How the people of Myanmar live with climate change and what communication can do

How do people in Myanmar live with climate change now? How will its impacts shape people’s future, and how will they, in turn, shape their environment? What are the most effective ways to support people to adapt to climate change, and how best can the media, governments, organisations and businesses communicate with them around this issue?

These are some of the questions that BBC Media Action’s regional research and communication project Climate Asia attempts to answer. In 2012 BBC Media Action conducted a large-scale study of people’s everyday experience of climate change, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). The project surveyed 33,500 people across seven Asian countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and Vietnam.

In 2015, as part of the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters (BRACED) project also funded by DFID, BBC Media Action carried out a similar survey with people in Myanmar. Researchers interviewed 3,000 people between July and September 2015 in five geographic zones in Myanmar: Coastal, Delta, Dry, Hilly and Plain.

Using findings from the quantitative study, BBC Media Action has built a nationally representative picture of how people in Myanmar live and deal with changes in the weather and environment. Understanding a number of key topics is essential for creating communication that motivates people to take action. These include people’s concerns in life, their perception of changes in the climate, ways of adapting to these changes, preparations for extreme weather events, media access and the most trusted sources on issues relating to changes in the weather and environment.