Myanmar: Knowledge Vacuum and Conflict Plague Salween River

Mar 14, 2015 | Demelza Black, The Irrawaddy
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Bright sunlight bears down on Saw Nyan Win as he unravels his fishing net with practiced hands on the bank of the Salween river, “I have already identified 16 species of fish existing in this area,” he tells me, “but I need more time to be able to identify many more.”

We are standing on the west bank of the Salween north of Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, in eastern Burma. Saw Nyan Win has fished the river for decades, and now works as a field-researcher for the Karen Environmental Social Action Network (KESAN) identifying which species of fish live and breed in this area.