Inle Lake

The Inlay Lake Wildlife Sanctuary was declared in 1985 in Shan State, in eastern Myanmar, to protect the habitat of migratory birds. It extends across the townships of Nyaungshwe, Pinlaung and Pekon, between 830 and 1,270 metres in altitude. In 2003 it was designated an ASEAN Heritage Park, and on 9 June 2015 the Coordinating Council of UNESCO's MAB programme declared it Myanmar's first biosphere reserve, with 489,721 hectares.

Inle is a shallow, alkaline lake of clear water, with an average depth of barely two metres in the dry season. Its wetland ecosystem holds 267 bird species, 82 of them waterbirds, as well as 43 freshwater fish species, otters and turtles, and it is a nesting site for the sarus crane, threatened worldwide. Some 184 orchid species have also been recorded, along with numerous endemic fish found nowhere else.

Its uniqueness is not only natural. The Intha, the dominant ethnic group on the lake, have developed a way of life adapted to the water: they row standing with one leg coiled around the oar to leave their hands free, live in houses on stilts and practise floating-island agriculture, known locally as ye chan, growing tomatoes and vegetables on rafts of vegetation anchored to the bottom. The lake and its catchment provide the population with essential ecosystem services, and they face serious problems of siltation, shrinking water surface and agricultural pollution.