Ethnobotanical Study of Lashio District’s Medicinal Plants and Herbs, and their Daily Uses

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Ethnobotanical Study of Lashio District’s Medicinal Plants and Herbs, and their Daily Uses

By Dr. Mar Mar Aye, MK31 Fellow

Traditionally, local communities throughout Myanmar have extensively relied on plants for medicinal and health purposes. In today’s world, this traditional herbal approach to medicine still occupies a central role within many rural communities, given the clear lack of transport and health infrastructure in the region, as well as the remoteness of the villages.

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Co-producing Research Along the Nam Kong River

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Co-producing Research Along the Nam Kong River

By Kim, MK31 Fellow

In Myanmar, my whiteness, my gender, and my language flag me as an outsider and in the Shan state they are my anti-passport, preventing me from traveling to the brown-zoned countryside. I set out this past summer wanting to investigate how this contestation of natural resource use along the Salween river effects local communities, but quickly hit barrier after barrier. My hands tied by my identity and my location locked by my foreigner status, I couldn’t figure out how to actually do the research.

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Turning Points in the Life of a Young Social Worker and Researcher Along the Thanlwin River

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Turning Points in the Life of a Young Social Worker and Researcher Along the Thanlwin River

By Nang Shining, MK31 Fellow

In this blog, Nang Shining presents the perspective of a youth researcher who is working with her in her participatory action research-designed fellowship project on women’s engagement and their role in water governance particularly at the proposed Mong Ton hydropower project in Shan State, Myanmar. Nang Shining highlights both some of the initial findings of the field work, and also the lessons learned by the researcher herself.

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Local Voices Still to Be Heard In Wan Hsala Village, Shan State

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Local Voices Still to Be Heard In Wan Hsala Village, Shan State

By Hnin Wut Yee, MK31 Fellow

Wan Hsala is a secluded village along the Wan Hsala Stream housing a little over 30 households with a total population of approximately 100. As one of the small villages along the Salween River in the Eastern Shan state, the majority of its villagers are part of the Shan ethnic minority, while a few are ethnic Lisu and Bamar. Today, these villagers are facing actual and potential negative impacts from a hydropower construction project started about a decade ago. The local villager's limited knowledge of their rights and their lack of participation in the project have caused them to be taken advantage of. It is crucial that a solid framework of national and international standards reinforced with a strict enforcement vehicle is in place before any further project decisions are made.

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