“The Irrawaddy River and its tributaries flow into the Andaman Sea through the Irrawaddy Delta. This ecoregion consists of mangroves and freshwater swamp forests. It is an extremely fertile area because of the river-borne silt deposited in the delta. The upper and central portions of the delta are almost entirely under cultivation, principally for rice.”
“In the late 19th century, the spot-billed pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) nested in huge numbers in south Myanmar. One colony on the Sittaung River plain to the east of the delta was described in November 1877 as covering 300 square kilometres and containing millions of birds. Immense colonies still bred in the area in 1910, but the birds had disappeared completely by 1939. As of 2010, no pelicans have been recorded.”
“As early as the 6th century, the Bamars were using the Irrawaddy to gain power in the region through trade and transport on the China – India route. By the 12th century, a well-developed network of canals made for flourishing rice cultivation. Later, British set up trading ports along its shores. Today, the Irrawaddy is still the country's most important commercial waterway.”
The Irrawaddy Delta begins about 93 kilometres above Hinthada and about 290 kilometres from its curved base, which faces the Andaman Sea. The westernmost distributary of the delta is the Pathein River, while the easternmost stream is the Yangon River, on the left bank of which stands Myanmar’s former capital city, Yangon. Because the Yangon River is only a minor channel, the flow of water is insufficient to prevent Yangon Harbour from silting up, and dredging is necessary.
In 2008, it was estimated that the Irrawaddy ecoregion is home to 119–195 endemic species of fish found nowhere else in the world. Several new species of fish have been described from the Irrawaddy river basin in recent years (the cyprinid Danio htamanthinus in 2016 and the stone loach Malihkaia aligera in 2017), and it is likely that undescribed species remain. Among the most well-known species in the river is the Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris), a euryhaline species of oceanic dolphin with a high and rounded forehead, lacking a beak.
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Opportunity for Communers to participate in community driven ecological conservation and restoration projects in Irrawaddy Delta region.
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