Abstract

• The Inle Lake is one of the most prominent landmarks in Shan State. It is very important to the living organisms. Human activities have led to degradation and loss of lake ecosystems, loss of biological diversity and climate change. This paper aims to protect the Inle Lake’s ecosystem legally, to get the benefits from the lake’s resources and to explore the adequacy of the current legal provisions on conservation of the Inle Lake. This study utilized the qualitative interview questionnaires conducted with 30 respondents living in the Inle Lake. Among them, fifteen persons said that the main problem of Inle Lake’s loss and degradation are extremely disposing the garbage and sewages. Moreover, five persons said that the Lake is facing gardens and ten persons said that it is degradation by deforestation in the catchment areas. While there are more than 90 volunteer groups dedicated to preserving the Inle Lake, only three groups are working effectively. The key findings include a lack of awareness about the Inle Lake conservation, lack of wise use of lake resources and lack of funding. Degradation of the Inle Lake ecosystem poses a big challenge for their local community. Despite their awareness about the degradation of the lake’s ecosystem, they lack knowledge about how to conserve and maintain it. In order to address this issue, the Inle Lake Conservation Law was enacted in 2019, but this law deals only with the Inle Lake. The National Wetland Policy was enacted in 2019. There are many important wetlands, such as the Inle Lake in Myanmar. Therefore, a specific law for all the areas of wetlands should be enacted in Myanmar.