This presentation by Terry Sunderland from CIFOR focuses on the value of biodiversity in Southeast Asia, what role protected areas play, what the drivers of change are, wildlife trade, food security, the segregation of land use and how multi-functionality can be achieved.

1. Southeast Asia’s Biodiversity,
Post 2015:
What is at stake?
Terry Sunderland, Principal Scientist
Enhancing and Promoting the Real Values of Tropical Biodiversity of Southeast Asia
BIOTROP
October 4th 2013
IPB Convention Centre, Bogor
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy

2. Context
• SE Asia: biodiversity “hot spots”
• Yet has the highest relative rate of
deforestation in the tropics
• Major drivers include illegal logging,
conversion to agriculture, the wildlife trade
etc.
• Future for Asia’s biodiversity look bleak for
many reasons (population growth, changing
demographics)
• Other challenges: achieving food security
• What role for research??
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3. Global biodiversity hot spots
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4. THINKING beyond the canopy

5. people in 2002 [13,72]. In particular, Singapore has transformed itself
from a developing country of squatters and slums to a developed
metropolis of economic prosperity within the past few decades and,
thus, has been widely regarded by the leaders of regional developing
countries as the ideal economic model.
However, the success of Singapore came with a hefty price, paid
for by its biodiversity. The island has suffered massive
already unfolding on a much larger scale in other Southeast
Asian countries, such as Indonesia [73]. Extrapolations based on
the species–area model calibrated to the biodiversity losses in
Singapore indicate that the current rate of habitat destruction in
Southeast Asia will result in the loss of 13–42% of regional
populations of all species by 2100, at least half of which could
represent global species extinctions (Figure I) [3].
Biodiversity under threat
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6. Protected areas?
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7. THINKING beyond the canopy

8. Drivers of change: logging
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9. Drivers of change: agriculture
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10. Oil palm expansion and forest loss
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12. A green desert
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13. Wildlife trade
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14. Food security
• Changing
demographics
• Changing appetites
• How to grow enough
nutritious food for
future populations
without compromising
environmental
outcomes?
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15. Segregation of land use is the norm
Plantation
Agriculture
Forest
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16. Land sparing/sharing within
landscapes
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17. Multi-functionality
• Combination of separate
land units with different
functions (spatial
segregation)
• Different functions on the
same unit of land but
separated in time
(temporal segregation)
• Different functions on the
same unit of land at the
same time (functional
integration or “real multifunctionality)
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18. Landscape assessment for development
• Collecting economic data at
various levels, engaging
most stakeholders
• Spatial data: administrative
boundaries, land cover
change and current land
uses
• “Governance landscape”
including local (traditional)
institutions
• Focus on ecosystem
services and agricultural
productivity and away from
protected areas alone
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20. The role of research
• Biodiversity research in
SE Asia has lagged
behind rest of the tropics
• Distribution of research is
taxonomically biased
(e.g. emphasis on
mammals)
• Integrated research
looking at socioeconomic factors greatly
needed
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21. How are we
doing?
The MDG’s
What hope
for the SDG’s
post-2015??
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22. The environment: more than $$ alone!
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23. The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
is one of the 15 centres supported by the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
THINKING beyond the canopy
THINKING beyond the canopy