Keywords:
tropical forests, Southeast Asia, climate change, sustainable development
Organizers:
- Heli Lu, Professor, Henan University, China
- Kazuhiro Harada, Professor, Nagoya University, Japan
Session description:
Tropical forests play a particularly important role in the global carbon budget because they contain about as much carbon in their vegetation and soils as temperate-zone and boreal forests combined. Nowadays released carbon from deforestation activities in tropical region accounts for approximate 17% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions every year, larger than the traffic sector including cars, trucks and buses etc.. For developing countries collectively, CO2 from LULUCF (Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry) activities constitutes an estimated one-third of their total emissions. In particular, Southeast Asia is following a trajectory that could make it a major contributor to global warming in the future. In recent years, the growth of emissions in Southeast Asia has been more rapid than in any other area of the world. Plantations such as oil palm, rubber and cacao are the main contributors to such released carbon. This session will focus on the implications of climate change on tropical forest resources and local economy. Both conceptual and case-based studies are welcome. Examples of contents include but are not limited to:
- Intense human pressures and declining carbon stocks，
- Conserving threatened habitats,
- Agriculture-related deforestation and degradation,
- Forests and resource-use conflicts,
- Enhancing knowledge of the ecology and conservation priorities for the threatened species within the protected area,
- Impressive economic growth, but widening inequality and persistent poverty, and
- Reducing poverty by generating sustainable long-term incomes for people in remote and rural areas.