Problem overview:

     Awareness and visions: Myanmar faces environmental problems arising from underdevelopment and poverty. It has some problems of deforestation, loss of biological resources, land degradation due to wind and water erosion, urbanization and waste management. In its recent moves towards establishing sound environmental management system, the NCEA, in collaboration with UN organizations, drafted Myanmar Agenda 21, which contains programmes and activities that will promote environmental protection and prevent environmental degradation.

     Framework for coordination: The National Commission for Environmental Affairs (NCEA) was created in order to coordinate for environmental affairs and promote sustainable development.

     Policies and measures: As one of the measures to integrate environmental consideration into economic policy making, Myanmar has drafted the Myanmar Agenda 21.

Background in summary:

     Introduction: Myanmar is the western-most country in Southeast Asia. It is a part of monsoon Asia with pronounced wet and dry season. Estimated population in 2000/2001 is 50.13 million with 2.02 percent growth over the preceding year. The country adopted the market oriented economic system in the year 1988 after adopting the centralized planning economic system for more than two decades. The government has been formulating and implementing national development plans to attain the all round development of the national economy in accordance with the economic objectives.

     Agriculture (including livestock, fishery and forestry) is the dominant sector of Myanmar's economy, providing about 60% of GDP, about 66% of employment, and contributes more than 60% of export earnings.

     With the population growth, agricultural activities, industrial activities including mining operations, the country face various environmental issues such as deforestation, pollution stemming from disposal of sewage and industrial wastes, depletion of ground water resources due to over exploitation.

     Environmental management and planning: The environmental management pattern in Myanmar is largely sectoral with existing policies and regulations relating to environmental management being formulated and administered by sectoral ministries concerned. At present, there are 56 legal instruments in Myanmar that can be termed as environmental. However, some of them were enacted before regaining independence and they were prevention-oriented with less emphasis on conservation and sustainable use. But, the more recent policies and laws enacted by a number of ministries constitute many elements or provisions that are directly related with environmental conservation and protection.

     The National Commission for Environmental Affairs: With the introduction of market-oriented economic policy in the late 1988, the industries and economic activities were no longer the sole preserve of the state. The new institution demanded the need for a central institution to ensure environmentally sound practices in industry and in other economic activities. In response to this need, the Government has already formed the National Commission for Environmental Affairs (NCEA) in February 1990, with a view to act as focal point and as coordinating body for environment affairs and to promote environmentally sound and sustainable development.

     Myanmar Agenda 21: In its recent moves towards establishing sound environmental management system, the NCEA took the initiatives and drafted Myanmar Agenda 21 in collaboration with UN organizations. After three years of hard work and coordination among various ministries concerned and several national workshop and seminars, Myanmar Agenda 21 came out with full endorsement from the Government. Myanmar Agenda 21 contains programmes and activities that will promote environmental protection and prevent environmental degradation. These programmes are social, economic, institutional and infrastructural strengthening programmes as well as environmental protection and conservation programmes that will put the country onto the sustainable development path.

     Conclusion: The environmental awareness is gradually rising. Presently, there is only a partial integration of environment into development, mainly in the form of natural resources conservation projects carried out by the sectoral ministries and departments. The main constraint with integration of environment into development at the moment is the institutional factor. However, with the institutional setting such as the formation of NCEA and adoption of Myanmar Agenda 21, full integration of environmental consideration into the national economic development will come into exist in the near future with realizing the general guiding principle of sustainable development adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development - that is, current generations.

See also: Agenda 21 Vision for Indonesian Environment

Peer Review Committee Good practice rating: (1 for the best, 5 for the lowest score)
Sustainability		Efficiency
2	Improvement in either the environment of economic condition with no harm to the other.	-	Cost efficient.
-	Sustainable over time (not one-off)	Process
Adaptability		3	Participation of the community
2	Location adaptability (can the project be done in other places?)	3	Participation of resource owners/users
2	Socio-cultural adaptability.	2	Partnerships between various actors (Governments, NGO, Academia, Private)
3	Level of development adaptability.	2	Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments.
3	Style of government adaptability.	2	Ability to attract political interest/support
2	Degree of decentralization adaptability.	-	Procedures for feedback and review.
Comments on this example:      There are various responses in implementing Agenda 21.Myanmar responded to the Agenda 21 by drafting the environmental protection law. In the Philippines, for example, areas of priorities are identified in the Agenda 21 and got assistance from the academics for reviewing the program. Sustainability of the project:      Experiences in many countries shows that failure to implement Agenda 21 stems from the lack of funding and technical expertise. There are also the problems in translating theory or the concepts of sustainable development identified in the Agenda into practice. Adaptability of the project to other situations:      Level of Development and Style of Government Adaptability: Many countries have drafted their National Agenda 21s that may be conceptually ideal but very difficult to implement. That is because each country has their own limitation such as financial, time, economic and development constraints, reflecting the difficulties of translating the long term goals into action. Process of decision making and implementation:      Degree of coordination and cooperation between government departments: One of the difficulties that the coming WSSD may also face is the representation. In most of such international conferences on sustainable development issues, representatives are normally from Environment Ministries who do not have authorities to make decision on trade issues nor industrial policies. Thus foregoing the opportunities for coordination between developing and developed countries as no consensus has been made. Cost efficiency: