Conservation focus: the challenge of conservation in changing tropical southeast asia.

Abstract

Southeast Asia is a biodiversity hotspot where the risk of extinction for many vertebrates is high (Duckworth etal. 2012) due to the loss and degradation of habitats resulting from burgeoning human populations and economies, expansion of agricultural development, and unsustainable harvest of wildlife and other natural resources (Sodhi etal. 2010). Important conservation challenges in the region, especially in the terrestrial and coastal realms, include reducing the loss and degradation of native vegetation and reducing the risk of species' extinction and extirpation. This will involve mitigating impacts of land-use change, reducing human-wildlife conflicts, improving management of protected areas, resolving land-tenure conflicts, increasing community engagement in in resource conservation, and ultimately developing proconservation behaviors in Asian societies as a whole. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.