EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

5.3 Oil Palm and Biodiversity.................................................................................................79 5.3.1 Superior Productivity of the Oil Palm Vis-à-vis Other Oil Crops..................................81 5.3.2 Oil Palm and Rural Socio-Economic Development.......................................................82 5.3.3 Producing Palm Oil Sustainably.....................................................................................82 6.0 BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.........................84 6.1 Gap Analysis of the Region’s Ecosystem..........................................................................84 7.0 ACCESSING THE BIODIVERSITY OPPORTUNITY .............................................94 7.1 The Biodiversity Opportunity: Economic Benefit.............................................................94 7.2 Accessing the Opportunity: The Funding Challenge ........................................................97 8.0 A “WHOLE-OF-SOUTHEAST ASIA” BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION STRATEGY.........................................................................................................................101 8.1 Closing the Gaps .............................................................................................................101 9.0 THE WAY FORWARD................................................................................................124 9.1 Observations....................................................................................................................124 9.2 Recommendations.........................................................................................................125

10.0 REFERENCES............................................................................................................128 BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS.........................................158 LIST OF CASE STUDIES / CASE EXAMPLES / BOX ARTICLES............................160

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................161 APPENDICES .....................................................................................................................164

ANNEXES............................................................................................................................168

FOREWORD

The Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) carries the mandate to address the needs of humanity by providing the best scientific advice and advocacy that is independent, credible, relevant and timely. ASM champions planetary health and is developing a National Planetary Health Action Plan driven by science, technology, innovation and economy (STIE) with all stakeholders. Biodiversity conservation, preservation, and management are a vital part of ensuring planetary health. ASM is currently carrying out a pilot project on precision biodiversity to demonstrate the application of nextgeneration technological systems such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things to monitor and manage biological resources for the protection of the planet as well as ensure sustainable socio-economic advancement.

Mankind’s journey toward economic progress has divorced us from nature. We are rapidly reshaping and destroying the environments that have nurtured the diversity of life forms for over a billion years. Biodiversity, the variety of life on earth is the keystone of human survival. It provides an array of ecosystem services - the provision of food, clean water and air, wild pollination and carbon sequestration, just to name a few. Sadly, overexploitation of the planet’s resources has endangered biodiversity and is predicted to lead to the sixth mass extinction if we continue on the current trajectory. The Covid-19 pandemic as well as previous outbreaks of SARS, MERS and Ebola has cast the spotlight on the spread of zoonotic diseases and the disastrous consequence of destruction of forests and natural environments that brings humans and wildlife into contact. The human activities that drive biodiversity loss are the same that drive climate change and pandemic risk, thus highlighting the centrality of nature for a healthy planet.

Protected areas are a cornerstone of biodiversity protection. Not only do they secure biodiversity but also enhance ecosystem resilience, contributing to food and water security, reduction of disaster risk and mitigating climate change. The contributions of well-managed protected areas are often underappreciated in development policy decisions. It is telling that Southeast Asia has very few marine protected areas, with Malaysia’s 5% being the highest percentage of marine protected areas. The 2020 CBD global framework calls for protection of at least 30% of the planet by 2030. This report makes a case for the importance of both terrestrial and marine protected areas toward green and blue economies.

The time has come for us to re-connect with nature in a big way. Although biodiversity conservation competes with the social and economic predilection for resource extraction and land and water development, the economic case for protecting nature is compelling. The economic value of the ecologic services provided by biodiversity is estimated at about $150 trillion per year. This far exceeds the world’s gross domestic product but is often ignored in decision making processes. We must highlight the fact that biodiversity protection and economic development are not mutually exclusive. Biodiversity must be harmonised into our economic system.

Southeast Asia is one of the most mega biodiverse regions of the globe, boasting the most extensive and diverse coral reefs and mangrove areas on the planet. We must open our eyes and minds to the fact that these are national treasures of great sovereign worth. They are also powerful carbon sinks, that absorb carbon dioxide and prevent our planet from overheating. The Biodiversity Intactness Index shows that while the developed countries have depleted most of their natural capital, Southeast Asia has best retained its biodiversity and hosts about 80% of the world’s biodiversity. However, there is still much to be done. Southeast Asia could become an agent of change and a role model of economic development through nature protection. This is an opportune time for Southeast Asia to carve a new path toward planetary health. This report identifies gaps in the enablers of the natural ecosystem and proposes 9 key recommendations to close the gaps and ensure that socio-economic development and biodiversity can coexist for planetary health and the wellbeing of the people of Southeast Asia. ASM is honoured to publish this report to serve as a useful reference for regional planning and forge sustainable development initiatives. I am confident that if all parties work together in the spirit of regional interest, we can successfully mainstream biodiversity conservation and sustainable economic development in Southeast Asia.

Professor Emerita Datuk Dr Asma Ismail FASc

President, Academy of Sciences Malaysia

MESSAGE

Prioritising Biodiversity Conservation in ASEAN as a Strategy for Sustainable Development and Economic Growth

The ten-member states of ASEAN is a well-known biodiversity hotspot with three of its members, namely Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in the global league of 17 megadiverse countries. However, the countries in the region are in a constant state of balancing their conservation priorities with the demands for socio-economic development.

It would be interesting to analyse how these countries could focus on biodiversity conservation and restoration as a way to help achieve the region’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those related to economic growth, clean water, food security, rural development, job creation and poverty alleviation.

Specifically, we would like to see how the region’s sustainable development strategies can move away from practices that exploit nature to approaches that preserve or even enhance biodiversity and natural ecosystems. Investing in ecological infrastructure refers to investing in naturally functioning ecosystems and the restoration of degraded ecological infrastructure that deliver valuable services to people and reduce risk.

This concept of ecological infrastructure relies on better understanding the role that nature plays in supporting people and the economy as well as preserving cultures and otherwise benefiting local communities. Restoration, conservation, establishing and better managing protected and conserved areas, and advancing rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities and supporting the management and governance of their territories are all examples of economic strategies for megadiverse countries that a shift in sustainable development could promote.

A 2020 report from The University of Cambridge found that protecting 30% of the world’s land and ocean provides greater benefits than the status quo, both in terms of financial outcomes and non-monetary measures like ecosystem services. The authors concluded that these benefits outweigh the costs by a factor of at least 5:1. Based on the work of over 100 scientists and economists, the report is the most comprehensive global assessment of the financial and economic impacts of protected areas ever completed.

McKinsey also recently completed an analysis of the economics of 30% protection in its Valuing Nature Conservation report. The authors found that increasing protected areas to 30% of land and ocean would support 30 million jobs in ecotourism and sustainable fisheries, directly add 650,000 new jobs in conservation management and support $500 billion of GDP in ecotourism and sustainable fisheries. Other benefits include reducing CO2 emissions by 2.6 gigatons annually, decreasing the risk of zoonotic diseases and more than doubling the protected habitats of endangered species.

A 2014 study found that, every year, nature provides over $125 trillion worth of critical ecosystem services that underpin human wellbeing and economic development. These include providing clean drinking water and fertile soil, stabilising the climate and pollinating the crops we eat. The study found that these ecosystem services are more than 40% more valuable than global annual GDP. However, these services are typically not priced and are not accounted for in global markets. That means that they are overexploited and massively underfunded. The study also found that our destruction of nature results in an estimated US$1.4 trillion of economic losses each year, equivalent to 1.6% of global GDP.

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2020 Global Risks Report ranks biodiversity loss andecosystem collapse as one of the top five risks in terms of likelihood and impact in the coming decade.

An analysis from Swiss Re Institute found that 55% of global GDP depends on high functioning biodiversity and ecosystem services. The study revealed that one fifth of countries worldwide are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing due to a decline in biodiversity and related services.

An international team of 26 authors found that a substantial increase in ocean protection could have triple benefits, by protecting biodiversity, boosting the yield of fisheries and securing marine carbon stocks that are at risk from human activities. The experts identified specific areas that, if protected, would safeguard over 80% of the habitats for endangered marine species, and increase fishing catches by more than eight million metric tons. The study, published in Nature in March 2021, is also the first to quantify the potential release of carbon dioxide into the ocean from trawling, a widespread fishing practice—and finds that trawling is pumping hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the ocean every year, a volume of emissions similar to those of aviation.

In a study published in November 2020, a group of researchers found that strategically locating marine protected areas (MPAs) in overfished fisheries can have important benefits for both conservation and the provision of food. They conclude that a strategic, 5% expansion of the existing global network of MPAs can improve future fish catch by at least 20%.

The UK Treasury’s Dasgupta Review provides a useful economic framework for understanding how the global economy is embedded in nature and why our institutions and markets are failing to adequately value, invest in and protect nature. The report defines natural capital as an asset, similar to built capital and human capital, and describes how the world is mismanaging its portfolio of assets by under-investing in nature. This is due to institutional and market failures, including the failure to properly value the services that nature provides for free and the difficulty of defining and enforcing property rights.

I would like to thank the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), in particular the team led by Professor Dr Helen Nair FASc, for valiantly taking up the challenge of undertaking the study to illustrate how biodiversity conservation can be considered as a strategy for sustainable development and economic development in ASEAN.

Zakri Abdul Hamid, PhD

Ambassador and Science Advisor to the Campaign for Nature/ Chairman, National Biodiversity Roundtable, Malaysia