Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park is an 1,800-acre climate park located in Ayeyarwady Region of

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

. The park is situated at the delta region of Irrawaddy River at the edge of the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line betwee ...

. The park was named after the Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer,

Thor Heyerdahl Thor Heyerdahl KStJ (; 6 October 1914 – 18 April 2002) was a Norwegian adventurer and ethnographer with a background in zoology, botany and geography. Heyerdahl is notable for his ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition in 1947, in which he sailed 8,000& ...

. It was initiated following the research on

mangrove restoration Mangrove restoration is the regeneration of mangrove forest ecosystems in areas where they have previously existed. The practice of mangrove restoration is grounded in the discipline of restoration ecology, which aims to “ ssistthe recovery of re ...

by th
Worldview International Foundation
(WIF) in 2012 in association with Pathein University, Myeik University and Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Myanmar. The park is designed for mangrove restoration in Myanmar to overcome losses of 1 million Hectares since 1980.

Overview

Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park was started in 2012 by

Arne Fjørtoft Dr. Arne Fjørtoft (born 28 March 1937) is a Norwegian politician, journalist, author, organizational leader, communication specialist and social business inventor. Personal life Fjørtoft was born on 28 March 1937 in Sauda. He is the son of K ...

and Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, Myanmar as a pilot project for large scale mangrove restoration worldwide based on three years research by WIF in co-operation with Pathein University and Myeik University. The park is planned to plant nearly 9 million mangrove trees in three yearly stages between 2015 and 2018. From January 2015 to July 2015, over 400,000 mangrove trees have been planted in the park and 100,000 in the nursery for planting at later stages in 2015. During this period, additional land has been cleared for planting of 1 million mangrove trees in 2016. This will complete planting in 2016 of 2 million trees in the park, with a capacity to mitigate 2 million tons of CO₂ climate gases during 20 years growth period of the trees. During 2017 and 2018, the park is planned to plant the remaining 6 million trees. The project has been supported by

Intercultural Open University Foundation The Intercultural Open University Foundation (IOUF) is an international non-profit charitable organization that provides distance learning courses to master's and PhD students. IOUF offers dual degree programs in association with Universidad Azte ...

, Letten Foundation and other institutions, companies and private individuals.

Tanintharyi Region

An invitation to plant on 5,000 acres around Myeik area in

Tanintharyi Region Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ; ...

is in planning stage of Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry, which is scheduled for a possible start in 2016, with a capacity to mitigate 6 million tons CO₂.

References

{{coord missing, Myanmar Ayeyarwady Region Protected areas of Myanmar