Myanmar’s Environment and Climate Change Challenges in the Context of Federal Democracy and Interim Governance

Co-hosted by

the German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance (CPG), Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, the International IDEA, and the Asian Governance Foundation

29 November 2022

14:00 – 16:00 (Bangkok Time)/ 13:30 – 15:30 (Myanmar Time)/ 8:00 – 10:00 (CET)

Room 211 (2^nd floor), Faculty of Law, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus & via Zoom

Background:

Myanmar is rich in natural resources and is a global biodiversity hotspot. Its vast natural wealth has been pivotal to growing the economy and in providing livelihoods and ecosystem services for its people, especially in rural areas. Due to mismanagement, Myanmar has been suffering from the direct and indirect impacts of deterioration of natural resources as well as the effects of climate change such as drought, flooding, changing river flow patterns and so on. Consequently, it affects the lives of the people; migration, vanishing cultural heritages, losing livelihood and social instability etc. Myanmar is also one of the most vulnerable and least resilience countries to climate change.

In the context of the countrywide resistance against the 2021 military coup and the emergence of a new political roadmap towards a constitutional framework, the Federal Democracy Charter (FDC) has created new opportunities to discuss and negotiate constitutional design related to the future democratic federal union of Myanmar. The FDC also lays out principles relating to environmental protection, people-centered natural resource management and rights for substates to manage their own natural resources. Natural resource management and climate change are key issues for Myanmar’s current Interim Government Institutions to consider in the current post-coup situation and for the future.

Given this context, International IDEA’s MyConstitution Programme invites you to an event to present its policy paper on Myanmar’s Environment and Climate Change Challenges in the Context of Federal Democracy and Interim Governance. The policy paper aims to inform Myanmar’s interim democratic institutions: National Unity Government (NUG), Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), and National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC) and other relevent stakeholders of the current challenges on environment, natural resource management and climate change facing Myanmar. It also presents tools, comparative examples, and good practices to tackle environmental challenges that may be adapted to the Myanmar context. It provides key considerations on how a future constitutional framework could gurantee environmental protection, justice and address climate change through international good practices, comparative case studies, policy options and recommendations.

Agenda: