Community-based Western Hoolock Conservation in Pauk Sa Forest, Myanmar

Throughout its range, the Western Hoolock (Hoolock hoolock) gibbon is threatened by habitat conversion for agriculture, infrastructure development causing fragmentation, and in some locations, illegal hunting.

Within the Pauk Sa forest complex, Magwe region of Myanmar, the major threat is shifting cultivation that destroys and degrades forest habitat.

Emerging relationships with the coffee industry and anticipated new legislation (currently being finalized in parliament) will allow for community managed protected areas to receive legal recognition and provide a significant opportunity to meaningfully address the shifting cultivation practices that threaten gibbon habitat.

Project objectives are to: (1) Reduce shifting cultivation through the expansion of coffee agroforestry and improved value chains in collaboration with a private sector partner; (2) Support protected area gazettement based on the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of local stakeholders; and, (3) Monitor forest cover and status of Western Hoolock gibbons in the Pauk Sa forest complex.