May Saung Oo has done valuable work with this research into the Karen community in Tanintharyi Region, who are negotiating to preserve their customary communal ownership of the lands where they have lived and farmed and fished for centuries, where their livelihoods depend on their conservation of the region’s biodiversity. 

The study examines two ongoing conflicts: with the Myanmar government who claim that in the absence of formal titles Karen lands are “unoccupied”, and hence available for commercial development; and with the government and international environmental agencies, who believe against the evidence that preservation of Tanintharyi’s biodiversity has to be taken out of experienced Karen hands and turned into a project run by international consultants lacking familiarity with the area and its community . 

Similar conflicts are bound to occur elsewhere in Myanmar and this study will provide an invaluable source of information and analysis in such cases.