How do we help protect Irrawaddy dolphins?
The Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project uses tourism as a tool for conservation. Our conservation linkages are the following
- We generate income for fishermen and their families, providing incentives to reduce threats to dolphins (electrofishing, drift nets, poisoning).
- We include as many fishermen and their families as possible. Our goal is to continue increasing the number of families benefiting from the project as the number of our visitors increases.
- We include both cooperative fishermen and regular fishermen, as all fishermen are important for dolphin conservation. We also include as many communities as possible.
- We raises awareness about the importance of protecting Myanmar’s Irrawaddy dolphins & the tradition of cooperative fishing, providing information to local people, visitors, and the international community.
- We set aside a portion of our revenue to support dolphin conservation (more information below). Visitors can also donate to support our conservation activities.
- We support village clean ups in an effort to keep the river clean.
What conservation activities does our project support?
The Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project is working to protect dolphins in the Ayeyawaddy Dolphin Protected Area by supporting local fishermen to manage sections of the river to reduce fishing practices that threaten dolphins. The project’s dolphin conservation fund supports the following activities:
- Regular patrols by village patrol teams
- Training for village patrol teams
- Securing river areas for conservation
- Meetings to plan conservation activities in project areas
What's unique about our dolphin conservation concept?
In 2019, the Living Irrawaddy Dolphin Project helped a group of local fishermen to make an agreement with a local fish contractor, who holds the fishing rights to an area of the Ayeyawaddy River, to donate a section of the river roughly 6.5km long where dolphins are frequently found for the sake of dolphin conservation. Our project worked with the community conservation group and local authorities to create rules for community dolphin conservation area that are aimed to reduce the use of drift nets and other fishing practices that are dangerous to dolphins. The rules agreed upon were made with participation by fishermen, village authorities and fishery authorities fashion and have been designed to add to the government regulations already in effect in the Ayeyawaddy Dolphin Protected Area, while empowering fishermen to protect dolphins on their own.