CONSERVING the environment is her passion, so it is appropriate that her name means ‘green’. And after several years of promoting environmental conservation, she has received a sweet reward for her efforts.

Daw Sane Sane was both surprised and delighted when told she had won first prize in the coveted Pakukku U Ohn Pe Literary Awards in the research category, which she received on February 5.

Daw Sane Sane said the prize brought a special satisfaction because it was for Sane The Myay (Green Land), her first book about environmental conservation.

As a first prize winner, the book will be published by the Sarpay Beikman book store, operated by the Ministry of Information.

“It’s a great feeling to know that the public will be able to buy my book. It was impossible to publish it myself as many publishing houses are not interested in books about the environment,” she said.

Daw Sane Sane, who writes and translates articles for journals and magazines as well as for the Renewable Energy Association Myanmar, a non-government organisation formed in 1992 of which she both an executive director and full-time public educator.

Her work for the association provided the impetus for the book, which she began writing in early 2000. Sane The Myay, of 145 pages and 18 chapters, was completed last year.

The title refers to Myanmar, which is rich with natural resources, she said.

Daw Sane Sane said she received constant encouragement and support from family and friends while writing the book, especially from her husband, U Aung Myint, a marine biologist and environmentalist.

Her biggest challenge when working on the book was finding the time to write.

She has three school-age children, does the housework and there’s also her work for the association.

“I often write late at night, after the rest of the family has gone to bed. I slept only a few hours a night while I was working on the book; it’s one reason I’m so thin,” Daw Sane Sane said with a smile.

Many of the ideas for the book came from visits to rural communities with the association and from reading foreign publications about environmental issues.

A feature of the book is the poems and mottoes included in every chapter.

“I included them for aesthetic reasons,” Daw Sane Sane said. She also avoided technical terms as much as possible because she felt they would bore readers. “And I also used short sentences which are easy to memorise,” she said.

Her interest in conservation began at an early age when she asked her father about her unusual name.

“He said he wanted my name to evoke feelings of being fresh and cool,” she said.

“My father believed that the sight of naturally green surroundings was soothing to the eye.”

Born in Yangon in 1954, Daw Sane Sane completed high school in Mandalay.

She studied Botany at Yangon University for two years before enrolling in a Marine Biology degree course at Mawlamyine College, from which she graduated in 1975.

Daw Sane Sane plans to continue writing and translating articles on environmental issues for the sake of educating the public, especially those in rural areas.

Although rural people comprise about 70 per cent of the population they have little knowledge about environmental issues, she said.

“Rural people are the most important group in society when it comes to conserving the environment,” Daw Sane Sane said.

“I want to be a brick in the building of environmental conservation,” she said.