【Myanmar】The 10th anniversary of the Children’s Forest Program in Myanmar

Myanmar’s central arid region where the OISCA Training Center is located, is an area with very harsh environment where the annual rainfall is on average 400 millimeters and in the summer season (March-May), the temperature goes up to 45℃.

There are only few tree species that can grow under these severe conditions, and there is no forest and the area is surrounded by sparse shrubs. But the local residents cut down these sparse shrubs to use as firewood for daily cooking and making bricks, and so the trees have been getting decreasing.

With a sense of crisis that the environment would further deteriorate if no action were taken, OISCA started out in 2001 the Children’s Forest Program at two primary schools located in the villages adjacent to the Training Center.

The first of these schools was Thet Ywar Primary School. In the first year, the program was faced with many difficulties such as domestic animals eating up young trees, poor soil conditions and the problem of well water unsuitable for irrigation.

The experience at that time has been fully utilized in the subsequent activities in other schools. The year 2011 falls on the 10th anniversary of the Children’s Forest Program in Myanmar.

(Thet Ywar Primary School)

Program starting year: 2001 Number of students: 75