and experts believe that this status will likely worsen in the coming years. A new study published in the journal Diversity and Distributions predicts that the combined pressures of climate change, human land use and human population growth will lead to immense territory losses for African great apes in the next 30 years. 

There are four types of great apes: gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, and chimpanzees. Africa is home to a number of species of great apes, including Cross River and Eastern and Western gorillas, as well as bonobos and chimpanzees. The situation for these species is already critical. All are listed as either endangered or critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources Red List of Threatened Species, a comprehensive list detailing the conservation status of animals around the world. And, as wild areas are destroyed for timber, minerals and food; the human population expands; and climate change alters the land where great apes can comfortably live, experts warn that African great apes could lose a devastating portion of their range by 2050. 

The study was conducted by nearly 60 scientists from different research institutions, universities and conservation organizations. The scientists used data about African great ape populations from the IUCN database and then modelled the future effects of climate change, land use and human population growth. Using this data, the scientists analysed a best case scenario, where action is taken to protect the environment , and a worst case scenario where nothing is done. There is little difference in the two outcomes. Both result in massive range loss for African great apes, with 85% range loss by 2050 in the “best case” scenario and 94% by 2050 in the “worst case”. 

Half of this lost range will be territory inside national parks and other protected areas, the study predicts. Although these areas are safe from human land use, they will still be affected by climate change, which will make the habitat unsuitable for great apes. Most great ape species prefer to live in lowland habitats, but climate change will make them hotter and drier. In areas where there is no higher lands, apes will be left with nowhere to live. In areas where there are uplands, however, experts suggest that great apes will attempt to migrate upward, following the climate and vegetation they prefer. 

Yet, even apes that have the ability to migrate as their range decreases may not have enough time to do so. Apes reproduce slowly, have a low population density and require a very specific diet. All of these factors mean that apes are generally not efficient migrators compared to other species; to fully acclimate to a new habitat would take great ape species longer than the 30 years the study predicts they have left. 

The authors of the study urge that their findings be used to guide conservation efforts for African great apes in order to prevent irreversible population losses. Their findings suggest that the range loss can be mitigated through specific conservation efforts that focus on new and existing protected areas, as well as connecting habitats that are predicted to still be suitable for great apes in the future.

Rachel Lynch

Rachel is a student at Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY currently taking a semester off. She plans to study Writing and Child Development. Rachel loves to travel and is inspired by the places she’s been and everywhere she wants to go. She hopes to educate people on social justice issues and the history and culture of travel destinations through her writing.

A Closer Look at East Africa’s Human-Elephant Conflict

For farming communities in East Africa, elephants pose a danger to survival. Consuming up to 1,000 lbs of food a day, they destroy farmers crops in hours, cause injury and even death. While poaching is publicized, it is actually the human-animal conflict that poses the greatest threat to the species survival.

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Fighting Back with Fakes: Decoy Turtle Eggs Combat Poaching in Costa Rica 

Combating turtle poachers has often seemed like a hopeless task where innocent hatchlings always tend to lose. However, scientists in Costa Rica are beating poachers through the implantation of decoy eggs. 

Olive ridley turtle hatchling. Roehan Rengadurai. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. 

When one thinks of a turtle’s life, it is often the image of an aged green sea turtle gliding gracefully over magnificently colorful coral reefs. Conversely, it could also be an injured turtle succumbing to increasing plastic pollution as it struggles to escape the rings of a beer can. What is often overlooked are the turtles that never even break into the daylight; millions of turtle eggs are stolen by malicious poachers who sell them to under-the-table buyers. 

Costa Rica stands as a prime example of a place where turtle egg poachers are abundantly transporting stolen eggs to urban areas. 

Turtle eggs are somewhat of a delicacy in Costa Rica, where they are served in a variety of ways. For instance, they are mixed with beer, served raw, or hard-boiled. Prices of the eggs vary widely, with some costing $5 apiece while others can set one back around $20. 

Poachers stealthily scavenge beaches known to house turtle egg nests, which primarily belong to the threatened olive ridley and endangered green sea turtle species. Scientists now realize that effectively tracking poaching activity may require an innovative but rather odd approach.

The decoy eggs, called InvestEGGators, are formed using a 3D printer and are made out of silicone. They are around the size of a pingpong ball and look nearly identical to real turtle eggs. The white balls are also slightly painted with a textured paint to mimic the varied hues of an egg. Inside, there is a small black block that houses a GPS transmitter. The tracker feeds information about the location of the egg once every hour. The hope is that poachers mistakenly pick up the decoy egg along with real ones, since poachers tend to take whole nests at once. 

Scientists have invested in this method because it has more beneficial long-term effects on combating the poaching problem. Instead of catching poachers in the act, researchers say that it is much more effective to track the distance and location that the eggs travel to be sold. From an enforcement point of view, tracking the location of sites where the eggs are sold to buyers allows for more frequent and lasting crackdowns. 

In one test, researchers hid 101 decoys in turtle nests, and about 25% of them were transported by poachers. It was discovered that the distance the eggs traveled varied quite a bit; some traveled just over a mile to someone’s home, while others went well over 80 miles to houses in Costa Rica’s Central Valley. 

Scientists were previously concerned that planting decoy eggs could possibly harm the other eggs’ ability to hatch, but the other eggs appeared to hatch successfully. 

The study has now branched into a larger scope of conservation, with talks that this method can be beneficial in saving other endangered animals. 

As stealthy as poachers may get, sometimes one has to beat them at their own game to have a chance at winning. Luckily, a handful of clever scientists have successfully played the poachers. 

Ella Nguyen

Ella is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

7 Documentaries to Cure Your Wanderlust

Travel restrictions got you down? Try escaping with these global documentaries, guaranteed to soothe your cabin fever. Visit Mount Everest, Bhutan, Greenland, North Macedonia, Israel and more…

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Zimbabwe’s Mining Ban: A Potential Empty Promise?

The government of Zimbabwe now bans mining in its national parks, but environmentalists argue that the prohibition is hardly adequate. 

An elephant at a watering hole in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park. BARMCD. CC BY-NC 2.0.

After mounting pressure from conservationists, Zimbabwe’s government has declared a mining ban in the country’s national parks. Reports have circulated that Chinese companies are scouting out coal mining sites in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe’s largest national reserve. The park stretches over nearly 6,000 square miles and is home to about 50,000 of Zimbabwe’s estimated 86,000 elephants. Extensive conservation projects are conducted in the region to preserve its plethora of wildlife species, but the call to protect the elephant population has drawn the most intense focus.

The government’s new ban is the result of a case brought to the country’s High Court by the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association. The group argues that mining would destabilize the park’s biodiversity while injuring the fragile ecotourism sector. This case was first brought to the High Court after officials of Afrochine Energy and Zimbabwe Zhongxin Coal Mining Group were arrested for conducting illegal mining projects only to be released with special permission by Zimbabwe’s President. Outrage immediately ensued, and conservationists rode the wave of anger to action. 

The immense pressure on the government to implement change follows months of anger by environmentalists claiming that Chinese mining companies have already caused catastrophic damage in other regions of Zimbabwe. Environmentalists explain that the companies dump toxic waste, clogging precious dams and resulting in substantial drops in local wildlife populations. Locals also resent the presence of Chinese mining companies due to diminishing livestock populations and disrupted irrigation routes. 

Environmental groups also argue that mining will perpetuate the drought and overcrowding problems that have already killed hundreds of elephants. Local residents deal with regular poaching disputes and rely heavily on income from ecotourism; so, many fear that failure to hold off Chinese mining companies could cause  economic damage and increased levels of conflict. Furthermore, many Zimbabweans believe that mining in Hwange is only one piece of the bigger picture. Gold and diamond mining sites pepper other parts of the nation, causing equal degrees of environmental destruction to the over 1,000 species of animals that roam the country.

Tusks removed from a poached elephant. Sokwanele. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

For now, it seems that the government of Zimbabwe has yielded to the demands of conservation groups, but environmentalists appear far from satisfied. The government says that it is canceling current mining titles, but conservationists are doubtful that this is enough. Shamiso Mtisi, deputy director of the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association, states that the group is demanding an interdict, which is a legally binding prohibition. Pressure on the government to act quickly increased significantly in the past week as 11 young elephants died due to an unknown bacterial infection. Investigations are now proceeding to determine the cause of the elephants’ deaths, and whether poisoning may be linked to nearby mining activity. 

Although the High Court’s verdict is already known, but whether or not Zimbabwe’s government will take the necessary steps to save the country’s natural and economic resources remains a mystery.

Ella Nguyen

is an undergraduate student at Vassar College pursuing a degree in Hispanic Studies. She wants to assist in the field of immigration law and hopes to utilize Spanish in her future projects. In her free time she enjoys cooking, writing poetry, and learning about cosmetics.

Zimbabwe’s All Women Anti-Poaching Unit

Conservation becomes a community enriching project.

Photo of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park by Christine Donaldson on Unsplash.

The unit is called Akashinga, Shona for The Brave Ones, and it could not be more aptly named.

Founded by Damien Mander, an Austrailian former special forces soldier, Akashinga is a part of the International Anti-Poaching Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to preserving the Phundundu Wildlife Area. 

Phundundu is a 115-square-mile area in the Zambezi Valley ecosystem which is home to 11,000 elephants and other endangered wildlife. In the past 20 years, frequent poaching has taken its toll on the reserve, resulting in the loss of thousands of elephants. While killing wildlife without a permit is illegal, animal trophies such as bones, tusks, and teeth can be sold on the black market for an amount equivalent to a month’s salary.

According to Akashinga’s website, anti-poaching initiatives often close off “traditional grazing areas, places of burial, worship, water points, food sources and traditional medicine,” making communities feel that endangered plants and animals are more important than their humanity. This resentment can fuel poaching attempts for which offenders can be arrested and sometimes killed. These experiences then reinforce the idea that endangered flora and fauna are of greater importance than the community, creating a cycle of resentment and violence.

To address this phenomenon, Akashinga takes a community-first approach to conservation. By recruiting women from the communities surrounding the Phundundu to serve on the unit, the organization is able to use conservation initiatives to enrich communities. Akashinga’s website describes the effort as having a “community-driven interpersonal focus, working with rather than against the local population for the long-term benefits of their own communities and nature.” To this end, 62% of operational costs are returned to local communities.

In this light, it is significant that the unit is made up entirely of women. According to National Geographic, research shows that in developing countries, women invest 90% of their income in their families, while men only invest 35%. Women are at the grassroots of community life, and when their wages are invested in their families, the entire community proffits.

But this is not the only reason that women are so right for the job. Mander had formerly trained male rangers for years before changing to an all-female model. He said that women are far better rangers; they are less likely to take bribes from poachers, and are skilled at de-escalating high tension situations. In National Geographic he commented that a gun in the hands of a man is a toy, but with a woman it is a tool.

Women also prove to be more resilient. Only three women quit the army-style training necessary to become part of the unit. When Mander was training men, all but three recruits quit after the first day. In National Geographic Mander said that, “we thought we were putting [the women] through hell, but it turns out, they’ve already been through it.”

This resilience is not without cause. Many of the women of Akashinga are victims of abuse, and have experienced their own trauma and exploitation. The BBC writes that Kelly Lyee Chgumbura, a unit member, was raped at seventeen and forced to drop out of school, abandoning her dream of becoming a nurse. She then had to give her baby to her rapist's mother, in accordance with Shona norms where if a mother is unable to provide for her child, the father’s parents become its guardians.

“My goals had been shattered,” she told the BBC, “It was like I couldn’t do anything more with my life.” A few years later, Chgumbura was recruited by her village head to try out for a ranger position. She was selected for the unit, and with a steady career now has a chance to win back custody of her daughter.

Being a ranger provides a sense of purpose as well as an income. “When I manage to stop poachers, I feel accomplished,” Chgumbura told the BBC, “I want to spend my whole life here on this job, arresting poachers and protecting animals.”

Like Chgumbura, most of the unit have faced traumatic experiences and lacked the agency and resources to protect themselves. “Who better to task with protecting exploited animals,” Mander told National Geographic, “than women who had suffered from exploitation?”

Phundundu is the first reserve worldwide to be managed entirely by women, but it will not be the only one for long. According to its website, Akashinga plans to welcome 1,000 new recruits who will protect 20 reserves. They aim to accomplish this by 2025. 






EMMA BRUCE is an undergraduate student studying English and marketing at Emerson College in Boston. While not writing she explores the nearest museums, reads poetry, and takes classes at her local dance studio. She is passionate about sustainable travel and can't wait to see where life will take her. 



See How It Feels to Be an Ocean Animal Stuck in a Plastic Bag

Imagine being trapped inside a huge plastic bag. Each year, more than a million marine creatures and other birds and animals die from plastic trash. In the week leading up to World Oceans Day 2016, National Geographic took to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., with a plastic bag large enough to bring this issue to life at a human scale.

Imagine being trapped inside a huge plastic bag. Each year, more than a million marine creatures and other birds and animals die from plastic trash.