SuTraMy - Sustainability within the context of socio-economic transformation in Myanmar

Mittelgeber: DAAD – Programm: Partnerschaften mit Hochschulen in Entwicklungsländern

Laufzeit: 2017-2021

Leitung: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Steingrube

Bearbeitung:  Dr. Kristin Ramthun

Kooperationspartner:

  • University of Forestry and Environmental Science - Yezin, Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar
  • Department of Geography - University of Yangon, Yangon, Myanmar

Projektbeschreibung
The main target of University Greifswald will be to improve these sustainable developments within the project „Sustainability within the context of socio-economic transformation in Myanmar“ by conducting interdisciplinary workshop modules and by doing so improving the already existing teaching curricula.

The main topics will be the following ones:

  1. Transformation to sustainability; chances and restrictions for a sustainable social, ecological and economic development
  2. Strategies dealing with protection of natural resources and biodiversity (e.g. sustainable land use), conflicting use within protected areas (e.g. participatory approaches), adaptation to climate change (e.g water resource management)
  3. Scientific concepts and indicator systems to rate sustainable developments (e.g. definitions, concepts like the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, TEEB - The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity,  „Green Growth“ shall be discussed as forms of environmentally friendly economic development)
  4. Sustainable tourism concepts for different landscapes shall be introduced (e.g. indicators for environmentally sustainable tourism, tourism in protected areas and tourism within ethnic minority groups)

Especially universities can support changes (on local, regional, national and even global level) within societies and focus on ecological or social innovation, because they are not directly linked to economy. Universities can support these sustainable changes by adding certain topics into their curricula and by cooperating with other stakeholders, e.g. from the fields of nature protection or tourism.  The main input of the project is to conduct intensive five-day workshops for multipliers:  each year about four workshops (2017 to 2020). These workshops will consist of four modules covering a wide range of themes related to nature protection and sustainable development; namely:

  • Project and Conflict Management in Protected Areas
  • Tourism and Sustainability
  • Sustainable Regional Development
  • Economic Impacts and Potentials of Protected Areas