From 12–14 December, 2016, the Yunnan Department of Forestry, Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) and Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (MONREC) jointly organized a “Workshop on Opportunities for Transboundary Collaboration for Conservation and Development along the Northern Section of China-Myanmar Border”. The objectives of the workshop were to explore opportunities and identify priority areas for transboundary collaboration for conservation and development along the northern part of the China-Myanmar border that includes Kachin State of Myanmar and the Baoshan and Nujiang Prefectures of Yunnan Province of China.

In the declaration signed at the end of the workshop, the participating institutions emphasized that cross-border collaboration between different levels and sectors of China and Myanmar is critically needed in the transboundary landscape and that it is important for both countries to work out policies and measures to encourage and facilitate local and regional level collaborations and communication. It was also agreed that a working group, with representative members from all sides, would be formed to prepare a proposal for a programme to promote the collaboration in the above-areas.

Under this context, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) will collaborate with Forest Department, MONREC to organize a regional workshop in Nay Pyi Taw of Myanmar from 7–9 February 2018 for partners from India, Myanmar, and China. This is to discuss the ways to strengthen bilateral (especially between Myanmar and India since Myanmar and China already have already had a bilateral meeting) and regional cooperation to strengthen the Hkakaborazi Landscape’s position in its World Heritage Site (WHS) bidding. This occasion will also be used to finalize planning for 2018.

The overall objective of this workshop is to develop concrete regional technical collaborations between three countries, including bilateral collaborations. The outcomes of this meeting will feed into long-term HI-LIFE programme development, strengthen Myanmar-China consensus (reached during the 2016 Kunming Workshop) and Myanmar-India technical cooperation, and support the preparation of the World Heritage Nomination Dossier for the Hkakabo Razi Landscape. The specific objectives of this workshop are:

• Identify specific areas for transboundary technical cooperation in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development at the regional and bilateral levels.
• Inform national partners of HI-LIFE about ICIMOD’s next medium term action plan (MTAP IV) and strengthen partnership for MTAP IV implementation within HI-LIFE.
• To concretize regional technical collaboration to support the nomination of the Hkakaborazi Landscape as a WHS.
• To discuss activities for HI-LIFE 2018.

The expected outputs are:

• Identified areas for technical collaboration.
• Identified collaborative and partnership mechanisms for implementing collaboration in identified areas.
• Partnership agreement for HI-LIFE implementation in 2018.