Salween Peace Park is being developed in the territory of the Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU is an armed revolutionary organization formed to defend Karen lands and communities from Burmese military attacks. However, the KNU is much more than an army. It is an Indigenous administration that includes health, education, lands, forests, and natural resources.
| Creation date | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Land Use, Rights |
| Context | Rural |
| Number of participants | 70000 |
| Typology | Community Organizing |
| Languages | Burmese |
| Thematics | Radical Democracy |
The SPP is a community-led initiative that strives to empower local Indigenous communities to revitalize their traditional practices, assert their rights, and manage their own natural resources. The Salween Peace Park initiative is a collective effort involving over 300 representatives from 23 village tracts in the 3 townships of Mutraw District; the Mutraw District’s Forestry Department; and one of Myanmar’s leading environmental organizations, the Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN). Through the collaboration between local people, and revitalization of Indigenous conservation practices, the people of the SPP have established wildlife sanctuaries, forest reserves, community forests and demarcated Kaw customary land. The SPP is the embodiment of a vision that an alternative to top-down, militarized, destructive ‘development’ is possible.
Salween Peace Park is being developed in the territory of the Karen National Union (KNU). The KNU is an armed revolutionary organization formed to defend Karen lands and communities from Burmese military attacks. However, the KNU is much more than an army. It is an Indigenous administration that includes health, education, lands, forests, and natural resources.
The Salween Peace Park was formally established in December 2018 by the KNU, local communities, and Karen civil society. To date, there has been no formal engagement with the Burmese state, which remains hostile to Karen aspirations.