Amid the coastal wetlands of Myanmar, villagers stand ankle-deep in sticky mud, relentlessly digging holes to plant the mangrove saplings they have nurtured for months. This scene has become a familiar sight in Bogale town, where local communities are at the forefront of restoring the once-dwindling mangrove forest in Meinmahla Kyun Wildlife Sanctuary (MKWS)—a Ramsar site and one of Myanmar’s ASEAN Heritage Parks (AHPs) supported by the Small Grants Programme (SGP) of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity.
Thirty-four-year-old Megawati, a community worker based in Wangi-wangi Island in Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, joined the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity’s Effectively Managing Networks of Marine Protected Areas in Large Marine Ecosystems in the ASEAN Region (ENMAPS) Programme in 2025 at the start of its five-year implementation. Megawati is a perfect fit, having been born and raised on the island renowned for its seascapes and coral ecosystems that span more than 90,000 hectares and sustain dense marine life. A mother of one, a school mentor, national park trainer, and vendor, Megawati now applies her breadth of experience to serve as an ENMAPS Programme enumerator, which involves interviewing fishermen from the Bajo tribe.
With a population of over 700 million and one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, the ASEAN region is undeniably a rising powerhouse. Unfortunately, few realise that this progress is built on the region’s extraordinary biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides—resources that are currently threatened by the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
This edition turns to ASEAN’s relationship with the natural world, tracing the region’s biodiversity journey and the shared responsibility to protect it amid mounting environmental pressure.
