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| Satellite imagery courtesy of Terrametrics, Inc. |
Introduction to Myanmar (Burma)
Myanmar,
also known as Burma, lies in northwestern portion of southeast Asia and
is bordered by the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh and India to the west, by
China to the north and northeast, by Lao Peoples' Democratic Republic
and Thailand to the east, and the Andaman Sea to the south. It extends
from its northern border with China encompassing the highest peak in southeast
Asia, Hkakabo Razi, to its extreme southern tip at the Isthmus of Kra.
The dominant topographical features are the
central lowland basin of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawady) drainage and the peripheral
mountain ranges that encircle Myanmar, formed by the faulted and folded
Indo-Burman Range to the west, the uplifted Sino-Burman Range to the east
and the Sino-Himalayan of the Eastern Himalayas to the far north. These
three major geologic features form an inverted horseshoe-shaped barrier,
walling off the Ayeyarwady plains from neighboring countries and monsoons
from the Bay of Bengal. The resulting rain-shadow effect produces an arid
zone in the central Ayeyarwady plains.
The diversity of habitats and collusion of
the three major geologic features is reflected in the high number of ecoregions,
or biogeographic units, as identified by Olson and Dinerstein (2001).
Myanmar encompasses twenty ecoregions of the Indo-Malayan and Paleartic
global realms— making Myanmar one of the most diverse nations in southeast
Asia.
Between the two extremes of the northern
border with China and the easternmost Himalayas, and the southern border
on the edge of the Andaman Sea lies over 676,000 square kilometers of
diverse habitats, including:
Myanmar resides in two of Conservation
International's Biodiversity hotspots, and is comprised of twenty
of World
Wildlife Fund's Global 200 critical ecoregions.
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