In 1981 the Government of Burma, conscious that it should be doing more to conserve its natural resources, invited the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Development Programme of the United Nations to assist in a project to identify areas suitable for national parks and reserves. The Minister of Agriculture and Forests has already decided to establish one of the proposed parks, Alaungdaw Kathapa, and it is hoped that the rest will follow. The author was in charge of the project for its three-year duration.