Deforestation and degradation has affected millions of hectares of rainforest in the Asia-Pacific. Efforts are now being made to slow and halt the trend – but can it be reversed?
Experts from government, business, civil society and research discussed this possibility at the 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit, held from 3-5 August in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.
In a session titled ‘Restoring our rainforests’, representatives from the Brunei Government, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and universities in Brunei and Australia shared ideas for rainforest landscape restoration in the Asia-Pacific. Together, they explored ways to find a balance between meeting the region’s development needs and preserving its valuable natural assets, as well as how this relates to domestic aspirations for eco-tourism and global efforts on climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Representing IUCN, Chetan Kumar and Li Jia stressed the importance of taking a landscape approach to restoration, and relating its aims to those of global commitments such as the Paris Agreement, Bonn Challenge and Sustainable Development Goals.
Kumar, a Manager of Landscape Restoration Science and Knowledge in IUCN’s Global Forest and Climate Change Program, and Jia, IUCN’s Forest Landscape Restoration Officer for Asia, share their thoughts in the video below.
The 2016 Asia-Pacific Rainforest Summit was hosted by the Government of Brunei Darussalam, and supported by the Australian Government as a coordinating partner, and by CIFOR as a science and engagement partner.
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