Stretching from Bhutan to Papua New Guinea, the Indo-Malaya forest biome harbours one of the last major primary forest areas in the world, hosting more than 5000 threatened species. About 60% of its original vegetation is already lost, and the remaining primary forests are under pressure from unsustainable agriculture, logging, and competing land use.
As it stands, more than 560 million people in the region depend on the resources provided by these forests, such as water regulation, carbon sequestration, and timber and non-timber forest products.
And to maintain the integrity of these primary forests so that they can deliver biodiversity, climate, and livelihood benefits, a new Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded initiative – the Southeast Asia and the Pacific Forests Integrated Program – was launched at an inception workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand, hosted by the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand.
The program is led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and will channel US$42.4 million in GEF grants and US$185 million in co-financing to three country projects in Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand and one regional coordination project aiming to protect the primary forests of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
The program aims to improve the management of 3.2 million ha and more than 7 million ha of landscapes, restore 8500 hectares of degraded ecosystems, mitigate 34 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, and benefit nearly 20,000 people.
Country projects will be implemented by FAO and UNDP and executed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Lao PDR, the Conservation and Environment Protection Authority of Papua New Guinea, and the Department of National Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Thailand.
The Regional Coordination Project, led by IUCN and FAO with partners such as CIFOR-ICRAF and Grow Asia, will bring together countries across the region to align their strategies, share knowledge and practical experience, and catalyse coordinated action across the biome.
Eight countries in the region participated in the inception workshop – Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam – and further developed the program’s objectives and coordination mechanisms. Countries and partners agreed on priority outputs that the six-year program should address, including a regional vision on primary forests, a primary forest investment forum, and a knowledge and learning hub.
The program will support the development of coherent policies, frameworks, and strategies at national and regional levels to help minimise the loss of primary forests and promote the recognition of other effective area-based conservation mechanisms in primary forest landscapes.
The regional coordination project will enhance collaboration and south-south cooperation to facilitate knowledge exchange, technical support, and capacity development for improved management of primary forests across borders.
The program is one of five GEF integrated investments for primary forests under the GEF-8 replenishment. The program will connect with the GEF-8 Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Programs for the Amazon, Guinean Forests, Mesoamerica, and the Congo Basin to drive global systems change in globally crucial tropical forest landscapes.
Alue Dohong, FAO Assistant Director-General and regional representative for Asia and the Pacific, said the primary forests of Southeast Asia and the Pacific provided essential services to the whole region, especially rural communities who depended on forest resources for their livelihoods and food security.
“This Integrated program boosts regional action to conserve, protect, restore and promote sustainable use of precious primary forest landscapes in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where most remaining primary forests are located outside any formal protection status,” Mr Dohong said. “This collaboration across countries and organisations will drive down the risks of biodiversity loss and climate change for better production, better nutrition, better environment, and better life.”
