Biodiversity experts and researchers from different ASEAN Member States gathered at the National University of Singapore for the 2nd Biodiversity Science Forum.
SINGAPORE — Over 50 experts and researchers from various ASEAN Member States (AMS) gathered at the Biodiversity Science Forum (BSF) 2024 to discuss the ecosystems of peatlands, mangroves, and freshwater swamps.
Although the ASEAN region occupies only 3 per cent of the world’s total land area, it is home to some of the world’s richest centres of biodiversity. These habitats are not only sites of rare, endemic, migratory, and endangered species. They also have historical, social, and economic value that is currently threatened by mega-urbanisation, infrastructure development, and industrial food production.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Theresa Mundita S. Lim, executive director of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), discussed the importance of peatlands, mangroves, and freshwater swamps that provide essential services like food security and climate stability. “We look forward to exploring how these ecosystems can fuel sustainable, science-based solutions for ASEAN, driving impactful actions that support our shared environmental and socio-economic goals,” she said.
In addition to being substantial carbon sinks and climate regulators, peatlands, such as the region’s largest area in Indonesia, provide refuge for rare and endangered species. On the other hand, the peat swamp forest in Agusan marsh, Philippines offers crucial services such as flood management, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity conservation.
On the second day of the forum, participants had a field visit at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, one of two ASEAN Heritage Parks in Singapore.
The science forum is a platform for biologists, historians, park managers, museum curators, conservationists, community organisers, and other key stakeholders to produce new insights on the region’s peatlands, mangroves, and freshwater swamps with the hope of fostering new strategies on biodiversity conversation that span disciplines, languages, methods, publics, and ecologies.
“Research plays a crucial role in developing evidence-based and innovative solutions that are scalable at a regional level and can be implemented collaboratively, recognising our shared natural heritage,” Dr. Lim also shared. “By advancing research, policy, and practical solutions, and combining traditional knowledge with science-based methods, we can effectively sustain these vital ecosystems,” Dr. Lim continued.
At the end of the forum, Dr. Arvin C. Diesmos, Director of the Biodiversity Knowledge Management Department of the ACB said that the event was an opportunity to learn, collaborate and help each other on conservation research and discuss ways to address challenges in biodiversity conservation. “With guidance and support from the ACB Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), we will prepare proceedings and deliver policy briefs reflecting the outputs of the BSF”.
The two-day forum providing cultural, scientific, and historical analyses into the region’s local biodiversity heritage was co-organised by the ACB and the Asia Research Institute of the Department of History and the Department of Biological Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS), with support from the NUS Faculty of Science – Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Collaborative Grant.
ACB Scientific Advisory Committee Meeting
Members of the ACB SAC together with Executive Director Dr. Lim and ACB officials.
In connection with the 2024 BSF, the ACB’s SAC also convened to discuss updates and align priorities on biodiversity research and conservation.
In her message, Dr. Lim highlighted the SAC’s importance in the ACB’s role as one of the world’s 18 regional and subregional technical and scientific cooperation support centres for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KM GBF). “The ACB is expected to be able to provide insightful and meaningful analyses of regional biodiversity data and to make these accessible in the form of credible scientific studies and effective knowledge products and publications, not only to the AMS but also to partner institutions, scientists and scholars, civil society groups, and many other stakeholders,” Dr. Lim said.
The need for informed and science-based decision-making is clearly stipulated in Target 21 of the KM GBF, which calls for ensuring that the best available data, information and knowledge, are accessible to decision makers, practitioners, and the general public to guide effective and equitable governance, as well as integrated and participatory management of biodiversity.
Established in 2008, the SAC, composed of biodiversity experts representing the 10 AMS, acts as a “think tank” providing scientific and technical advice to the ACB, ensuring that conservation initiatives in the ASEAN region are science-based and would benefit the AMS.
