EU-Southeast Asia Expert Meeting on Conservation and Management of Biodiversity
EU-Southeast Asia Expert Meeting on Conservation and Management of Biodiversity:
Identifying Opportunities for Collaboration
January 25-27, 2010 – Hanoi, Vietnam
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Biodiversity determines the ecological and socio-economic importance of ecosystems. A very large range of ecosystem functions are concerned, including hydrological functions, carbon balance, wood and secondary production, biodiversity dynamic and conservation itself. The biodiversity processes at stake are influenced by human and environmental factors, including landscape management and climate changes.
According to the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), “Despite occupying only three percent of the earth’s surface, the ASEAN region hosts 20 percent of all known species that live deep in the region’s mountains, jungles, rivers, lakes and seas. Common land and water borders have allowed the ASEAN states to share many species that are biologically diverse from the rest of the world. All these make the ASEAN region significant to global diversity.
The region’s rich biodiversity is heavily under threat. If the rate of deforestation continues, the region will lose up to three-fourths of its forests, and up to 42 percent of its biodiversity by 2100. Forest conversion, forest fires, shifting cultivation, large-scale mining, wildlife hunting and trading, population growth and poverty, climate change, and lack of conservation resources greatly contribute to biodiversity loss. Biodiversity loss could trigger enormous effects on food security, health, shelter, medicine, and aesthetic and other life sustaining resources. “
The SEA-EU-NET project is supporting the organisation of an expert meeting in the field of biodiversity conservation and management that will deal specifically with:
§Relationships between plant biodiversity and landscape management;
§Linking biodiversity, ecosystem function (including fresh water ecosystems) and the provision of goods and services;
§Response of forest ecosystems to global changes.
The meeting has the following objectives:
§Provide input to the DG Research of the EC on the potentials for cooperation with SEA and on research topics of mutual interest;
§Consider the specific needs of the SEA partner countries;
§Take stock of existing and planned research projects and identify mid- to long-term issues which could be taken up by the FP;
§Foster networking and collaborations between researchers from both regions.
The conference will be attended by 40 participants.
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