Resource information
... Myanmar is a predominantly agricultural country in Mekong River Basin, also known as Burma, the second largest country in mainland South-East Asia, known as the ‘‘Asia’s Barn’’ in the past years, once the world’s largest exporter of rice. Myanmar is a resource-rich country that has abundant arable land, timber, mineral resources, natural gas and oil, which made it one of the best developing countries in South-East Asia until the early 1960s. Myanmar’s total area is 676 578 km2. Forest area is 317 730 km2, 48.32% of land area; other wooded land accounts for 30.59% of land area; other land accounts for 21.09% of land area, and inland water area is 19 030 km2 (FAO, 2010). Extensive changes in altitude and latitude produced a seemingly unparalleled abundance of habitats and species. Myanmar occupied completely or partially nine of the Global 200 Eco-regions (Olson and Dinerstein, 2002). Indo-Burma includes most of Myanmar is described as one of the eight hottest biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al., 2000). There is no doubt that Myanmar has an unmatched level of biological diversity. Myanmar has 7000 plant species, has 1027 known bird species, 4 of which are endemic, and 19 others are restricted range birds. Myanmar is also home to 300 known species of mammals, 425 reptile and amphibian species, and 350 freshwater fish, especially the endangered species such as the one-horned rhinoceros, the Irrawaddy Dolphin and the Gurney’s Pitta (BEWG, 2011)...
