Biodiversity in Focus 2010 an Beyond doc

6 Renewing our Efforts to Preserve Biodiversity 7 Message for the International Year of Biodiversity 8 ASEAN launches International Year of Biodiversity 10 International Year of Biod

VOL 9 / NO 1 / JANUARY - APRIL 2010

Photo by Ms Helena Kalsom Binti

Elias (Malaysia), Finalist in the

ASEAN-wide photo contest “Zooming

in on Biodiversity”

The photo shows that the future of

biodiversity is in our hands We will

continue to lose thousands of plant

and animal species unless we take

action now.

6 Renewing our Efforts to Preserve Biodiversity

7 Message for the International Year of Biodiversity

8 ASEAN launches International Year of Biodiversity

10 International Year of Biodiversity events in ASEAN countries

10 IYB 2010 on Facebook, Philippine radio, cable news

11 Search for ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity is on

SPECIAL REPORTS

ASEAN CONFERENCE ON BIODIVERSITY 2009

12 Trends, Issues and Challenges on Biodiversity Conservation in Southeast Asia

15 Biodiversity is key to human development and survival

FACING THE CHALLENGE

20 Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change in Southeast Asia

24 What are the Economic Opportunities from Ecosystems?

28 Biodiversity loss impacts Health

30 Biodiversity Conservation is Everyone’s Business

ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING:

34 Towards Adopting an International Regime 7

51 ACB calls for support for wetland protection

51 ASEAN senior environmental offi cials

discuss ACB directions

52 Manila hosts Coral Triangle business summit

52 New biodiversity conservation targets needed

52 Biofuel crops require tight screening

53 ADB hosts climate investment forum

53 ACB, Myanmar partner to strengthen capacity

on biodiversity info exchange

54 Call for a Billion Acts of Green is on

55 Philippine Eagle gets new home

from world boxing champ Pacquiao

55 Tourism schools hold quiz bee

55 Environment info offi cers plan strategies

on promoting conservation

56 Thai military, police strengthen forest protection training

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

56 Women’s work saves biodiversity

57 ACB launches ‘Friends of Biodiversity’

57 Scientists, govts to meet in Korea

on science-policy interface on biodiversity

58 ACB supports Philippine tourism students’ meet

WORLD WATER DAY 2010

58 Clean water for a healthy world

59 Chicago Field Museum, DENR develop web site on Philippine mammals

60 ASEAN countries strengthen info sharing

ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS

Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf is the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Prior to his pointment to CBD, he served as United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Assistant Executive Director and Director of Division of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in which he raised the profi le of UNEP He has passionately been involved within the UN system and within CBD processes

ap-Dr Rodel D Lasco has over 28 years of experience in natural resources and environmental research, tion, education and development at the national and international levels He is a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the 2007 co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize Dr Lasco is also a member of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in the Philippines He is the Philippine Coordinator of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) since April 2004 Dr Lasco is a multi-awarded scientist with over 80 technical publica- tions in national and international journals dealing with various aspects of natural resources conservation and environmental management

conserva-Ms Hitomi Rankine is an Environmental Affairs Offi cer at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacifi c (ESCAP) based in Bangkok She has 16 years of experience in various aspects of environ- ment and sustainable development, working in both Asia and the Pacifi c and in the Caribbean She is currently managing a project on payments for ecosystem services in Aceh, Indonesia, as an important facet of ESCAP’s work on green growth and investments in natural capital She holds an M Sc Degree in Environmental Management from Sterling University, Scotland, and a fi rst degree in natural sciences

Dr Filiberto A Pollisco, Jr specializes in forest ecology and land management/land use planning; biodiversity conservation in genetic, species and ecosystems levels; and ecotourism He was formerly an Assistant Director/ Supervising Science Research Specialist at the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) where he handled sloping land management, solid waste management, organic agriculture, soil and water conservation, and project development.

Dr Konrad Uebelhöer is the Coordinator of the Programme “Implementing the Biodiversity Convention” of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenabeit (GTZ) GmbH He has an academic and research back- ground in Forest Science and Ecology and 25 years postgraduate consulting experience in natural resources management, biodiversity conservation and environmental policy.

3F ERDB Bldg Forestry Campus

University of the Philippines-Los Baños

College, Laguna, Philippines

Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center

North Avenue, Diliman,

Quezon City 1156

Philippines

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Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed

herein do not necessarily represent

any offi cial views of the European

Union nor the Association of Southeast

Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat The

authors are responsible for any data or

information presented in their articles

* * *

Letters, articles, suggestions and

photos are welcome and should be

6

The fight to stop biodiversity loss is at a

critical moment Species are currently going extinct at up to 1,000 times the natural background rate Sixty per cent of examined ecosystem services worldwide have been degraded

We should be alarmed because humans are not detached from the consequences of this loss Biodiversity is humanity’s source for countless irreplace-able goods and services, including food, lumber, medicine, crop pollination and air and water purification

This is why in 2002 the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity estab-lished the 2010 Biodiversity Target, a com-mitment to significantly slow biodiversity loss worldwide by 2010 The international community quickly rallied around the

2010 Target and incorporated it into the Millennium Development Goals

Nevertheless, preliminary indications show that the target will not be met The impacts of this will be primarily felt by the poor, as natural capital constitutes 26 percent of the total wealth of low-income countries

Moreover, the human costs of versity loss will be exacerbated by climate

biodi-change, which will potentially compound the rate of loss

For this reason, the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity The year 2010 offers an op-portunity to renew our efforts and create

a global alliance of all stakeholders to protect life on Earth

In May, Global Biodiversity Outlook

3 will provide an initial assessment of progress so far and remaining challenges

in achieving the 2010 Target In ber, the 65th session of the UN General Assembly will, for the first time, convene

Septem-a high-level segment on biodiversity with the participation of heads of State and government And in October in Nagoya, Japan, at the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit, the Convention’s Tenth Conference of the Parties, a broad range of stakeholders – including cities and local authorities, youth, indigenous communities, national governments and the private sector — will help finalize our 2011-2020 strategic plan and the 2020 and 2050 biodiversity targets Overall, the International Year of Biodiversity promises to be a true water-shed period in our struggle to preserve biodiversity 

Renewing our efforts

Message for the International

Year of Biodiversity

Over the past half-century,

human activities have caused an

unprecedented decline in biological

diversity Species are going extinct a

thousand times faster than the natural rate

— a loss now being further compounded

by climate change A wide variety of

environmental goods and services that

we take for granted are under threat, with

profound and damaging consequences for

ecosystems, economies and livelihoods

In 2002, world leaders agreed

to substantially reduce the rate of

biodiversity loss by 2010 The 2010

Biodiversity Target was subsequently

integrated into the Millennium

Development Goals It will not be met

Tropical forests continue be felled,

destroying valuable endemic species

and disrupting local, regional and global

climates Climate change and ocean

acidification are destroying coral reefs

Fisheries are increasingly overexploited,

condemning millions of the world’s

poorest people to unemployment and

malnutrition

The failure to protect biodiversity

should be a wake-up call Business as

usual is not an option We need a new

biodiversity vision We must manage

our forests sustainably so they can store

carbon, protect watersheds and provide

resources and income We must conserve coral reefs so they can continue to protect coasts from storms and support livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people We must ensure the long-term viability of our seas and oceans

To raise awareness of the impending crisis and to spur the world to act, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2010 the International Year

of Biodiversity In September 2010, the General Assembly will hold a special high-level meeting on the subject It will give the international community an opportunity to demonstrate much-needed leadership in advance of the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit, which will adopt a new strategic plan for implementing the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity

In this International Year, we must counter the perception that people are disconnected from our natural environment We must increase understanding of the implications of losing biodiversity In 2010, I call on every country and each citizen of our planet

to engage in a global alliance to protect life on Earth We must generate a greater sense of urgency and establish clear and concrete targets Biodiversity is life

Biodiversity is our life 

Ban Ki-moon

United Nations Secretary-General

Dato’ Misran

Kar-main, Association

of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) Deputy

Secretary-General, called

on ASEAN Member States

to exert greater effort in

conserving the region’s

rich biodiversity during the

launch of the celebration

of the International Year of

Biodiversity in Southeast

Asia in Manila on March

5

“ASEAN Member States

should do more to derive

optimum benefits and

con-serve our natural

biologi-cal wealth While we have

made some pioneering

efforts in the region, we

have yet to fully integrate

this natural wealth into all

aspects of daily life and

the economic and social

development of our tries,” DSG Karmain told about 100 representatives

coun-of national environmental agencies of the 10 ASEAN Member States, the diplo-matic community, business, schools and the media dur-ing the launch

Hosted by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the Philippines’

Department of ment and Natural Resourc-

Environ-es (DENR), the event was part of the global celebra-tion aimed at raising public awareness of the impor-tance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss

The celebration’s theme is

“Biodiversity is life versity is our life.”

Biodi-Other key speakers were Mr Demetrio Ignacio,

JOINING HANDS FOR BIODIVERSITY (left to right) Dr Raman Letchumanan, Head of Environment Division, ASEAN Secretariat; Atty Dave Torres, Chief Legal Offi cer of Philippine Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri; Dr Vann Monyneath, Chairman of ACB’s Governing Board; Dato’ Misran Karmain, ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General; H.E Alistair MacDonald, EU’s Ambassador to the Philippines; Mr Demetrio Ignacio, Undersecretary of the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources; Dr Filemon Uriarte, Jr., Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation; and Mr Rodrigo U Fuentes, Executive Director, ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity Photos by Larry Doctor

a special significance for ASEAN “At almost ev-ery event pertaining to ASEAN’s natural heri-tage, we often hear what I would now call the ASEAN 3-20 Endowment, that is, although occupying only three percent of the earth’s surface, the ASEAN region contains about 20 percent

of all known plant, animal and marine species, most

of which are found where else in the world The region is home to three mega-diverse countries (In-donesia, Malaysia and the Philippines), one-third or 284,000 square kilometers

no-of all known coral reefs in the world, 35 percent of the world’s coastal mangrove forests, among others,” he added

Undersecretary, DENR;

Mr Rodrigo U Fuentes, Executive Director, ACB;

H.E Alistair MacDonald, the European Union’s Ambassador to the Philip-pines; H.E Makoto Kat-sura, Japan’s Ambassador

to the Philippines; Hon

Juan Miguel Zubiri, tor, Republic of the Philip-pines (represented by his Chief Legal Officer, Atty

Sena-Dave Torres); Dr Vann Monyneath, Chairman of ACB’s Governing Board;

and Dr Filemon Uriarte Jr., Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation A videotaped message from

Dr Ban Ki-moon, tary-General of the United Nations, was shown

Secre-According to Mr main, the celebration holds ASEAN launches International Year of Biodiversity

Mr Karmain

high-lighted the theme “Green

ASEAN” and the region’s

efforts at embarking on

building one community

for all ASEAN Member

States through a road map

adopted by the ASEAN

leaders in 2009

“We expect this theme

to lay the basis for an

en-vironmentally sustainable

ASEAN Community with

our rich natural biological

diversity leading our quest

for sustainable economic

growth and social

develop-ment,” he said

Mr Karmain also called

on the ASEAN Member

States to pledge stronger

support to ACB, the

inter-governmental organization that facilitates collabora-tion for biodiversity con-servation among the 10 ASEAN Member States

At the launch, the ASEAN Deputy Secre-tary-General awarded the ASEAN Heritage Parks cer-tificate to the Philippines recognizing the Mount Ki-tanglad Range Natural Park

in Mindanao as the 28th and newest ASEAN Heri-tage Park in Southeast Asia

The award was received on behalf of the Philippine government by DENR Un-dersecretary Ignacio and senior DENR officials from Mindanao

Undersecretary Ignacio

said: “With this tion, the Philippines is now home to three ASEAN Her-itage Parks—Mt Apo Natu-ral Park in Davao, Mt Iglit-Baco in Mindoro, and now,

recogni-Mt Kitanglad in Bukidnon

This reinforces the fact that despite its relatively small size, our country is home to

an astonishing range of diversity The Philippines stands out in the region in terms of richness of biodi-versity as it cradles a trea-sure trove of plant, bird, marine, insect and other animal species.”

The launch of the national Year of Biodiver-sity also featured the for-mal call for nominations for

Inter-the ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity—a recognition program that will award outstanding biodiversity conservation and advocacy projects by corporations, youth and the media

ACB and the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau presented the ASEAN Regional Clearing-House Mechanism and the Philip-pine Clearing-House Mech-anism, which are both aimed at building strong biodiversity information sharing networks

A Media Forum on tourism and Biodiversity featuring experts from the ASEAN region capped the launch 

Eco-ASEAN Deputy

Secretary-General Dato’ Misran Karmain

calls on ASEAN Member

States to exert greater effort

in conserving the region’s rich

biodiversity.

ASEAN Deputy Secretary-General Karmain (2nd from left) awards the ASEAN Heritage Parks certifi cate to the Mount Kitanglad Range Natural Park DENR Undersecretary Ignacio (3rd from left) receives the award on behalf of the Government of the Philippines ACB Executive Director Rodrigo Fuentes, DENR Regional

Executive Director for Region 10 Maximo Dichoso, DENR Regional Technical Director for Region 10 Belen Daba, and Protected Area Superintendent Felix Mirasol witness the awarding ceremony.

H.E Alistair MacDonald, EU’s

Ambassador to the Philippines,

highlights the partnership

between the European

Union and the ASEAN region

in promoting biodiversity

conservation, specifi cally

through the ASEAN Centre for

Biodiversity

H.E Makoto Katsura, Japan’s Ambassador to the Philippines, talks about Japan’s role as the host of the upcoming 10th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan.

Dr Filemon Uriarte, Jr., Executive Director of the ASEAN Foundation, formally announces the call for nominations for the ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity.

ACB Executive Director Rodrigo U Fuentes discusses possible areas of collaboration with SM Supermalls offi cials Ms Liza Silerio and Mr Lorenz Calingasan.

10

PHILIPPINES

President Gloria

Macapagal-Ar-royo signed Proclamation No 2003

which declared 2010 as the National

Year of Biodiversity The

proclama-tion, in support of the global

celebra-tion of the Internacelebra-tional Year of

Bio-diversity (IYB), enjoins all agencies of

the executive branch, national

gov-ernment agencies, local govgov-ernment

units, the academe, private sector,

nongovernment organizations and

other sectors of society to support

ac-tivities that promote the conservation

of biodiversity

The Department of Environment

and Natural Resources formed a

Na-tional Task Force composed of

rep-resentatives from various sectors to

implement IYB projects The ASEAN

Centre for Biodiversity is part of this

team

The activities are:

 Release of Philippine Eagle

‘”Girlie” to a wider enclosure,

funded by world boxing

cham-IYB 2010 on Facebook,

Philippine radio, cable news

This year’s global celebration of

Inter-national Year of Biodiversity (IYB) 2010

gets wide international exposure through

Facebook, and a radio and a cable news

network in the Philippines

Through the popular social network Facebook, IYB is

target-ing to achieve one million fans by the end of 2010, the UN

Con-vention on Biological Diversity Secretariat (SCBD) said

The SCBD is inviting everyone to become fans of the

Inter-national Year of Biodiversity 2010 on Facebook: http://facebook

com/iyb2010

Top-rating Philippine AM radio station DZMM show “Bago

‘Yan Ah!” (That’s New!) discussed IYB on February 7, 2010 The

program was also broadcast live at Skycable Channel 26, and

au-dio streamed on http:www.dzmm.com.ph/dzmm-stream.html

ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) Executive Director

Ro-drigo U Fuentes provided an overview of the IYB, with the theme

“Biodiversity is life Biodiversity is our life.” He also discussed the

importance of biodiversity and the consequences of its loss

Ms Angelita P Meniado, supervising ecosystem

manage-ment specialist of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the

Philippines’ Department of Environmental and Natural Resources,

talked about the country’s various activities lined up for IYB

The Global News Network (GNN), a nationwide cable TV

net-work in the Philippines, featured IYB 2010 on January 29, Friday,

8 p.m Entitled “Think Global, Act Local,” the program is aired

weekly over Destiny Cable Channel 21 in Metro Manila and on

multiple channel assignments nationwide It is hosted by veteran commentator Harry Tambuatco and senior journalist Gil Santos GNN is also broadcast Asia-wide on FREE-TV

Mr Rodrigo U Fuentes provided an overview of IYB 2010, while Dr Theresa Mundita Lim, Director of the Department of

Environment and Natural Resources’ Protected Areas and Wildlife Bu-reau, discussed the activities to be conducted in the Philippines Atty Darwin Mariano, Public Affairs Di-rector for Philip-pines and Asia of CEMEX Asia Pte Ltd., talked about how business con-tributes to biodiver-sity conservation

“This 2010, GNN will feature various biodiversity topics every last Friday of the month This will give us the opportunity to reach out to more viewers and share with them the importance of biodi-versity, as well as the consequences of its loss,” Rolando Inciong, Head of ACB’s Communication and Public Affairs Unit, said

Copies of the TV program will be uploaded to ACB’s website:

www.aseanbiodiversity.org.

International Year of Biodiversity events in ASEAN countries

pion Manny Pacquiao

 Philippine biodiversity logo sign contest

de- Launch of the project ing and Diversifying the Na-tional System of Terrestrial Pro-tected Areas in the Philippines”

“Expand- Launch of the Biodiversity and Climate Change Information Center at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Nature Cen-ter

 Youth for Environment mer Camp

Sum- Third Meeting for the vation of Sharks under the Con-vention on Migratory Sharks

Conser-SINGAPORE

To support the IYB, the National Parks Board is launching a series of activities to raise public awareness of the rich biodiversity in Singapore

 ‘BiodiverCity’ Photo Competition

 Community in Bloom Schools Arts Competition

 Green Wave Movement

a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly, which declares

2010 as the IYB

The Thai Cabinet, in its meeting on December 22, 2009, approved the an-nouncement proposed by the National Committee on Conservation and Sus-tainable Use of Biodiversity and rec-ommended by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment

It also endorsed the Action Plan for IYB and instructed all relevant government offices to allocate funds for its organizations to operate in accordance with the action plan The objective is to urge all groups of people and professions to be aware

of biodiversity and cooperate in serving and using biodiversity in a sustainable way 

con-Veteran commentators Gil Santos (left) and Harry Tambuatco (right) of the program “Think Global, Act Local interview Dr Theresa Mundita Lim, Director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau and Atty Darwin Mariano, Public Affairs Director for Philippines and Asia

of CEMEX Asia Pte Ltd., about the International Year of Biodiversity Photo by Leslie Ann Jose

Nominations are now

open for the 2010

and advocacy in Southeast

Asia, the ASEAN Centre

for Biodiversity (ACB) and

the ASEAN Foundation

an-nounced recently

Nominations are open

for three categories: Most

Outstanding Biodiversity

Conservation and/or

Ad-vocacy Project by a Private

Business/Corporation; Most

Outstanding Biodiversity

Conservation and/or

Ad-vocacy Project by a Youth

Organization; and Most

Outstanding Biodiversity

Reportage by a Media

Orga-nization

“Nominees should

be based in any of the 10

ASEAN Member States

(Brunei Darussalam,

Cam-bodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,

Malaysia, Myanmar,

Philip-pines, Singapore, Thailand

and Viet Nam), and should

have an outstanding

biodi-versity conservation or

ad-vocacy project that is duly

recognized by the

commu-nity where they operate

Nominees in the media

category should have a

sec-tion, segment or program

devoted to biodiversity

con-servation advocacy, and

should have

comprehen-sive reports on biodiversity

conservation,” Dr Filemon

Uriarte, Jr., executive

direc-tor of the ASEAN

Founda-tion, explained

Dr Uriarte added that

a nomination will only be

considered valid if it is

sub-mitted by a person from any

of the following categories:

government officials and employees (e.g national government, local govern-ment units); representatives

of institutions specializing

in environmental protection and biodiversity conserva-tion (e.g international orga-nizations, nongovernment organizations, people’s or-ganizations, foundations);

academic institutions (e.g

universities, colleges); youth organizations; and industry

associations (e.g league of corporate foundations, me-dia organizations)

The nomination form may be downloaded from

www.aseanbiodiversity.org Nominations must be sent

to versity.org not later than 16 July 2010

champions@aseanbiodi-Co-funded by the pean Union and the ASEAN Foundation through the Ja-pan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund, the ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity will identify leaders among the private/

Euro-corporate sector, media and youth from which a cadre of

champions will be selected

to serve as Ambassadors of Goodwill for biodiversity

The project is supported by the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization (UNES-CO) The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity serves as the awards secretariat

A two-tier approach will

be used in selecting the ners The first phase shall in-volve a short-listing of nomi-

win-nees from the 10 ASEAN Member States The orga-nizers and partners shall form a panel of eminent per-sonalities who will short-list the nominees based on their projects’ impact on biodiver-sity conservation; contribu-tion to the goals and objec-tives of the ASEAN and the ASEAN Foundation; and their potential to inspire other individuals or organi-zations to follow their exam-ple The second phase will

be the final selection where one nominee from each of the three categories will be declared as Champions

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS

Search for ASEAN Champions of Biodiversity is on

“The winners will be recognized as Ambassadors

of Goodwill for biodiversity conservation and advocacy They will be given year-round opportunities to speak before business, youth and media leaders, and during forums, workshops and con-ferences in ASEAN Member States sponsored by ACB and the ASEAN Foundation

A publication of best tices will also be produced

prac-based on the ries of the final-ists and winners,” ACB Executive Di-rector Rodrigo U Fuentes said

sto-A w a r d e e s shall receive to-ken cash prizes, and will be recog-nized in October

2010 in time for the 10th Confer-ence of the Parties

of the tion on Biologi-cal Diversity The awarding ceremo-nies will be held

Conven-in the PhilippConven-ines The awardees will also be featured in ACB’s website and various inter-national publications, such

as the ASEAN Biodiversity Magazine, the ASEAN Bio-diversity Updates e-news and brochures They will also be featured in the web-sites of the sponsoring or-ganizations

For more information

on the ASEAN Champions

of Biodiversity, log on to

www.aseanbiodiversity.org

or www.aseanfoundation.org The Secretariat may

be contacted via e-mail at

sity.org 

champions@aseanbiodiver-(Left to right) Mr Shigehiro Matsuda, Third Secretary, Embassy of Japan

to the Philippines; Dr Virginia Cariño, Vice Chair, National Committee on Marine Sciences, UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines, and Philippine Representative, Man and the Biosphere Program of UNESCO Paris; Dr Filemon A Uriarte, Jr., Executive Director, ASEAN Foundation;

Mr Rodrigo U Fuentes, Executive Director, ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity;

and Mr Matthieu Penot, Environment and Sustainable Development Offi cer, Delegation of the European Commission to the Philippines.

12 www.aseanbiodiversity.org

BIODIVERSITY

CONSERVATION

 By SAHLEE BUGNA-BARRER

A stronger inter-phase between policy and science, integrating

social sciences, biology and economics is needed to save Southeast Asia’s rich but fragile biodiversity This is one

of the recommendations of the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity (ACB2009) which gathered over 300 key biodiversity

conservation stakeholders in Singapore on October 21 - 23, 2009.

ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity 2009

TRENDS, ISSUES AND CHALLENGES ON

IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

“Web of Life” Photo by Lim Fung Yen, Singapore

Organized by the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) and the National Parks Board of Singapore (NParks), ACB2009 provided an oppor-tunity for representatives from the government, academe, re-search and scientific commu-nity, donors, civil society and private sector, and the media

to discuss emerging trends, issues and challenges to the rich biodiversity of Southeast Asia, popularly known as the ASEAN region

With the theme sity in Focus: 2010 and Beyond, ACB2009 provided a forum for exchanging perspectives on biodiversity concerns and dis-cussing measures to advance the ASEAN biodiversity agen-

Biodiver-da in the context of meeting the global 2010 target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss

ACB2009 reported on the status of ASEAN biodiversity

in relation to the 2010 versity target; discussed key biodiversity issues that are im-portant to the region, includ-ing the gaps and challenges in the biodiversity conservation efforts of ASEAN Member States; and provided recom-mendations to address the re-gion’s biodiversity challenges

biodi-The conference focused on three thematic areas common

to ASEAN Member States: mate Change and Biodiversity;

Cli-Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of Benefits Aris-ing Out of their Utilization;

and Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity—the ASEAN Region’s Contribution

ACB2009 highlighted the wealth of biodiversity in the region and the urgency

of actions needed to protect ASEAN’s natural heritage The ASEAN region occupies only three percent of the earth’s total surface but is recognized

to be home to 18 percent of all known plant, animal and ma-rine species assessed by IUCN

Its rich biodiversity provides food, medicine, shelter, cloth-ing, and other biological goods and ecosystem services to over

500 million people nately, numerous threats, both natural and manmade, contin-

Unfortu-ue to deplete natural resources

at an unprecedented rate

The conference, likewise, highlighted the link between biodiversity and health Natu-ral products from biodiversity remain the major source for new medicines But various emerging diseases, such as HIV, SARS, Nipah virus, H1N1 and others have broken out

as a result of biodiversity loss

The conference noted the high stake in the future resilience

of ecosystems and the ousness of the current loss of biodiversity, which require im-mediate actions on key priority issues highlighted on the three themes

seri-Climate Change and Biodiversity

ASEAN Member States recognize the twin issues of cli-mate change and biodiversity

as among the most crucial sues facing not only the region, but also the rest of the world

is-Exploring the impact of climate change on a number of ecosys-tems, e.g., mangrove, coral reef and tropical forest, the confer-ence recommended that efforts

to examine the linkage of diversity and climate change should focus on three major areas: the role of biodiversity and ecosystem services and the climate system; impacts of climate change on ecosystem services; and biodiversity adap-tation measures

bio-ACB2009 saw the need for further research to study the

impact of people on tems, and to give more atten-tion on the human dimension

ecosys-in ecosystem dynamics It also recognized the need to imple-ment ecosystems-based adapta-tion strategies, so that humans and ecosystems will be better able to cope with risks associ-ated with current climate and future climate change

In terms of forest tems, ACB2009 emphasized the necessity of developing a more holistic accounting sys-tem on carbon credits Existing agreements should be expand-

ecosys-ed to cover forests and carbon credits ASEAN Member States should also consider going be-yond the Ecosystem-based Mit-igation Approach (EMBA) or carbon sequestration through trees, and recognize agro-for-estry as one approach that can help enhance adaptive capac-ity for climate change

Discussions on the impact

of climate change and marine ecosystems highlighted the sig-nificance of efforts to enhance international cooperation aimed at curbing the impacts

of climate change on coral reefs More research should

be conducted in the region

to study the relationships tween climate change, runoff and overfishing These areas affect the biodiversity of ma-rine ecosystems

be-Access to Genetic Resources and Sharing of Benefi ts Arising out of their Utilization

Conference participants recognized that there is re-newed interest to expand dis-cussions on access and bene-fit-sharing (ABS) and the need for ASEAN Member States

to become more actively volved in the ongoing process

in-of global discussion There has been a call to continuously

14

support the current

consul-tation process on the Draft

ASEAN Framework

Agree-ment on Access to, and Fair

and Equitable Sharing of

Benefits Arising from the

Utilization of Biological

and Genetic Resources,

and have the draft

agree-ment immediately adopted

in the ASEAN region In

ad-dition, Parties to the

Con-vention on Biological

Di-versity (CBD) were urged to

adopt the International

Re-gime on ABS at the CBD’s

10th Conference of Parties

(COP10) in October 2010 in

Nagoya, Japan to provide

an incentive for the other

two objectives of the CBD

(conservation and

sustain-able use of biodiversity)

Underscoring that

in-formation is vital to the

ABS issue, the conference

recognized the need to

ap-ply information and

com-munication technology in

tackling bio-piracy and

digi-talization of biodiversity as

bio-information To address

this and other issues vital

to ABS, the conference

par-ticipants agreed that there

should be increased support

for cross-country

collabora-tion, capacity building and

technology transfer The

po-tential of open source and

common licensing models

as tools for promoting laboration and reducing transaction costs should also be enhanced

col-As highlighted in the keynote address focusing

on the link between versity and human health, the rich biodiversity of the ASEAN region has long been a source and treasure trove of various medicines, and has immense potential for providing new treat-ments for human ailments

biodi-The conference pointed out that efforts of ABS in the region should also focus on the pharmaceutical indus-try given the region’s tradi-tional use of medicines from nature, and the possibility that more drugs for various illnesses are just waiting to

be discovered

ACB2009 pointed out the need to closely examine the real implementation of ABS on the ground as there are still many challenges that should be addressed, particularly in terms of ben-efit sharing and traditional knowledge

Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Valuing biodiversity and the benefits derived

therein is definitely tant There are, however, continuing debates on how value is to be attached to biodiversity resources and ecosyste services Recom-mendations that emerged from the conference in-volved urging the stake-holders to strongly support current efforts on under-standing the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services However, a frame-work for incentives should

impor-be in place to make the people pay or be rewarded for the protection of these resources, and the disin-centives for the destruction

of such resources

The roles of key tors should be defined in the process of valuing the economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services

sec-The conference recognized the need for greater pro-motion for investments for ecosystem services from the private sector and gov-ernments as a tool for risk management and for pro-moting competitive region-

al economies

To encourage greater investments in the environ-ment, there should be more research highlighting valu-ation and return of invest-

ments Economic activities that need to be prioritized for investments should be those that directly rely on ecosystem services, such

as hydropower, water, culture and land use Incen-tives for the promotion of ecosystem services should also be backed by comple-mentary regulation, such

agri-as support for delimitation and management, as in the case of marine protected areas

Cross-cutting concerns

The conference nized that there are cross-cutting concerns that need

recog-to be given attention, and all the key sectors were en-couraged to focus on these concerns either as part of their respective program

of action or activities ernments, organizations and individuals alike were urged to be more aggressive in public awareness campaigns, and emphasize the message of conserv-ing biodiversity and ecosystem services

Gov-as a determinant of life This effort must involve the harness-ing of resources from all sectors and com-munities, such as the private sector, interna-tional and regional or-ganizations, academe, nongovernment orga-nizations and other

A family carries fi rewood across parched land in a small village in Myanmar Photo by Mar Lar Winn, Myanmar

relevant sectors for

spread-ing this message

ACB2009 pointed out

that actions to save

biodi-versity will benefit from a

stronger interphase between

policy and science

integrat-ing different fields such as

social sciences, biology and

economics

Trans-disciplin-ary research should form

the basis for advocacy and

decision-making support

that would ensure the

con-servation, sustainable use,

and equitable sharing of

benefits of biodiversity

re-sources

As a measure to ease

poverty as well as mitigate

climate change,

biodiver-sity conservation issues

should be mainstreamed

into policies and programs

of other sectors, such as

ag-riculture, health,

develop-ment, education, water,

en-ergy, and others, including

business This would put

the issue in the forefront of

all government and private

initiatives, emphasizing the

need for cross-cutting and

holistic measures from all

sectors, and encouraging

greater commitment for

biodiversity conservation

In relation to the 2010

biodiversity target, ASEAN

Member States were urged

to demonstrate their

sup-port for developing new

targets beyond 2010 based

on lessons in achieving the

2010 target This will help

ensure that new directions

and new targets must be

pro-posed for 2015 and 2020

ACB2009 provided an

opportunity to reflect on

conservation efforts and the

many challenges to

achiev-ing the 2010 target, start

working on new and more

realistic targets, forge

stron-ger partnerships, as well as

commit to greater efforts to

conserve the region’s fragile

ecosystems 

The Association of Southeast Asian

Nations (ASEAN) region registered

“impressive and dramatic progress”

in the last 50 years, but this came with a

“stiff price” in terms of loss of biodiversity resources

Thus, said Mr Rodrigo Fuentes, ecutive director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), in his speech at the plenary session during the opening of the three-day ASEAN Conference on Biodi-versity (ACB 2009) on October 21, 2009, held at the Republic Polytechnic in Singa-pore

ex-This message was likewise ingly imparted by the other speakers at the plenary session of ACB2009—that the loss of biodiversity resources in Southeast Asia has been gravely affecting people’s lives, especially the poor, particularly their health and livelihood, and the na-tions’ economies

resound-Keynoting the conference was Dr

Aaron Bernstein, member of the faculty

of Harvard Medical School and its Center

Dramatic progress at a stiff price: biodiversity loss Biodiversity is key to human development and survival

 By LYN RESURRECCION

RODRIGO FUENTES Executive Director ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity

DR AARON BERNSTEIN Faculty Member, Center for Health and Global Environment, Harvard Medical School

for Health and Global Environment.Other plenary speakers were H.E Dato’ Misran Karmain, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN; H.E Holger Stand-ertskjold Nordenstam, European Union’s Ambassador to Singapore; Ms Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for National De-velopment and Education, Singapore; Prof Peter Ng Kee Lin, Department of Biological Sciences, National University

of Singapore; Dr Andreas Fischlin, ber, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Dr Hapriya Gundimeda, The Economics of Biodiversity Team (TEEB), United Nations Environment Pro-gramme (UNEP); Prof Zakri A Hamid, Tuanku , Chancellor Chair, Universiti Sans Malaysia; and Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf, Execu-tive Secretary, Secretariat of the Conven-tion on Biological Diversity (CBD)

mem-Dramatically altering ecosystems

“We are losing our biodiversity sources and dramatically altering our eco-systems at unprecedented rates,” Fuentes

16

“Our biodiversity resources and the ecosystems that support them are our lifelines and are crucial contribu-tors to global environmental sustain-ability,” Fuentes stressed

ASEAN Charter and biodiversity conservation

H.E Dato’ Misran Karmain said in his welcome remarks that biodiversity

is a major component in sustainable development in ASEAN, and biodiver-sity conservation fits into its Charter and the personality of ASEAN as a co-alition of nations

With the entry into force of the ASEAN Charter in December 2008, he said the regional grouping would oper-ate under a new legal framework and establish new instruments to boost its community-building process

He explained that the ASEAN Charter features three roadmaps to development: the Political-Security Community Blueprint, Economic Community Blueprint and Socio-Cul-tural Community Blueprint These blueprints and other activities of the ASEAN Member States show the full commitment of ASEAN to sustainable development, the Deputy Secretary General said

With ASEAN’s rich biodiversity,

he said the ASEAN community needs

to work together as a region to protect the environment He cited a number of

programs in ASEAN where countries work together to address biodiversity conservation These are the ASEAN Heritage Parks Program, the Heart of Borneo Initiative, the Coral Triangle Initiative, and the establishment of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity to co-ordinate regional collaboration among the ASEAN Member States

European Union support

to ASEAN biodiversity

H.E Holger Standertskjold denstam said climate change is one of the significant causes of biodiversity loss, but, at the same time, biodiversity has an important role in mitigating and adapting to climate change

Nor-Ambassador Nordenstam said:

“Coral reefs and mangroves provide natural shoreline protection from storm and flooding Marine and ter-restrial ecosystems currently absorb half of anthropogenic carbon-dioxide emissions This means climate change will accelerate further if biodiversity and ecosystems are not effectively pro-tected.”

Biodiversity, he emphasized, is portant for all human beings because

im-at least 40 percent of the world’s omy and 80 percent of the needs of the poor come from biological resources People benefit from biodiversity be-cause it contributes to security, resil-ience against climate change, social re-

econ-H.E DATO’ MISRAN KARMAIN Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN European Union’s Ambassador to Singapore H.E HOLGER STANDERTSKJOLD NORDENSTAM

said at the conference which had the

theme “Biodiversity in Focus: 2010 and

Beyond.”

Of the 64,800 known species in the

region, he said, 1,313 are endangered,

80 percent of coral reefs are at risk, and

deforestation rates are at least twice

higher than in other tropical areas

“We have narrowed the genetic

range of our endemic foods through

agricultural intensification, and

con-centrated the production systems to

varieties and species of food that have

short rotation,” Fuentes explained

He pointed out that “biodiversity

loss is beyond losing plants and

ani-mals It’s an issue of human survival,

with the greatest impact on the poor.”

It is a real threat which could affect the

lives of more than 500 million

South-east Asians

The ACB head said the region’s

nat-ural assets and heritage are decimated

by illegal trade in wildlife

“Unbridled economic activities

have caused unwarranted pollution

that leads to the destruction of our

eco-system and their natural functions,” he

said

Fuentes said that 12 years ago,

esti-mates of the global ecosystem services

were placed at US$33.3 trillion, while

the global gross national product was

valued at only $18 trillion

“Clearly, the measured benefit of

economic progress is not even enough

to pay for the value of ecosystem

services,” the head of the European

Union-assisted ACB said

A “treasure trove” of biodiversity

resources, ASEAN’s diverse landscape,

seascapes and ecosystem are home to

18 percent of all known plant, animal

and marine species, although it

occu-pies only three percent of the earth’s

total surface, he said

The region has three

mega-di-verse countries (Indonesia, Malaysia

and the Philippines); several

biogeo-graphical units (Malesia, Wallacea,

Sundaland, Indo-Burma and the

Central Indo-Pacific); a third of the

world’s highly diverse coral reefs; and

extensive mangrove forest areas that

comprise a significant portion of the

world’s total

lations, health, and freedom of choices

and actions, he said

Ambassador Nordenstam

ac-knowledged that Southeast Asia and

other governments in the world have

increasingly recognized biodiversity

conservation as extremely important

for human development

He noted that ASEAN has taken

measures to preserve its biodiversity

resources, such as the creation of

ACB

Acknowledging the importance

of ACB, the European Commission

signed a financing agreement with

ASEAN in April 2005 granting a

con-tribution of 6 million to support the

creation of the Centre

He added that the creation of ACB

has enhanced policy collaboration on

biodiversity in the ASEAN region to

strengthen institutional capacity on

regional and global biodiversity

is-sues, and boosted public awareness of

the values of biodiversity and

conser-vation

Ambassador Nordenstam said

the European Union (EU) has been

involved in efforts to protect the

natural heritage in Southeast Asia in

the past 20 years through programs

and projects, such as the promotion

of community-based forest

manage-ment; strengthening protected areas

policies and legislation; biodiversity

research; agricultural diversification;

and marine conservation

In the last 25 years, EU countries

have built up a vast network of over

26,000 protected areas covering all the

EU Member States and a total area of

around 850,000 square kilometers,

representing more than 20 percent of

total EU territory, he said The sites,

known as the Natura 2000 Network—

the largest coherent network of

pro-tected areas in the world—shows the

importance that EU citizens attach to

biodiversity, he added

As a global leader on

environmen-tal issues, and being committed to

contribute to a significant reduction in

the worldwide rate of biodiversity loss

by 2010, the EU, in 2006, through its

communication on “Halting the loss

of biodiversity by 2010—and beyond,”

reaffirmed the need to enhance ing earmarked for biodiversity and to strengthen measures to mainstream biodiversity in development assis-tance An EU Biodiversity Action Plan accompanied this communication, he said

fund-The EU has acknowledged that it

is unlikely to meet the target to stop biodiversity loss in the Union by 2010,

he said, but “this must not mean that

we should give up or slow our efforts

Quite the opposite: by stepping up our efforts we can replicate the successes

we have already achieved on a larger scale.” He emphasized that political leaders must make “unprecedented efforts” to significantly reduce cur-rent rates of global biodiversity loss by

2010, and bring it as close to the 2010 target as possible

International biodiversity being high on its agenda, Ambassador Nor-denstam said the EU aims to develop its key strategic principles on the post-

2010 objectives He stressed that this would be one of the EU’s contributions

to the international debate that should agree on the future Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity and a vision for biodiversity beyond 2010

Singapore Index as

a self-assessment tool

Singapore Senior Minister Grace

Fu said in her opening address that her country, known as a “garden city,”

is working with the Secretariat of the CBD and other partner cities to devel-

op the Singapore Index on Cities’ diversity She said this will serve as a

Bio-“self-assessment tool” that cities could use to evaluate their own biodiversity conservation efforts

The draft Singapore Index is being tested by the cities of Brussels, Curi-tiba, Edmonton, Joodalup, Montreal, Nagoya, and by Singapore itself

Ms Fu said in her opening address that the measure would help cities benchmark the success of their efforts and enhance urban biodiversity in the long term

She added that the region’s vast mangrove cover “play an important

MS GRACE FU Senior Minister of State for National Development and Education, Singapore

role in protecting our shorelines and buffer coastal settlements” from the hazards of tsunamis and that biodi-versity contributes significantly to the economy, supporting agriculture, pharmaceuticals, ecotourism and rec-reation

Ms Fu said each ASEAN Member State can do much to conserve the re-gion’s rich biodiversity by formulating their respective National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plans

“Such action plans lay at the heart

of our biodiversity conservation forts The successful implementation

ef-of these plans at the local level is cal to reversing the rate of biodiversity loss in the region,” she emphasized.She added that biodiversity con-servation plans should have a “holistic approach that balances the needs of nature conservation with the compet-ing demands on their resources.”

criti-Ms Fu stressed that it is tant that biodiversity-related agencies work closely with agencies in charge

impor-of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, ban development, trade, industry and tourism to ensure that considerations

ur-on biodiversity are factored into the sectors

Singapore, a small city-state of only

700 square kilometers, faces the lenges of the tradeoffs between conser-vation and development, she said

18

He said ASEAN’s natural heritage

is being destroyed in the name of ress, with clearing of reefs and forests

prog-on a huge scale There are unrestrained consumerism, uncontrolled hunger for varied foods and other natural prod-ucts, aquarium fish, wild plants, collec-tion of souvenirs, such as shells, which manifest the market forces at work

Trade is free flowing, and invasive alien species are brought in, he said

Professor Lin said Singapore has lost 90 percent of its forest and about

50 percent of biodiversity He pointed out that mitigation is necessary to re-vive the natural ecosystem

He added that Singapore’s ence can be an example and a lesson, which may also apply to more biodi-versity-rich ecosystems in the region

experi-Prof Lin underlined the tance of adding culture, humanity and aesthetics to the economic fundamen-tals in conserving biodiversity

impor-Climate change impacts

on ecosystems

Dr Andreas Fischlin discussed

“Climate Change and Biodiversity: The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and Recent Updates.” He said that regard-less of the pathway humankind would embark in terms of climate policy, cli-mate change is expected to impact on ecosystems in many ways around the globe at varying degrees, but signifi-

cantly in many cases

He said climate change impacts on biodiversity show that 20 to 30 percent

of higher plants and animals are at high risk of extinction if there is a 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius rise in temperature

He cited the South African Fynbos and the Karoo as examples of likely impacts on biodiversity Species can be classed as winners, losers, unchanged,

or adaptive In the Fynbos example, three percent of plants might be win-ners, nine percent unchanged, 15 per-cent adaptive, and 73 percent losers to climate change

He reported that observations on Arctic sea ice show the models were not accurate and actual rates of loss are faster than anticipated

Dr Fishclin elaborated on the lating services of biodiversity He said that carbon stored in terrestrial eco-systems is 4.5 times the amount in the atmosphere

regu-He pointed out that the future silience of ecosystems is at stake, mak-ing these a net source of carbon during this century, contradicting the aspira-tions of the UN Framework Conven-tion on Climate Change

re-The need for measures

to address biodiversity loss

On the topic “Economics of tems and Biodiversity,” Dr Haripriya Gundimeda said the current deforesta-tion rate of 13 million hectares per year

Ecosys-is roughly the same area as Greece She said that biodiversity loss is on

a huge scale Emissions equivalent to

27 billion tons of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere each year She added that one-third of the carbon dioxide currently in the atmo-sphere is derived from anthropogenic causes, and that there has been over

50 percent decline in freshwater cies since 1970

spe-Dr Gundimeda said that The nomics of Environment and Biodiver-sity (TEEB) Interim Report was re-leased at CBD COP 9 in Bonn in May

Eco-2008 TEEB’s goals are to demonstrate the value of biodiversity and ecosys-tems, underline the urgency of prob-lems, and show how people can take

PROF PETER NG KEE LIN

Department of Biological Sciences

National University of Singapore

DR ANDREAS FISCHLIN Member, Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change

“Recognizing our constraints, we

have adopted a long-term and

integrat-ed approach toward land-use planning

and nature conservation.”

Ms Fu emphasized that Singapore

was able to retain its rich biodiversity

“despite rapid urbanization” in the

past four decades through legislating

measures protecting nature reserves,

judicious land use, careful urban

plan-ning, and sensitive development

Its greening efforts have yielded

al-most half of the island under a “green

cover.”

Singapore is home to 2,300

spe-cies of plants, 360 spespe-cies of birds, 280

species of butterflies, a large variety of

animals, one third of the world’s hard

coral reefs, and half of the number of

seagrass species in Indo-Pacific

Biodiversity and culture,

humanity, aesthetics

Prof Peter Ng Kee Lin, who

pre-sented a paper on “The Status of

Biodi-versity and Challenges in the ASEAN

Region,” pointed out that Southeast

Asia is at the heart of biodiversity

rich-ness of the planet, because of the

di-verse habitat types, and its complex

in-teractions Rather than the widespread

single habitats presented by the

low-land forest of Amazonia or the corals

of the Great Barrier Reef, the ASEAN

region has a vast number of isolated

is-lands, mountains and reefs

into account those values, identify

solutions, and address the needs of

policy-makers, administrators,

busi-nesses and citizens The final TEEB

report will be released in June 2010

She underlined the need for

in-struments and measures to address

the loss of biodiversity A wide array

of steps are needed, including

dec-laration of protected areas, species

conservation, governance,

legisla-tion, monetary incentives and

disin-centives, schemes, such as Reduced

Emissions from Deforestation and

Forest Degradation (REDD),

pay-ment for ecosystem services, tools

for measurement, and many other

components

Access to genetic resources

and equitable benefi t sharing

Prof Zakri A Hamidn raised some

issues and challenges being faced on

access and benefit sharing of genetic

resources (ABS) in ASEAN

He pointed out that ABS is one of

the three important components of

the Convention on Biological

Diversi-ty when the treaDiversi-ty was signed during

the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, the

other two pillars being the

conserva-tion of biological diversity and the

sustainable use of its components

The factors that contribute to

the uncertainties in ABS in ASEAN,

Prof Hamidn said, include the lack

of understanding and elaboration of its provisions in the CBD; the link between traditional and indigenous knowledge to intellectual property rights; and the current discussion

to develop an international regime

on ABS which is planned to be cluded at the CBD COP10 in Octo-ber

con-He explained that ABS issues are important to ASEAN because its countries are both donors and recipi-ents of genetic resources It is rich in biodiversity, with three of ASEAN Member States among the 12 mega-diverse countries in the world

Thus, he underscored the need for ASEAN to be a responsible mem-ber of the global community, and to demonstrate how it can achieve a fair and equitable mechanism in the gov-ernance of ABS

COP 10 and beyond

Dr Ahmed Djoghlaf said that in

2002, the Parties to the Convention

on Biological Diversity established the 2010 Biodiversity Target—a com-mitment to significantly slow biodi-versity loss worldwide by 2010

However, with 2010, the tional Year of Biodiversity, around the corner, he said it does not appear that the target would be met He said

Interna-DR HARIPRIYA GUNDIMEDA

The Economics of Biodiversity Team

United Nations Environment Programme

the loss of biodiversity is higher than the natural rate of extinction It has brought major consequences on hu-man well being, with millions of peo-ple suffering, especially the poor who largely depend on natural resources for their survival

The human costs of biodiversity loss will be exacerbated by its strong links to climate change, he said

Dr Djoghlaf pointed out the need

to do things differently Nations must work on new targets for 2010 and be-yond, and based on lessons learned

on the assessment of the 2010 target, new targets must be proposed for

2015 and 2020

He added that interim reviews must also be made to ensure that new directions can be set and mistakes rectified before nations report on bio-diversity conservation in 2020

He pointed out that, in the final analysis, the goal of sustainable de-velopment cannot be achieved by governments, nongovernment orga-nizations and business alone There

is a need to wake up the citizens of the world, to act responsibly and learn to live in harmony with nature,

he explained

The ASEAN Conference on diversity held in Singapore in 2009 showed that biodiversity is key to hu-man development and survival 

PROF ZAKRI A HAMID Tuanku Chancellor Chair Universiti Sans Malaysia

DR AHMED DJOGHLAF Executive Secretary, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Facing the Challenge

A mong the projected impacts of climate change

is the loss of thousands of species as well as changes in natural ecosystems Climate change will exacerbate the many stressors that are already endangering biodiversity in Southeast Asia At the same time, maintaining biodiverse ecosystems and especially tropical forests can help mitigate climate change

Southeast Asia, also known

as the ASEAN region, has one

of the richest biodiversity

re-sources in the world Although

occupying only three percent

of the world’s total surface,

18 percent of all known

spe-cies assessed by IUCN live in

its mountains, jungles, rivers,

lakes and seas For example,

its tropical forests harbor 10

percent of the world’s floral

diversity1 Three of the world’s

17 mega diversity countries

are in the region, namely

Indo-nesia, Malaysia and the

Philip-pines Southeast Asia also has

seven of the world’s 34

rec-ognized biodiversity hotspots

– areas that are known to be

biologically rich but are under

great threat of destruction

Biodiversity resources provide

significant goods and services

for the people of the region

and the world

However, Southeast Asia’s

biodiversity resources are

un-der severe stress and in danger

of being lost The region has

the highest relative rate of

de-forestation among the major

tropical regions It could lose

three quarters of its original

forests by 2100 and beyond

by up to 42 percent of its diversity2 This unprecedented erosion of biodiversity in the region will have dire ecologi-cal and socioeconomic conse-quences

bio-In these contexts, the ASEAN Conference on Biodi-versity (ACB2009), one of the biggest meetings of biodiver-sity managers, scientists and policy makers in the region, was held at the Republic Poly-technic campus in Singapore

on October 21 – 23, 2009 One

of the major themes of the conference was biodiversity and climate change

The many aspects

of biodiversity and climate change

At the plenary session, Professor Andreas Fischlin,

a coordinating lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel

on Climate Change (IPCC)

2007 report, presented the link between climate change and global biodiversity re-sources He emphasized that climate change is already happening and that changes

in climate have been served such as increasing

ob-temperature and irregular as well as decreasing precipita-tion in many areas

Professor Fischlin cussed four key messages: ma-jor changes in structure and functioning of ecosystems is expected as climate warms; 20

dis-to 30 percent of higher plants and animals are at high risk of extinction at 1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature over the present (mass extinction); land eco-systems could become a car-bon source in the future; and resilience of many ecosystems could be exceeded because of climate change so that they cannot adapt naturally

The professor gave eral examples on how climate change may impact biodiver-sity These include: species distribution in South Africa, coral bleaching at greater than 1.7oC, increasing melting of ice

sev-in the poles threatensev-ing cies such as polar bears, and ocean acidification that will affect corals and those species with shells

spe-Protecting climate is fore protecting biodiversity re-sources

there-“Climate Change” Photo by George Cabig, Philippines

22

A parallel session

de-voted to presentation of

papers on climate change

and biodiversity

conser-vation showed that much

uncertainty remains over

the magnitude of climate

change in Southeast Asian

countries and how

biodi-versity resources will be

affected The session

ex-plored how climate change

will affect biodiversity in

the region, as well as the

potential adaptation

op-tions

The first paper focused

on the role of Indonesia’s

forests in climate change

mitigation, especially on

the current discussions on

reducing emissions from

deforestation and forest

degradation (REDD)

Indo-nesia has the largest

green-house gas emissions from

deforestation in the world

The paper also discussed

a concern on the present

definition of forest under

the United Nations

Frame-work Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC) Under

UNFCCC, the term “forest”

can include many types of

land cover and use,

vary-ing in presence of trees to

zero-tree cover lands, with

storage and

carbon-emission potential Under

this definition, there is no

deforestation going on in

Indonesia because oil palm

plantations are considered

as forests A forest

defini-tion more consistent with

climate change mitigation

and biodiversity

conserva-tion is needed The paper

argues that inclusion of all

types of land uses (forested

and non-forested) will be

most effective in climate

change mitigation

The second paper

fo-cused on the impacts of

climate change on

biodi-versity of coral reefs The

key messages are: climate

change, runoff and fishing are the three big issues that have to be ad-dressed together to protect biodiversity; prevention is better than cure; reefs are not doomed if we act quick-

over-ly (but they will continue to change); and the decisions

we make now on sity protection will have profound long-term conse-quences

biodiver-The third paper plored the concept of eco-systems-based adaptation (EBA) as an approach to enhance adaptation of eco-systems, as well as increase the resilience of local com-munities that depend on natural ecosystems

ex-EBA is defined by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2008 as “a range

of local and scale strategies for manag-ing ecosystems to increase resilience and maintain essential ecosystem ser-vices and reduce the vul-nerability of people, their livelihoods and nature in the face of climate change.”

landscape-EBA will provide effective strategies to minimize the impacts in the community,

at the same time ing the watershed from further degradation Four

protect-cases from the Philippines were presented illustrating various forms of EBA strat-egies A case was made for combining EBA with eco-systems-based mitigation

The fourth paper cussed impacts and adap-tation in mangrove ecosys-tems The effects of climate change will be regional in scale, and combine with other direct and indirect pressures on mangroves

dis-Temperature rise and level rise would have im-pacts on mangrove ecosys-tems

sea-For example, ture rise and the direct ef-fects of increased carbon di-oxide (CO2) levels are likely

tempera-to increase mangrove ductivity, change phenolog-ical patterns, and expand the ranges of mangroves into higher latitudes

pro-The fate of mangrove habitats to climate change globally will depend on a number of factors, includ-ing current tidal range, sedimentology, salinity re-gime, community compo-sition, and shore profile

Low-relief shorelines and low islands will show more change Sea-level rise will have more impact on in-tertidal systems in micro-tidal areas than macro-tidal areas and in areas that al-ready suffer from relative sea-level rise due to deltaic subsidence There are lim-ited studies of the impacts

of elevated CO2 on groves

man-The fifth paper focused

on the potential impacts of climate change on wildlife species Warming climates and changes in precipita-tion and seasonality will have negative impact on orangutans Perhaps, as a sign of things to come, it was mentioned that forest fires following the 1997 -

1998 El Niño event killed 1,000 (or 2.5 percent of to-tal) orangutans

Possible impacts of mate change on phenology and distribution of birds in Japan and Africa were also presented, mainly using models, disruption of spe-cies interactions and com-munities, synergisms with other stresses such as dis-eases, invasives, and habi-tat degradation Species likely to be affected by cli-mate change are low-lying island species, mountain-top endemics, high-latitude species, extreme-niche specialists, and restricted-range species

cli-Measures were mended to minimize the impacts of climate change

recom-on bird species The per recognized the limited information in the region

pa-on the impacts of climate change on wildlife species and called for an increase

in research in this area

The sixth paper dwelled

on the mapping of ble areas in Southeast Asia Using the IFCCC, a vulner-ability map of Southeast Asia was developed and color-coded to depict vul-nerability Red-colored land areas were the most vulner-able and yellow-colored ones are the least In the paper’s conclusion, low-ly-ing areas along coasts, the whole Philippines and the eastern region of Southeast Asia were the most vulner-able Countries with highly vulnerable areas are the Philippines, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Thailand

vulnera-REDD for climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation

At the conference, a side event on REDD for Climate Change Mitigation and

Species likely

to be affected by climate change are low-lying island species, mountain- top endemics, high-latitude species, extreme-niche specialists, and restricted-range species

Biodiversity Conservation

was organized by the

Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)

on October 22, 2009

De-forestation leads to loss of

species as well as increased

greenhouse-gas emissions

to the atmosphere Thus,

pursuing REDD benefits

climate change adaptation

and mitigation efforts, as

well as biodiversity

conser-vation

The participants agreed

that REDD is very important

in biodiversity

conserva-tion in the ASEAN region,

provided that efforts must

be done for all ecosystems

and not only on terrestrial

ecosystems REDD should

also be geared toward more

regional perspectives

rath-er than just on the country

and local levels However,

numerous issues

surround-ing REDD are still under

negotiation and the road to

REDD implementation is

still a long one

The side event

recom-mended the following

ac-tions:

 The definition of

“forest” must be

re-viewed as its current

definition under the

UNFCCC considers

even “plantations”

of any tall growing

monoculture (e.g., oil

palm) as “forest”

 REDD must pursue

long-term goals with

vision for REDD

should include all

land uses, but for the

shorter/immediate

term, it is to review

and implement the

previous agreements

on REDD before

ex-panding the

mecha-nism further

 REDD mechanisms must be started at the smaller and local-ized level with firm agreements before it

is elevated to higher levels

 Communication and public awareness activities on REDD, climate change and other environmental issues and concerns must be enhanced

to encourage more involvement and participation from key stakeholders, in-cluding indigenous

work that is flexible enough to meet the different countries’

needs

 There is still siderable debate on REDD, especially its financing and its governance pre-requisites Hence, capacity building

con-is needed by tries to participate

coun-in future activities of REDD

 REDD is not cient as an approach for sustainable for-est management but needs to be expand-

suffi-ing of the dire consequences

of the shift in temperature and precipitation However, there are very limited empir-ical data presented from the ASEAN region on how bio-diversity could be affected Most of the papers imported data from other regions of the world and tried to ex-trapolate it to the region There is clearly a need to ramp up research efforts to inform policy makers on the way forward

There is also a need to enhance baselines or refer-ence levels, and capacity building particularly in the technical assistance and fi-

peoples and the ness sectors

busi- Financing nisms and schemes must be studied thor-oughly to determine

mecha-if they should

contin-ue to be supported or should

government-be moving toward self-financing

 There should be

a general

frame-ed with due tions and broader consultations with key stakeholders

precau-Conclusion and Recommendations

The conference lighted the threat posed

high-by climate change to the region’s rich biodiversity re-sources The papers present-

ed were unanimous in

warn-nancial support aspects of the mechanism The rights of the indigenous peoples must also be taken into serious consideration, together with the complexity of socio-eco-nomic and political-cultural dimensions of this great en-vironmental challenge 

References:

Gitay et al., 2002 Sodhi et al., 2004

Students cross this river to and from school every day This is very dangerous as water in the river rises at alarming rates even only after a few minutes of rain Villagers blame this to the logging of trees in the mountain Photo by Joel Forte, Philippines

or many in the biodiversity community, the usefulness

of biodiverse ecosystems lies in their intrinsic value

For other stakeholders in the general public, or in the private sector, the value lies in other benefits, such

as the watershed protection or carbon sequestration provided

by natural forests, or the profits generated from eco-tourism

The perspectives may be different, but at the end of the day, it is clear that ecosys-tems provide different kinds of services to different kinds of stakeholders

The language of ecosystem services presents a practical way to bridge the interests of environmentalists and busi-ness people who have a stake

on sustainable land ment, and those who manage specific areas of land that may have high but undetermined value to these stakeholders

manage-The ability to put a price on ecosystem services, even those benefits which are not normal-

ly sold or bought such as erosion control or habitat pro-tection, creates the potential to reduce the opportunity costs

soil-of sustainable land ment through payment This provides the foundation for

manage-potentially creating win-win economic solutions to natural resource management chal-lenges, under the right condi-tions

The session on the nomics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity at the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity on October 21 - 23, 2009 in Sin-gapore gave several important insights into how valuation of ecosystem services should be approached; the potential for generating investments in eco-system services; developments

Eco-in these Eco-investments Eco-in the ASEAN region; key conditions for creating effective, equita-ble and sustainable investment partnerships; and the potential for engaging the private sector

ser-Ecosystem services have high economic values, and investments in such services can reap significant economic benefits At the conference, Dr Jose Padilla, a Resource Econ-omist from the Philippines, and Dr Marian de los Ange-les, Senior Environmental Economist at the World Bank Institute, presented the high economic value of sustainably managed marine areas in the Philippines

Surveys showed that residents in certain towns in the Philippines were much more willing to pay to protect marine areas than might be expected The presentation

The ability to put a price on ecosystem services, even those benefits which are not normally sold or bought such as soil-erosion control or habitat protection, creates the potential to reduce the opportunity costs of sustainable land management through payment This provides the foundation

for potentially creating win-win economic solutions to natural resource management challenges, under the right conditions.

showed that putting a

mon-etary value on these services

could contribute to decision

and policy making in several

ways, including by producing

a basis for comparing the real

economic benefits of

alterna-tive land and

resource-man-agement strategies, by

reveal-ing often hidden values

Focusing on biodiversity

values, Dr Haripriya

Gundim-eda’s presentation addressed

several aspects of ecosystem

service investments, and

not-ed the high returns on these

investments Analysis of

sev-eral case studies revealed

in-ternal rates of return ranging

from seven percent for coral

reefs to as high as 79 percent

for grasslands

Mr James Peters, Chief of

Party of the USAID Asia

Re-gional Biodiversity

Conserva-tion Program, presented the

case of Viet Nam, as well as

an overview of the tation of Payments for Envi-ronmental Services (PES) in Southeast Asia

implemen-A pilot Payment for Forest Environmental Services Pol-icy in Viet Nam had secured US$16.5 million in invest-ments from hydroelectricity producers and water utilities from 2009 to 2010 These in-vestments were the basis for payments to land users for land use that enhanced water regulation and soil conserva-tion Co-benefits for biodiver-sity conservation were secured through a landscape-level con-servation approach

This is a key example of the expanding and deepening ex-periences in facilitating invest-ments in ecosystem services through payment mechanisms

in ASEAN Member States

Tourists in Bohol, Philippines, pay a fee to get good view of the famous Loboc river Photo by Rolando Inciong

26

Mr Peters pointed out that

interest in policy

develop-ment and many practical

experiences were evident

in almost every ASEAN

Member State

At the same time, high

opportunity costs mean

that markets and

invest-ments through PES are not

feasible and cannot provide

direct incentives to change

the behavior in every case

The wildlife trade faces

high opportunity costs that

would be difficult to

ad-dress through

biodiversity-market investments alone,

and which requires

ongo-ing intervention and

liveli-hood support

The research presented

by Dr Nguyen Van Song,

head of the

Environmen-tal and Resource

Econom-ics Department of Hanoi

University of Agriculture,

estimated that wild-caught

meat earned Hanoi

restau-rants some US$12,270 a

day, per restaurant, with

total profits more than five

times the average annual

fines collected

The conference

pre-sentations and discussions

highlighted the different

kinds of opportunities for

promoting investments in

ecosystem services in the

ASEAN region These

op-portunities included

in-creasing stakeholder

sup-port and pressures from

society, such as at the

grass-roots level, for more action

on environmental

protec-tion As awareness grew

and incomes increased,

social willingness to pay

would also increase The

di-alogue on carbon emissions

reduction secured by

reduc-ing emissions from forest

degradation and

deforesta-tion (REDD) also provided

an opportunity for national

dialogue on ecosystem

ser-vices

While there were many opportunities, it was clear that intensive capacity building would be needed

to create the policy and stitutional contexts

in-Why would people pay for ecosystem services? How should the provision of eco-system services be reward-

ed most effectively, and also, most equitably?

Mr Peters highlighted how the ecosystem service investments by large infra-structure projects that had been secured in Viet Nam were economically justifi-able The economic losses (in the form of additional operating costs and repairs)

to a hydropower plant had been estimated at US$3.75 million per year, if 45,000

hectares of forest were verted to agricultural pro-duction This kind of infor-mation could form the basis for estimating appropriate investments, and showed why ecosystem service in-vestments were viable in-vestments in managing op-erational risks

con-Dr Adachi Naoki, utive Director of Japan Busi-ness Institute on Biodiver-sity, described how every process in the business sec-tor potentially relied on and impacted on biodiversity

Exec-He stressed that sity action was not viewed

biodiver-as philanthropy, but a ness issue Lack of steward-ship by companies created several kinds of risks—oper-ational, reputational, regu-latory and legal, market and

busi-product, and financial This was the basis for the global trend of business commit-ment to environmental pro-tection In Japan, several policy initiatives, including the biodiversity guidelines for the private sector, sup-port corporate action on environmental issues

Ms Beria Leimona, Project Coordinator of Re-warding Upland Poor for Environmental Services, World Agroforestry Center, underlined that the under-standing of PES was evolv-ing toward a broader under-standing of co-investment

in risk management and benefit-sharing

Research in jaya, Indonesia showed that

Sumber-an effective co-investment partnership between the

A farmer works in a rice farm in Myanmar Photo by Myint Aung, Myanmar

beneficiaries of ecosystem

services and the service

providers, depended very

much on the design of the

there were clear tradeoffs

between poverty reduction

potential and cost

effec-tiveness when ecosystem

service investments were

explicitly directed toward

the poorest land users, as

opposed to being directed

toward areas with the

high-est soil erosion-control

po-tentials It was, therefore,

important to adapt PES

de-sign to local conditions and

to allow flexible contract

arrangements Careful

de-sign was also necessary to

secure equitable benefits

and participation

How can this policy tool complement and strength-

en other approaches to land-use management?

Strategically deployed, PES mechanisms are a way

to achieve both nomic policy objectives and landscape-level conserva-tion objectives, stressed Jim Peters

macro-eco-Pavit Ramachandran

of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) described how sustainable financing ap-proaches underpinned sev-eral ADB Southeast Asia natural resources manage-ment programs, and how economic values generated could be integrated in de-cision-making for land use and forest management

What are some of the ing questions, cautionary points and challenges?

burn-The session Co-Chair, Prof Navjot Sodhi of the National University of Sin-gapore, pointed to the need

to squarely address the ethical/value positioning of payments for ecosystem ser-vices schemes Did they, he asked, represent “prostitu-tion” of the natural environ-ment? It was important, he said, to solicit the views of the people on these issues

The negative social impacts

of “free money” (or money that is perceived as free), mean that incentives pro-vided through PES schemes must never be viewed as welfare payments Liveli-hood creation would be im-portant for truly successful and equitable investments

The conference ticipants asked how mind-sets and attitudes could be changed to promote greater investments At the same time, the presenters empha-sized that economic argu-ments work It was pointed out that it is important to provide consumers informa-tion, for example through eco-labels, and that initial investments were also found

par-to encourage investments by other stakeholders

In highlighting the lenge of sustainability, this question was raised: how can we manage the sus-tainability of PES schemes, especially as opportunity costs grow, or as finances dry up? The resource speak-ers answered that it is im-portant to leverage different sources of funding, invest in developing livelihood alter-natives, and reduce social vulnerabilities

chal-The Chair’s summary presented in the final ses-sion of the conference pointed to several possible next steps, including:

 Increase tion among ASEAN stakeholders (policy makers, scientists, civil society) on po-tential pros and cons

communica-of PES and economic perspectives of envi-ronmental issues

 Promote ecosystem services investments

by the private sector and governments—as tool for risk manage-ment and for pro-moting competitive regional economies

 Pay attention to system services in ag-ricultural policy and land use management

eco- Promote valuation

to show return on investments in eco-system services, and support delimitation and management, especially of marine protected areas

 Prioritize incentives/mechanisms for economic activities which rely more di-rectly on ecosystem services, e.g., hydro-power and water

 Forge links between policy and science—integration of dif-ferent fields—social sciences, biology and economics (transdis-ciplinary research as

a basis for advocacy and decision-making support)

 Ensure incentives are backed up by complementary reg-ulation—both carrot and stick neededExpanding economies and increasing wealth across Southeast Asia means that there are more funds for investment At the same time, there is in-creasing recognition that current economic para-digms are not sustainable Investments in ecosystem services should be viewed

as an important pillar for greening the economy in

an equitable way 

Many Filipinos rely on the

abundant fi sh supply that the

Philippine seas offer

Photo by Reinier Dionisio, Philippines

28 www.aseanbiodiversity.org

BIODIVERSITY LOSS IMPACTS

T he world’s rich biodiversity has been an important

resource in supporting man’s life and well-being, including health Conversely, its rapid loss has been adversely affecting man’s survival, causing the outbreak of new infectious diseases such as HIV, SARS and Nipah virus, a Harvard-based expert said at the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity 2009 (ACB2009) in Singapore.

 By LYN RESURECCION

A child drinks cough syrup made from the

Lagundi plant – a known

herbal remedy for cough

Photo by Angela Metin

“Just as nutrition, access to

health care and clean water,

biodiversity is a fundamental

determinant of health,” Dr

Aaron Bernstein, a member of

the faculty of Harvard

Medi-cal School and its Center for

Health and Global

Environ-ment, stressed in his keynote

address at the ACB2009 on

Oc-tober 21, 2009

Dr Bernstein said

symp-toms of a “biosphere under

stress,” such as infectious

dis-eases, have occurred due to

alterations or outright loss of

biodiversity

He said HIV spread because

of the high demand for bush

meat in Western Equatorial

Africa The people resorted to

eating bush meat because the

amount of fish caught in the

ocean has dwindled The new

Nipah virus came from fruit

bats, which, because of loss of

their habitat due to

deforesta-tion, went closer to human

and animal habitats, especially

pigs The virus was first

identi-fied in Malaysia in 1998

He said: “We must consider

whether or not to deal with

what is necessary to prevent

the ailments that we can

fore-see on the horizon In making

this deliberation to act or not,

to consider biodiversity loss is

more than a matter of ethics, it

is more than a matter of

spiritu-ally; it is more than a matter of

how much it is worth It is

per-haps, without fear, a matter of

biodiver-He pointed out that the rent rate of extinction of spe-cies has not been seen since 65 million years ago He explained that the rate of extinction may

cur-be faster due to climate change, adding that it may drive to ex-tinction a third of the current species by 2050

Dr Bernstein noted that natural products are important source of medicines to main-tain human health He cited as example the coral reef of Sin-gapore, which “has an astound-ing 250 species or 20 percent of all coral species on earth.” He said coral reefs may be home to over one million species of liv-ing things

“Coral reefs’ living bounty

is 284,300 square kilometers

of the Earth’s surface, an area that is 100th or one percent of the ocean surface and would easily fit in the land area of the Philippines,” Bernstein said

Cone snails, described as beautiful but deadly because of their venomous toxins, are one group of organisms that inhabit coral reefs A drug, zinconotide, was developed in 2004 from the cone snail peptides to relieve the pain of cancer patients who are already tolerant to opium Some

of the patients were lously” rid of their pain, he said

“miracu-“What made zinconotide remarkable is that the major problem with opium therapy is that people develop tolerance, requiring increasing doses

of the drug to have the same therapeutic effect But the side effects increase with it; at some point you can no longer give the drug because the side effect

is dangerous In zinconotide, there is no tolerance It is a thousand times more potent than morphine And it treats pain by a mechanism that has never before been done.”

Dr Bernstein said cone snails, which have 700 spe-cies, may represent the “great-est treasure trove of potential medicines of any other group

of organisms on earth,” but cause they live on or near coral reefs, they are in danger

be-“Coral reefs are damaged because of human practices, such as dynamite fishing Cli-mate change is another chal-lenge because corals bleach due to global warming, making them susceptible to infections

With climate change, coral reefs, the habitat of cone snails and thousands of other organ-isms, will be lost in their entire-

ty by 2100,” he said

Dr Bernstein emphasized:

“We use species as just one measure of biodiversity But biodiversity is far greater than just a measure of species It is the sum-total of all varieties

of life on earth, including all the genes, all the species, all the population of the spe-cies and ecosystem on earth We use species as

a measure of sity, because we know them best, because

biodiver-we can identify them and people can relate

to them But as far as man health and biodiversity are concerned, species are es-sential Ecosystems and ecol-ogy are absolutely critical in understanding biodiversity.” 

hu-We use species as just one measure of biodiversity But

biodiversity

is far greater than just a measure of species It

is the total of all varieties of life on earth, including all the genes, all the species, all the population

sum-of the species and ecosystem on earth

Cone snails, source of drug to ease pain of cancer patients.

30 www.aseanbiodiversity.org

BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION IS EVERYONE’S

 By ROLANDO INCIONG

W hy should business be interested in biodiversity

conservation when many believe it is supposed

to be the turf of governments and conservation organizations?

Biodiversity encompasses all life on Earth It provides hu-mans with all the basic needs

to survive As biodiversity is life itself, the loss of biodiver-sity knows no geographical, cultural and political bound-aries Therefore, biodiversity conservation is everyone’s concern, including business

Business depends on versity Plant and animal spe-cies and ecosystem services provide business with both ingredients and products: food and water, medicine, water, building materials, paper, fuel, fiber, and more

biodi-Natural products, animals:

Important source of medicines, new technologies

In his keynote address at the ASEAN Conference on Biodiversity held on October

21, 2009 in Singapore, Dr

Aaron Bernstein, a member of the faculty of Harvard Medi-cal School and its Center for Health and Global Environ-ment, noted that natural prod-ucts are important source of medicines Cone snails, de-

scribed as beautiful but deadly because of their venomous tox-ins, inhabit coral reefs A drug, zinconotide, was developed in

2004 from the cone snail tides to relieve the pain of can-cer patients who are already tolerant to opium Some of the patients were “miraculously”

pep-rid of their pain, Dr Bernstein revealed

The website of the Business and Biodiversity Initiative,

diversity.de, identified a lotus blossom, a shark, a penguin, a gecko as having inspired new technologies like self-cleaning surfaces, new aerodynamic coatings for airplanes, cars with low-drag coefficients, better engines and reusable adhesives

http://www.business-and-bio-“These animals have not only given us the opportunity

to create higher performance technologies; together with all animals, plants, fungi and mi-croorganisms, they clean the air and water, and contribute to creating fertile soil and a pleas-ant climate Both the economy and society benefit from bio-

logical diversity—in terms of providing food, preserving health, and catalyzing innova-tion,” the website explained

Ecotourism: Booming source of income

A booming source of come for business and commu-nities is ecotourism Globally, the rate of growth of ecotour-ism is five percent and even higher in a country-to-country basis The Nature Conservan-

in-cy reported that ecotourism has increasingly become an important economic activity

in natural areas around the world It provides opportuni-ties for visitors to experience powerful manifestations of nature and culture, and to learn about the importance of biodiversity conservation and local cultures At the same time, ecotourism generates income for conservation and economic benefits for com-munities living in rural and remote areas

A concrete example of diversity’s contribution to the economy through ecotourism

bio-is the Donsol Whale Shark teraction Program in the Phil-ippines Whale shark watching

In-in Donsol draws thousands of nature lovers This ecotourism has become an engine of Don-sol’s economic growth and, in

2005, contributed P35 million (roughly US$636,363 at P55 to US$1) to the Philippine econ-omy and direct income for lo-cal individuals

Business: Part of solution

to biodiversity loss

Clearly, nature, through its biological resources, provides business with the fundamen-tal components for long-term profits and survival But the world is alarmingly and quick-

ly losing its biodiversity and ecosystems The livelihood of humankind, in fact, the entire human race is at stake We are

losing our biological resources

at a very fast rate due to responsible human activities and unsustainable use of such resources—by communities and businesses

ir-The business sector is an integral part of the solution to biodiversity loss The interna-tional community, specifically those involved in conserva-tion, recognizes that the busi-

32

ness sector is a valuable

partner in the global effort

to sustainably manage its

rich but dwindling

biodi-versity resources

A number of meetings

of the Conference of the

Parties (CoP) to the United

Nations Convention on

Bio-logical Diversity (CBD) have

emphasized the importance

of the private sector in

en-suring the conservation

and sustainable use of

bio-logical diversity They have

also recognized that the loss

of biological diversity—as

well as its conservation—is

linked in multiple ways

with business activities

During the 8th Meeting

of the Conference of the

Parties (CoP8), countries

emphasized that the private

sector has to be increasingly

integrated into the

imple-mentation process of the

Convention The business sector is an important part-ner in the implementation

of the three objectives of the CBD: biodiversity con-servation, sustainable use of biodiversity, and access and benefits sharing of utiliza-tion of genetic resources

Business and Biodiversity Initiative established

This international ognition of the role of busi-ness in biodiversity conser-vation received its highest profile in May 2008, when Germany hosted CBD’s 9th Conference of the Parties (CoP9) Over 5,000 dele-gates from about 190 signa-tory states attended CoP9 where they sent strong signals concerning the col-laboration with the private sector On this account, the Business and Biodiversity

rec-Initiative was established

as an international effort within the scope of the German chairmanship of the CBD

The Business and diversity Initiative aims to intensify the engagement

Bio-of the private sector in achieving the objectives of the CBD by encouraging companies to: incorporate the conservation and sus-tainable use of biodiversity into their management sys-tems by signing and imple-menting the Leadership Declaration; publish their best practices; actively take part in CoP10 in Nagoya, Japan, in October 2010; and broaden the international profile of the Initiative

To date, there are 42 companies involved in the Initiative, among them are such famous names as Fu-

jitsu, Volkswagen, Puma, Ricoh and Ritter Sport

Japan’s initiative

In Asia, a number of companies have banded together to incorporate con-servation measures in their corporate social responsibil-ity programs One example

is the Japan Business tive for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodi-versity (JBIB) headed by Dr Adachi Naoki JBIB has 37 members with five of them

Initia-as original signatories of the Business and Biodiver-sity Initiative launched in Germany in 2008 Among the popular members of JBIB are Ajinomoto, Broth-

er Industries, Japan Bank for International Coopera-tion, Hitachi, Kao Corp., Mitsubishi, Panasonic and Seiko Epson Corp

His Majesty the King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn grace a ceremony for PTT Public Company Limited’s mangrove forest Photo courtesy of PTT Public Company Limited, Thailand

The Nippon Keidanren

(Japan Business

Federa-tion), a comprehensive and

biggest business

organiza-tion in Japan with its more

than 1,600 member

compa-nies, is involved in

biodi-versity conservation

Japanese corporations

have undertaken a

num-ber of concrete steps to

mainstream biodiversity

conservation in their

busi-ness policies and programs,

among them, the crafting of

the Nippon Keidanren

Dec-laration on Biodiversity in

March 2009; the Shiga

Busi-ness and Biodiversity

Initia-tive in Lake Biwa in April

2009; the Fujifilm Group

Guidelines for Biodiversity

in June 2009; the Ricoh

Group Biodiversity Policy

in March 2009; the Toyota

Biodiversity Guidelines in

March 2008; and the

Ka-jima Corporation

Biodiver-sity Guideline in 2005

Thailand’s model

In Southeast Asia,

Thai-land’s giant PTT Public

Company, Ltd is a model

in biodiversity

conserva-tion Like other mangrove

forests threatened by

con-version into shrimp farms,

the mangroves in Prachab

Khirikhan dwindled in just

a few years Realizing such

tragic loss, PTT and the

Pranburi community

revi-talized over 786 rai (1 rai is

equal to 1,600 square

me-ters) of forests in the Klong

Kao-Klong Koi National

Forest Reserve as part of

the

One-Million-Rai-Refor-estation Project in honor

of His Majesty, The King

PTT, likewise,

estab-lished a mangrove

ecolo-gy-learning center, which

now serves as a learning

hub for mangrove forest

ecology, and a nursing

and conservation ground

of various aquatic

ani-mals The site has become

a model of dence of lives among hu-mans, animals and forest

interdepen-For its effort, PTT received the Sirinath Rajini award from Her Majesty, The Queen

Philippines’ model

As part of an industry that relies on natural re-sources and energy, cement company CEMEX focuses its social responsibility strategy on running an ef-ficient and profitable busi-ness while caring for the needs of the environment and communities

CEMEX Philippines Foundation launched in May 2007 the CEMEX Adopt-a-Species Program, which is helping insti-tutionalize a strong, sci-ence-based framework for a long-term species conservation program to effectively avoid the ex-tinction of endangered species and the degrada-tion of their habitat This program wants to encour-age greater private-sector participation in nature conservation

As part of the nary adoption scheme, the foundation spearheaded the adoption of whale sharks in Donsol, Sorsogon

prelimi-In its wider context, this program, in partnership with Conservational Inter-national (CI), has identified priority species in the In-ternational Union for Con-servation of Nature “red list” of threatened groups

It encourages private panies and individuals to adopt a specific species not only by funding conser-vation efforts but also by helping coordinate existing projects and activities that seek to protect the particu-lar species

com-The program, likewise, helped draft potential legis-lation where participating organizations, companies and even individuals are given incentives to encour-age support for conserva-tion activities Both the CEMEX Philippines Foun-dation and CI believe that such legislative support is crucial to the program’s long-term sustainability

In October 2008, they nessed the passage, by the House of Representatives,

wit-of House Bill 3590 or the

“Adopt-a-Wildlife Species Act of 2008.” The measure

is waiting for concurrence

by the Philippine Senate

Profi table opportunities

Conducting sity conservation activi-ties or joining the Business and Biodiversity Initiative offers member companies with opportunities to be more profitable while tak-ing care of nature These include:

biodiver- Improving business efficiency—by im-proving and expand-ing environmental management systems and using resources more efficiently;

 Long-term tiveness—by farsight-

competi-ed adjustment of products, sustainable methods of produc-tion and anticipation

of regulations;

 Credible tion and improved image—by including nature conservation into the business practices and corpo-rate social respon-sibility, a company will make an observ-able contribution

communica-in the public eye to both community and society;

 Motivate ees—an active envi-ronmental policy is positively influenc-ing the working at-mosphere in one’s business; and

employ- Showing action—by proactively ap-proaching new chal-lenges instead of merely reacting to circumstances

Membership to the Business and Biodiversity Initiative is free Just log

on to and-biodiversity.de

http://www.business-ACB’s regional business and biodiversity forum

In Southeast Asia, the ASEAN Centre for Biodi-versity (ACB) is encourag-ing the business sector to venture into conservation

By mid-2010, as part of the celebration of the Inter-national Year of Biodiver-sity, ACB will organize a regional business and bio-diversity forum to enable big and small corporations

to learn about each other’s best practices in biodiver-sity conservation

Indeed, business and biodiversity and their eco-systems are interdepen-dent Companies, in many ways, directly depend on biodiversity—from water to wood, from fiber to food Indirectly, business ben-efits from flood protection and erosion control that na-ture’s ecosystems provide But when business pollutes and overexploits, biodiver-sity is in deep trouble The challenge is for business in Southeast Asia to take the lead in conservation After all, business has more re-sources to spare than gov-ernments and conservation organizations 

34 www.aseanbiodiversity.org

ACCESS AND BENEFIT SHARING:

TOWARDS ADOPTING AN INTERNATIONAL REGIME

T he earth is rich in natural resources, including genetic

resources from plant, animal or micro-organisms, which are used for daily human consumption, and for research and commercial production of products

Genetic resources are beneficial for research and development, transfer of technologies, biotechnological researches and financial benefits from the commercialization of products based on genetic resources

Article 15 of Convention

on Biological Diversity (CBD) addresses the terms and con-ditions for access to genetic resources and benefit sharing (ABS) Since 1993, countries that are Parties to the CBD began developing a set of in-ternational regimes on ABS which resulted in the adoption

of the Bonn Guidelines on ABS

in 2002 during the Sixth ference of Parties to the CBD

Con-The Guidelines are expected to assist countries and other rel-evant stakeholders in develop-ing and implementing the ABS strategies

The Guidelines identify a) steps in accessing genetic re-sources and benefit sharing; b) basic requirements for mutu-ally agreed terms; and c) the roles and responsibilities of providers and users It also em-phasizes the importance of de-veloping administrative, legal

and regulatory mechanisms at national level

The international regime

is expected to be completed and presented during the 10th Conference of Parties of the CBD in October 2010 in Na-goya, Japan

In the ASEAN, its 10 ber States have treated ABS as

Mem-a priority issue for regionMem-al laboration and harmonization

col-ABS is very significant to the region because it is home

to a treasure trove of rich diversity resources This vast wealth of plant and animal species has been a rich source

bio-of food, medicine, shelter, lihood and other needs of the people of ASEAN

live-In 2004, ASEAN ber States finalized a draft on ASEAN Framework Agree-ment on Access to, and Fair and Equitable Sharing of Ben-efits Arising from the Utiliza-

Mem-tion of Biological and Genetic Resources The Framework aims to facilitate coordinated actions by ASEAN Member States on ABS It also aims to support national policies and regulations on ABS, and assist

in capacity building

At the ASEAN Conference

on Biodiversity (ACB2009) on October 21 to 23, 2009, in Sin-gapore with the theme “Biodi-versity in Focus: 2010 and Be-yond,” a session was devoted

to ABS to provide a venue for stakeholders to fully under-stand how to add value to the available genetic resources; understand negotiation issues

on ABS terms with users and providers of the resources; and ensure that benefits are gained by the local communi-ties and translate into conser-vation actions

Highlights of the sions of the ABS session were

discus-the negotiations for discus-the

inter-national regime, compliance,

ABS regimes at the national

level, digitalization of

biodi-versity information, “value”

in natural samples,

monitor-ing and trackmonitor-ing of genetic

resources, and status of the

Draft ASEAN Framework

Agreement

Negotiations for

international regime

Mr Geoff Burton, Visiting

Senior Fellow of the United

Nations University-Institute of

Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS),

contextualized the discussions

on the negotiations for the

in-ternational regime Mr

Bur-ton gave the presentation on

behalf of Timothy Hodges,

Co-Chair of the Working Group

on Access and Benefit Sharing

(WG-ABS), Convention on

Bio-logical Diversity (CBD)

Mr Burton highlighted the

common misconception that

“green gold” was at stake in

access and benefit sharing In

reality, he said, the promise of

reward was much less

straight-forward than prospecting for

gold

He presented a road map

from Bonn to Nagoya in the

light of challenges and

op-portunities on the negotiation

for an international regime on

ABS He explained that the

technical nature of the topic,

complexity and cross-cutting

nature of the issues, and

diver-sity of stakeholders contribute

to the difficulty of the

negotia-tions

However, he recognized

that a significant movement

forward was achieved at the

Ninth Meeting of the

Confer-ence of the Parties (COP9) of

the CBD in Bonn, Germany

in 2008, when the Working

Group on Access and

Benefit-sharing agreed on a clear road

map toward the international regime

Sharing the views of the Co-Chairs, Mr Burton was hopeful that given the road-map from Bonn 2008, and the significance of the issue, an international regime on ABS would be adopted in Nagoya

in 2010

Compliance

On the issue of ance, Dr Andreas Drews, Coordinator, ABS Capacity Development Initiative for Af-rica, GTZ, asked the question:

compli-“Does compliance guarantee benefit-sharing?”

Compliance, Dr Drews plained, was defined in refer-ence to specific clauses in the text of the CBD as well as to relevant national legislation regulation and customary laws

ex-He added that compliance was also defined in the context of material-transfer agreements

In addition, capacity for gotiation of material-transfer agreements or other contracts, which allow for proper nego-tiation of such agreements, needs to be developed He un-derscored that such capacity building should include the formation of functional nation-

ne-al ABS frameworks

ABS regime at national level

An overview of the ress of work for an ABS regime

prog-at the nprog-ational level was sented by Mr K Nagulendran, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Malaysia

pre-Mr Nagulendran said that

ABS is very significant

to the asean region

because it

is home to

a treasure trove of rich biodiversity resources

This vast wealth

of plant and animal species has been a rich source

of food, medicine, shelter, livelihood and other needs of the people.

“Giant tree fern shade” Photo by Ronaldo Lagat, Philippines