Floating farms choking Inle Lake

Need for nature protection: Men collecting aquatic vegetation for use on their floating farm on Inle Lake in southern Shan State. – AFP

From a gently rocking boat, Nyunt Win tends a floating tomato crop in the cool water of Myanmar’s famed Inle Lake, nestled in the Shan Hills and once the country’s most popular tourist spot.

The floating farms have become as ubiquitous at the Unesco-recognised reserve as its famed houses on stilts and leg-rowing fishermen, but locals warn that the plantations are slowly choking the lake.