On today’s International Day of Forests, we have good news from Myanmar! An important milestone for our gibbon conservation project in the Arakan Mountains has been reached: the area has officially been designated as the new approx. 40,000 hectare Mann River Wildlife Sanctuary by the Burmese authorities. A big thank you goes to the field team of our local partner Fauna & Flora International for their efforts on site.
Now the term sanctuary must be filled with life, making sure the home of gibbons, hornbills, bears, clouded leopards and countless other species remains permanently protected. The main responsibility for this lies with the local village communities. We support them in this task in many ways:
Gibbon monitoring
Regular recording of populations using bioacoustic methods
Community Patrolling:
Training villagers as rangers to help prevent illegal logging and poaching
The „Gibbon Forest Coffee“ project:
Alternative income for farmers through the distribution of coffee as a sustainable, wildlife-friendly product in Myanmar
Workshops for local farmers:
Micro-entrepreneurship, sustainable coffee farming, coffee bean production, harvesting and processing techniques
Plans are also underway to build sustainable supply chains for export and expand the product range to include other wildlife-friendly products such as black pepper. This will increase product variety and provide financial independence for the families and the project in the long term.
Find out more about the Gibbon Coffee Project:
https://chancesfornature.org/projects-myanmar-gibboncoffee/?lang=en
The Arakan Mountains 
Western Hoolock Gibbon 
Nepal Hornbill 
Asiatic Black Bear 
Farmers at a coffee workshop
