Southeast Asia Forests to Receive $227.4M Boost for Conservation

A vital initiative aims to protect Southeast Asia and the Pacific’s imperiled primary forests. The program, backed by substantial funding, addresses deforestation and promotes sustainable practices to safeguard these invaluable ecosystems, crucial for biodiversity and communities.

Ambitious Program Launched in Chiang Mai

An integrated program, the Southeast Asia and the Pacific Forests Integrated Program, recently commenced in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This project is supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and intends to preserve primary forests across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) will lead the project.

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The program has secured $42.4 million in GEF grants. Additionally, it benefits from $185 million in co-financing. The initiative will focus on projects within Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand, along with a regional coordination project. It strives to improve the management of over 3.2 million hectares of protected areas and more than 7 million hectares of landscapes. Furthermore, it will restore 8,500 hectares of damaged ecosystems. Finally, it seeks to decrease greenhouse gas emissions by 34 million tons and benefit approximately 20,000 people.

“Conserving primary tropical forests is the best response to the urgent environmental crisis that is a threat to human well-being globally and doing so can support green development.”

—Mr. Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, GEF CEO and Chairperson

Deforestation rates in Southeast Asia have been alarmingly high. According to a 2024 report, the region lost an average of 1.13% of its forest cover annually between 2001 and 2022 (World Resources Institute).

Goals and Collaboration

The inception workshop saw the participation of nine regional countries, including Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, and others. The program’s objectives and coordination mechanisms were further defined. The workshop participants agreed on key objectives for the six-year program. These include a regional vision on primary forests, a primary forest investment forum, and a knowledge and learning hub.

The program will foster comprehensive policies, strategies, and frameworks on national and regional levels. The goal is to minimize primary forest loss and boost recognition of other effective area-based conservation mechanisms in primary forest landscapes. The regional coordination project will also improve collaboration and south-south cooperation to support knowledge exchange and capacity development for improved primary forest management across borders.

This initiative is one of five GEF integrated investments for primary forests. It will collaborate with similar programs to facilitate global change in critical tropical forest landscapes. This unified strategy will help safeguard the biodiversity of the Indo-Malaya forest biome. This is while addressing the challenges posed by deforestation and climate change.