A LOCAL non-government organisation plans to set up “biodiversity nurseries” in 10 villages in Magway Division’s Pauk township, one of the project’s organisers said last week. The nurseries will be used to grow native plants to help reforest degraded ecosystems in the township, said U Aung Myint, general secretary of the Renewable Energy Association of Myanmar (REAM).

REAM is now accepting applications from villages interested in hosting a nursery. The primary requirement is a reliable water supply, U Aung Myint, REAM’s general secretary, said.

REAM will implement the project using funding supplied by a German NGO, he added.

“They can choose the nursery site themselves, it can be in a house compound, school campus or beside the streets or near a farm, wherever – they can choose. The important thing is having a water supply,” U Aung Myint said. “After we set up the nursery, it belongs to the villagers.”

REAM will supply the seedlings free of charge, he said.

In October 2009, the association set up a research nursery in Pauk township that will eventually supply plants for each of the 10 biodiversity nurseries.

The Pauk nursery propagates 19 species suitable for Magway Division ecosystems, including lat htoke kyi, lone (Buchanania latifolia), yinmar, thee (Feronia elephantum), saung chan (Osyris arborea), phan khar (Terminalia chebula), zee phyu (Emblica officinalis), sandaku (Santalum album) and htauk kyant (Terminalia tomentosa), he said.