Organizer: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Type/Location: Hybrid / Singapore
Description:
Peatlands in Southeast Asia are globally important as carbon sinks and megadiverse ecosystems. However, agribusiness-driven land-use change and drainage have caused peatland degradation and underground peat fires, which generate “haze” air pollution and lead to significant economic losses and health impacts. Haze and climate change are connected, with peat burning emitting significant amounts of greenhouse gases and pollutants – projected to increase with climate change due to intensifying droughts. However, these issues are largely treated separately in policy and governance, thus posing both a challenge for management and a lost opportunity for sustainability. This forum will share findings from two Asia-Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN) projects highlighting the importance of adopting an integrated approach to these issues. Discussions will highlight the potential and challenges of peatlands as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in Southeast Asia, particularly from data and community perspectives. The forum will culminate in a policy brief that foregrounds community-centred actions for improved peatland governance and NbS outcomes across the region.
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About the Speakers:
Dr. Matthew Ashfold is a Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. His research interests encompass various aspects of atmospheric and climate science, often in the context of tropical Asia. Current research priorities include the impacts of climate change on air pollution and the co-emission of greenhouse gases and air pollutants.
Dr. Azliyana Azhari is a Research Fellow in Climate Change Communication at Monash University Malaysia. Azliyana received her PhD in Environment and Development from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Her research focuses on the intersection of atmospheric pollution and emission management. She is the Principal Investigator on the APN project “Building capacity through co-production in Indonesia and Malaysia to address the climate change communication gap between scientific and lay audiences through journalists”.
Dr. Alex Lechner is a landscape ecologist and Professor, coordinating the Master of Sustainability program at Monash University Indonesia. He is also an honorary Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. His research focuses on developing methods to support sustainable planning. biodiversity conservation and natural resource management through developing novel spatial approaches, including ecosystem services modelling, wildlife connectivity analyses, remote sensing and participatory web-based GIS mapping.
Dr. Helena Varkkey is an Associate Professor of Political Ecology at Universiti Malaya. Her areas of expertise include transboundary haze governance in Southeast Asia, global palm oil politics and climate politics and governance. Her monograph on “The Haze Problem in Southeast Asia: Palm Oil and Politics” was published by Routledge in 2016. She is the Principal Investigator on the APN project “Policy and governance approaches to cooperative mitigation of peatland carbon emissions and transboundary haze in Southeast Asia”
Dr. Gusti Z. Anshari is a Professor at the Soil Science Department and Environmental Science post-graduate studies at Tanjungpura University, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. He obtained a PhD in Geography and Environmental Science from Monash University, Australia. He has worked as a tropical peatland researcher for the last 20 years. He is currently contributing to Chapter 2 of IPCC AR-6 report as the lead author.
Registration:
To attend the event virtually, please register here.