Myanmar launches first Unesco biosphere reserve

ಜ್ಞಾನಸೆಲೆ

☼ ಜ್ಞಾನಸೆಲೆ GK4KPSC ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯ ಜ್ಞಾನ ☼

Myanmar has launched the country’s first Unesco Biosphere Reserve — Inle Lake in Shan state, opening a new chapter in its commitment to bio-diversity and eco-system conservation.

The 489,721 hectares’ Inle Lake was designated as Myanmar’s first biosphere reserve under Unesco’s Man and the Bioshpere programme in Paris in June this year. It was one of 20 places added at at the Unesco's 27th Man and the Biosphere (MAB) International Coordinating Council (ICC) meeting. 

The UNESCO has worked closely with Myanmar concerned to provide technical assistance for the nomination process of the Inle Lake in collaboration with the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Key facts about Inle Lake:

• Inle Lake is a freshwater lake located in the District of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an elevation of 2,900 feet (880 m)
• The wetland ecosystem of this freshwater lake is home to 267 species of birds, out of which 82 are wetland birds, 43 species of freshwater fishes, otters and turtles. Diverse flora and fauna species are recorded.
• It holds over twenty species of snails and nine species of fish are found nowhere else in the world. Some of these, like the silver-blue scaleless Sawbwa barb, the crossbanded dwarf danio, and the Lake Inle danio, are of minor commercial importance for the aquarium trade.
• The lake gets funding from the government of Norway under the framework of the Inle Lake Conservation and Rehabilitation project.