The Robustness of Common-Pool Resource Governance in the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar Wetland, Myanmar under Pre- and Post-Political Crisis Conditions

Abstract

This study examines the role of communities, local institutions, conservation organizations and government agencies in the governance of large-scale common-pool resources (CPR) at the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar wetland, Myanmar before and one year after the 2021 coup d’état. The research employed a mixed method approach in two villages in the GOM on common alluvial land, waterbirds, and fisheries CPRs. The robustness of CPR governance is evaluated with Ostrom’s eight design principles. We found that pre-coup the formation of local user associations, livelihood incentive strategies, and co-management approaches were increasingly effective to conserve fisheries and waterbirds CPRs, while land conflicts over new common alluvial land persisted. One year following the coup, offshore fisheries especially faced challenges from illegal practices by outsiders, due to significantly weakened co-management practices and accountability of local authorities and large-scale commercial fishers to the fishing communities.

Keywords:

• Alluvial common land
• common-pool resources
• fisheries
• Myanmar coup d’état
• Ostrom’s design principles
• pandemic
• Ramsar Wetland
• robustness
• waterbirds

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to all our interviewees for providing their valuable insights for this research.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Private farmland has no specific land use issues. More than 75% of farming households have legal land use right certificates. 82% of interviewees responded that farmland tenure is very secure.

2 Known as ‘Pyithusit’ in Burmese language, these militia are aligned with Myanmar’s military.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the 90th Anniversary of Chulalongkorn University Scholarship under the Ratchadapisek Somphot Endowment Fund Batch 52.