"Myanmar’s natural assets – including its forests, soils and coastal waters and the biodiversity they embody – makes up its natural capital, providing critical benefits to the Myanmar people, helping to protect them against natural hazards and ensuring reliable sources of clean water for drinking and irrigation as well as opportunities for ecotourism. Myanmar’s natural capital is also the source of other tangible and intangible benefits that support human well-being and underpin economic development. To secure those benefits, we need to understand which areas and ecosystems best serve the people and infrastructure dependent upon them, as well as how these benefits can be protected or enhanced in the face of climate change. The assessment presented in this report shows where and how Myanmar’s natural capital contributes to clean and reliable drinking water sources, reduced risks from floods inland and storms along the coasts, and to maintaining the functioning of reservoirs and dams by preventing erosion. The results highlight areas that provide high levels of ecosystem services, where natural capital provides the greatest benefits to people and infrastructure. This initial assessment has focused on identifying important ecosystem service provisioning areas that benefit the greatest number of people at a national scale, emphasizing benefits to cities and other large population centres. Benefits to rural populations and to vulnerable subgroups are critical as well, and they should be considered in greater detail as a next step. In addition, many of these areas important for ecosystem services provision coincide with areas important for biodiversity conservation. The effective management of these areas of synergy can help guarantee benefits to Myanmar’s people, infrastructure and wildlife not just now, but for decades to come. Securing natural capital is especially important in the face of climate change. As rainfall becomes increasingly variable and extreme events like heavy storms and droughts more frequent and intense, the role of forests in protecting rivers and streams from sediment will become more central in maintaining the quality of drinking water and improving the functioning of reservoirs and dams. The value of other ecosystem services will also become more apparent. Importantly, although climate change might make these services more valuable, the locations of hotspots areas important for ecosystem service provision are not expected to change over the next several decades for the services assessed here, so that protecting these areas would provide long-term benefits. While conservation of existing natural capital alone cannot eliminate the impacts of climate change, protecting and enhancing natural capital benefits is a critical component of climate change adaptation. Incorporating natural capital information into planning and development processes can ensure that its benefits are put to work in the service of the people and for the prosperity of the economy. Natural capital assessments can support planning and development across and within key sectors, including energy, transport, agriculture, and health, while strengthening climate resilience and promoting adaptation planning. The natural capital assessment provided here can support development and management decisions that launch Myanmar on a more sustainable and inclusive path toward economic development..."