• Professor Barry Brook*
• Professor Stuart Bunn
• Professor Bruce Campbell
• Professor Tony Cunningham
• Professor Bart Currie
• Ms Jean Fenton
• Professor Stephen Garnett
• Dr Rolf Gerritsen
• Mr Joe Morrison
• Mr Kado Muir
• Mr Justin Murphy

• Dr Budy P. Resosudarmo
• Assoc Prof Navjot S Sodhi
• Dr Leena Srivastava
• Dr Natasha Stacey
  
• Professor Will Steffen
• Associate Professor Simon Tay
• Dr Tonny Wagey
• Dr Meryl Williams
• Dr John Woinarski
• Dr Joseph Wright

Mr Justin Murphy [ABC TV] - Master of Ceremonies

Justin Murphy grew up in Canberra in a journalistic family. His father and one grandfather were newspaper men, and the other grandfather - Jim Carroll - was the ABC's chief race caller in the 1920s and 30s. His brother Paul is a distinguished ABC and SBS journalist.

But Justin was different. After studying geography at the Australian National University, he joined the CSIRO and worked in environmental science for 18 years in Canberra, Alice Springs and Perth, only coming to journalism in an amateur fashion via a volunteer radio science program on 6UVS FM in Perth.

Making a complete career change, he joined ABC TV and in 1985 and 1986 he became one of the presenters of the very first series of Quantum with Andii Ross and Karl Kruszelnicki. From 1987 to 1990 he reported for the Sunday program on Channel 9. Whilst there, he did the first ever Australian electronic story about the Greenhouse effect and the Ozone hole, in the days when most people thought they were the same thing.

In 1991 Justin took up a reporting position at the 7:30 Report and has been there ever since, occasionally making forays into other programs such as Lateline and Foreign Correspondent. He was the winner of the 1997 Michael Daley Science Prize for TV journalism.

Speaker:

Prof Barry Brook will present Time up for Australia's last frontier on behalf of Prof David Bowman, who has been unavoidably called away family business

Bio:

Professor David Bowman is the leader of the Wildlife and Landscape Science Theme, School for Environmental Research, Charles Darwin University, and an adjunct professor at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies, Australian National University.

Professor Bowman uses a range of tools, including remote sensing and geographic information analysis, stable isotopes, ecophysiological analysis, mathematical modelling, biological survey and molecular analysis to understand how Australian landscapes have evolved in response to climatic change, varying fire regimes, the introduction of large vertebrate herbivores and the impacts of contemporary and prehistoric management.

Time up for Australia’s last frontier

The north is Australia’s last frontier. Here dreams of development, conservation and Indigenous rights all collide. Out of this collision may emerge a social, cultural and environmental order which is interesting, novel, sustainable and different to what has happened on colonial frontiers elsewhere in the world. It is unlikely that everyone will like what happens: for some their worse nightmares may be realised. A frustrating feature of debates about northern development is the lack of clarity about what people want to achieve and what they want to avoid. I probe this philosophical murk with three dystopian visions: the north as a water supply for southern Australia, a game park for globally endangered large animals, and a repository for the world’s nuclear waste. By using these extreme examples I show that despite the collective failure to articulate our visions and anxieties for northern development most people know what they don’t want.

Speaker:

Prof Stuart Bunn

Bio:

Professor Bunn is the Director of the Centre for Riverine Landscapes at Griffith University in Brisbane.  His major research interests are in the ecology of river and wetland systems with a particular focus on ecosystem processes, and he has published widely on this topic.

Professor Bunn has extensive experience working with international, Federal and State agencies and community groups on water resource management issues. He is a member of the Scientific Steering Committee for the Global Water System Project and has previously served as a member of the Scientific Committee for Water Research for the International Council of Science and as a Director of the Board of Land and Water Australia. His current roles also include Deputy Chair of the Scientific Expert Panel for the Moreton Bay Waterways and Catchments Partnership and member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Lake Eyre Basin Ministerial Council. 

Northern Australia – all that water … going to waste?

Rivers are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet and face growing pressures from an expanding human population and climate change. In much of the developed world, major river systems have been dammed and their floodplains are intensively cultivated and functionally extinct. In the developing world, surface and ground water resources are being rapidly depleted to meet the demands of an increasingly urbanised population.

In stark contrast, there has been little development of the water resources of tropical Australia. The region has approximately 70% of the Australia’s freshwater resources and over three quarters of the rivers in the region flow freely with largely unmodified flow regimes.

Until now, there has been little development of this resource but calls to address what is perceived by many as the 'tremendous wastage' of river water that goes into our northern estuaries are becoming more strident. Pipelines and canals are being touted to supply thirsty cities in the south and, as governments address the over-allocation of water in southern catchments, the irrigation sector is also looking north.

There is a unique opportunity to ensure that the development of Australia’s tropical water resources is truly sustainable. This will be critical if the region is to avoid the widespread degradation of rivers that has occurred in southern Australia and is becoming increasingly evident throughout much of southeast Asia.

Speaker:

Prof Bruce Campbell

Bio:

Bruce Campbell is Director of the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University. Through work with the Centre for International Forestry Research, he also leads an international group of 40 researchers located in ten developing countries.  The primary focus of his work is on the role of natural resource management in poverty reduction and in empowering local people. He has published work drawn from tropical environments on four continents.

Do local people and the environment collide?

While the title of this symposium is good for media attention, it does a disservice to local people and their livelihoods. Evidence drawn from South East Asia and northern Australia is that there is little collision between local people and the environment. What collision there is, is mediated and driven by large players in the economy.

In the remote rainforests of Borneo, roads now penetrate the forest for timber and mineral resources, and major plans are afoot for oil palm plantations. But none of this development is driven by the local people, and they capture a miniscule portion of the resource wealth that is subsequently mined and generated. Similarly, in Northern Australia the short term threats to the environment have nothing to do with indigenous people.

The short and medium threats to the environment emerge from large scale commercial agriculture and globalised markets. We need a different model of the relationships between people and the environment, a model that puts local people at the centre, and that shows how natural resources and their management can empower local people and substantially improve their livelihoods.

Speaker:

Prof Tony Cunningham

Professor Cunningham is an ethnoecologist/applied ecologist working on links between natural resources, local livelihoods and conservation. Over the past 25 years, he has worked in East Africa (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania), southern Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa), West Africa (Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire), Asia (Nepal, India, Indonesia) and to a lesser extent, Oceania (Australia, Fiji) in habitats from desert to tropical rainforest.

His main interest is the links between people and conservation, centred on the resource values (economic, medicinal, nutritional, utilitarian) of natural resources to people and conflicts between conservation areas and local communities. In particular, his work has focussed on the policy and practice of:

• Land-use planning and resource management taking cultural factors into account
• Non-timber forest product values and use: inventory, monitoring and management
• Processes leading to collaborative resource management programs between local communities and conservation agencies

Drivers of change: Culture, livelihoods and conservation

Social and cultural factors, together with the value systems imbedded within them, can be major drivers of environmental change – whether negative impacts or positive stewardship. The environmental challenges faced in the tropics and the priority areas for action are well known, as are the impacts this change has on people’s livelihoods. Implementing solutions is more complex however. Drawing on international examples, this presentation provides both international context and contrast to Kado Muir’s presentation on the culture theme in this symposium, addressing the following questions: Which major challenges related to management and use of biological resources in tropical landscapes and landscape mosaics over the next 15-20 years have their roots in cultural and social factors? How can biodiversity-development challenges be resolved? What lessons can we learn from successful international cases relevant to Australia?

Speaker:

Prof Bart Currie

Bio:

Professor Bart Currie is an Infectious Diseases Physician at Royal Darwin Hospital and Professor in Medicine at the Northern Territory Clinical School, Flinders University. He is also Head of the Tropical and Emerging Infectious Diseases Division of the Menzies School of Health Research at Charles Darwin University and Program Leader of the Biomedical Program in the Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health.

Areas of interest include clinical and epidemiological aspects of tropical and emerging infections, development of treatment guidelines and clinical toxinology.

Speaker:

Ms Jean Fenton, Indigenous Fire Project Officer – NAILSMA

Bio:

Jean Fenton was born on Thursday Island in the Torres Strait and raised in Far North Queensland.  Upon completing her degree in anthropology she has worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities predominantly in Queensland and the Kimberley. She has experience working for state government, conservation groups, regional NRM Groups and currently collaborating with a research organisation.  Working for these organisations has provided her with a good insight into how these groups currently work and how they can improve the way they work with Aboriginal people, communities and organisations across Northern Australia. Her work primarily focuses on relationship building, lobbying and the advocacy of Indigenous natural and cultural resource management approaches. She is currently employed by the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) with a North Australian focus on supporting Indigenous fire management initiatives.

Title:

Commercial use of wildlife in Indigenous communities

Abstract:

Following on from Joe Morrison’s discussion regarding culture-based economies, Ms Fenton will further explore the concept in terms of commercial use of wildlife and highlight some of the impediments to livelihood development in Indigenous communities based upon a case study. The case study will explore the recent Environment Minister’s decision to put a halt to the Northern Territory’s enterprise initiative of crocodile safari’s in light of conservation concerns.  

Speaker:

Prof Stephen Garnett

Bio:

Professor Stephen Garnett is an environmental scientist with an interest in the knowledge needed to live sustainably in the tropics. He has spent most of the last 25 years in the Australian tropics, primarily in private enterprise and government. He joined the staff of Charles Darwin University in May 2004 as Professor of Tropical Knowledge and is also theme leader for Livelihoods and Policy in the School for Environmental Research.

Professor Garnett is recognised for research on conservation management, particularly of threatened species. He has more recently become involved in research related to the knowledge economy in tropical Australia, including how to increase Indigenous involvement in the economy, how to attract and retain knowledge workers in the tropics and how to pool knowledge resources to increase economic productivity. Stephen is interested in the application of tropical knowledge for the purpose of improving livelihoods and conservation outcomes.

Title:

Policy changes needed for profitable livelihoods

Abstract:

Vannameid prawns occur naturally along the Pacific coast of central America. In the 1970s they were taken into aquaculture as a way of enhancing the livelihoods of people in the Pacific and South America. Now the species is the basis of industrial aquaculture worth billions, largely in east Asia. None of this money goes back to the people of the Pacific coast.

Macadamia nuts offer an alternative story. Until the 1990s most benefit from this Australian tree was derived by Hawaiian nut growers. However a determined effort by Australian growers and scientists produced superior breeds so that once again Australia dominates world markets. Nevertheless it is nut farmers who have gained the benefit, not the people on whose land the nuts once grew.

In 2006, however, there is still a species that has never gone abroad and for which there is a substantial and growing market. Be we must decide soon whether we set policies and legislation to benefit Australia as a whole, the Northern Territory or Indigenous people on whose land most trees grow. To benefit local livelihoods will require innovative and brave legislation soon.

Dr Rolf Gerritsen

Bio:

Rolf Gerritsen is a graduate of the Universities of Western Australia and Ghana and has a doctorate from the Australian National University. He is currently a Professorial Fellow attached to the Tropical Savannas CRC at Charles Darwin University. Rolf has taught at various Universities, the longest period being a decade at ANU in the Graduate Program in Public Policy. He has also worked as a Ministerial staffer and ran his own research consultancy for a number of years. Between 2002 and 2006 he was Director Social/Economic Policy in the Chief Minister’s Department in Darwin.

Title:

Abstract:

By 2050 northern Australia will have seen significant population growth. The population will have grown from the current 600,000 (approx) to about 750,000 to 800,000. However, this population growth rate will be about half the rate for the rest of Australia. So northern Australia will remain lightly populated relative to the rest of the continent. Most of the population increase will be from natural increase, except in the coastal Queensland segment of northern Australia where interstate immigration will have a significant impact.

However, the settlement patterns of the north will be quite different from the rest of Australia. These, when interacting with the economy of the north will provide some unique problems and create the need for new policy initiatives and perspectives. 

Mr Joe Morrison

Bio:

Joe Morrison is both Wardaman and Torres Strait Islander. Born and raised in Katherine Northern Territory, he has spent the last decade working with remote communities throughout the Top End of the Northern Territory and more recently across north Australia to develop local action and capacity to lead 'Caring for Country' initiatives. He is currently the Executive Officer of the North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) and Co-Theme Leader within the CRC Tropical Savannas Management based in Darwin. He is currently a member of two committees that advise the Federal Environment Minister in relation to Indigenous issues and biodiversity arising under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Title:

Managing for the future: A culture based economy for northern Australia

Abstract:

It is widely acknowledged that Indigenous people have lived in Australia for at least 60,000 years before the present. Therefore, the issue of people and environment colliding in a modern world has to look at ways in which adaptation from the past can inform the future. In particular, relationships to country and family have sustained ecosystems for millennia through a culture based economy that remains robust in many Indigenous communities across the north in the present. The North Australian Indigenous Land & Sea Management Alliance is working towards a culture based economy that encompasses cultural values and assets while examining new and innovative developments on Indigenous lands across the north on Indigenous terms. This reinvigorated model will be articulated further.

Speaker:

Mr Kado Muir

Kado Muir offers a unique perspective on communicating across cultures; his close and extended family are tribal Aboriginal people with very recent European contact experience. He is an initiated lawman and practices tribal law on a daily basis, he can speak and understand three Aboriginal languages and he has intimate personal knowledge of Aboriginal traditions, laws and customs.

Kado Muir balances his traditional knowledge and understanding with a higher education in western political, academic and business cultures. He is a qualified anthropologist with a Masters Degree in Cultural Heritage Studies (Anthropology and Archaeology) and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Anthropology and Industrial Relations.

Kado has spent 16 years professionally engaged in Aboriginal cultural affairs as an activist, a student, a public servant, an academic and a businessman. He operated a consultancy business for eight years and has also worked in senior management and academic positions in organisations ranging from Land Councils, Government research bodies, Aboriginal community organisations and Universities. He has been a university research fellow and he managed a research unit specialising in native title research and academic publishing.

Speaker:

Dr Budy P Resosudarmo

Bio:

Dr Budy P Resosudarmo is Fellow at the Economics Division of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), Australian National University (ANU). His research interests include determining the economy-wide impact of environmental policies, analysing the impact of fiscal decentralisation on regional economies, and understanding the impact of corruption and illegal activities on the economy and on natural resource endowment. His papers have appeared in the Economic Record, Ecological Economics and Bulletin of Indonesian Economic Studies, and he has edited a book The Politics and Economics of Indonesia’s Natural Resources, published by the ISEAS-Singapore. He received his PhD degree in development economics from Cornell University.

Speaker:

Assoc Prof Navjot S Sodhi

Bio:

Associate Professor Navjot S Sodhi is currently an associate professor at the National University of Singapore. He received his PhD from the University of Saskatchewan (Canada).

Associate Professor Sodhi has been studying the effects of rain forest loss and degradation on South East Asian fauna for the past ten years. He has published over 80 scientific papers in international and regional scientific journals, and has recently published a co-authored book entitled Southeast Asian biodiversity in crisis (Cambridge University Press)

Associate Professor Sodhi has received research grants from organisations such as the National Geographic Society, and has also spent time at Harvard as a Bullard Fellow where he now holds an adjunct position. He is currently an associate editor of Conservation Biology, the Auk, Biotropica, Ornithological Science, and Ecological Research.

Title:

South East Asian biodiversity in crisis

Abstract:

The biodiversity of South East Asia is gravely imperiled by drivers including massive habitat modifications, forest fires and the overexploitation of wildlife. We will present on a comprehensive determination of the current state of South East Asia’s terrestrial biotas and highlight the primary drivers responsible for the grave threat to the region’s unique and rich biodiversity. The looming South East Asian biodiversity disaster demands tangible actions. However, such will continue to be constrained by socioeconomic variables (e.g. rampant poverty and lack of infrastructure). Any realistic solution should involve a multi-pronged strategy (e.g. political, socioeconomic and scientific) in which all major stakeholders (e.g. people, governments, and national and international non-government organisations) must partake.

Dr Leena Srivastava

Leena Srivastava is currently the Executive Director, TERI, New Delhi – an independent not-for-profit research institution working in the areas of energy, environment and sustainable development. In her 20+ years of experience at TERI she has worked on a range of issues covering policy/planning, regulatory issues and economics of energy development pathways in India. 

Dr Srivastava is holding additional charge as Dean, Faculty of Policy and Planning, TERI School of Advanced Studies since June 2000 where she is teaching Doctoral courses on Energy Policy and Planning and Infrastructure Economics. She has a PhD. in Energy Economics from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India and has a number of publications to her credit. She is on the Editorial Boards of various international journals dealing with energy and environment issues.

Dr Srivastava was a Coordinating Lead Author on Working Group III of the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC and is currently the Anchor for Sustainable Development and Climate Change for the Fourth Assessment Report.

Dr Natasha Stacey - Panel member

Dr Natasha Stacey is an applied anthropologist with expertise in natural resource management in the Asia-Pacific region. She spent most of the 1990s conducting research into Bajo and other Indonesian traditional fishing activity in Australian waters and is currently finalising a book on this topic. Prior to working for the School for Environmental Research at Charles Darwin University as Program Coordinator, she was employed for 4.5 years as a Community Assessment and Participation Specialist on the Pacific International Waters Project based at the headquarters of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme in Samoa. Her current research interests include alternative livelihoods for maritime orientated populations of eastern Indonesia.

Speaker:

Prof Will Steffen

Bio:

Professor Will Steffen is the Director of the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra, and is also the Director of ANU's Institute for Environment. In addition, he is the Chief Scientist of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP), headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Professor Steffen received his PhD in inorganic chemistry in 1975 from the University of Florida, USA.

After working as a research chemist and then with the CSIRO Division of Environmental Mechanics, Canberra, Professor Steffen became the Executive Officer of IGBP’s Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) core project, based in Canberra, in 1990, and subsequently Executive Director between 1998 and 2004.

Through October 2005 Professor Steffen was Science Adviser, Australian Greenhouse Office, and Visiting Fellow, Bureau of Rural Sciences. His research interests span a broad range within the field of Earth System science, with a special emphasis on terrestrial ecosystem interactions with global change, the global carbon cycle, incorporation of human processes in Earth System modelling and analysis, and on adaptation to global change, particularly in relation to agriculture.

Speaker:

Assoc Prof Simon Tay

Bio:

Associate Professor Simon SC Tay, LL.B Hons (National University of Singapore) LL.M (Harvard), teaches international law at the National University of Singapore. He is concurrently chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, a non-governmental think tank. Since July 2002, he has been chairman of the National Environment Agency, the country’s major agency for environmental protection and public health. In Fall 2003, he was a visiting professor, teaching at the Harvard Law School and Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy.

Associate Professor Tay was selected for three terms as a Nominated Member of the Singapore Parliament (1997-2001) and has served to lead public consultations on Singapore in the 21st century, the national concept plan, and the Singapore Green Plan 2012.

Associate Professor Tay was a Fulbright scholar (1993-94) at Harvard Law School, where he won the Laylin prize for the best thesis in international law. In January 2000, the World Economic Forum (Davos) named him a 'global leader of tomorrow'. In 2002, he was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship, one of Singapore’s first non-governmental recipients of this award.

Is trade good for the economies and compatible with environmental protection in developing countries and, especially, those in Southeast Asia? And could environmental protection serve as a disguised form of green protectionism against the goods and competitiveness of these countries? The trade and environment debate on these and related issues has been proceeding for more than a decade in the World Trade Organization, without visible progress. In this period, states in Southeast Asia have entered into more free trade and economic cooperation plans, with both regional and non regional states. What are the prospects of reconciling trade and the environment in the region? What role can and should regional FTAs play?

Speaker:

Dr Tonny Wagey

Dr Wagey’s background is in Biological Oceanography specialising in ocean productivity and phytoplankton ecology. He has involved in numbers of oceanographic cruises in the north eastern Pacific and Indonesian waters. During his Master program at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, he studied the fisheries oceanography aspects of juvenile salmon in the Strait of Georgia. He completed his PhD program in 2002, at the same university in Canada.

In 2003, Dr Wagey was appointed as Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries of Indonesia on Fisheries and Oceanographic issues. He has involved in studies of IUU fishing and Oceanographic surveys with scientists the Agency for Marine and Fisheries Research (AMFR). One of his roles is to set up scientific collaborations between AMFR and other international institutions.

In July 2004, Dr Wagey was appointed as the Project Manager of the Indonesia Secretariat Office of the Arafura and Timor Seas Expert Forum (ATSEF), and since 2006 he has been the Regional Coordinator ATSEF.

In the Asia Pacific region the importance of the ocean and sea and the seriousness of the pressures on these resources are widely recognised. Economic development, particularly in this region is often closely tied to the oceans due to the increasing densities of population centers in coastal areas and the dependence of economies on products from the sea. The fisheries sector is an important sector in many Asia Pacific countries in terms of food production, employment and as source of foreign exchange. The significant contribution that the oceans make to regional economic and the economic benefits to the region lead to the need to improve the knowledge for sustainable management of marine resource. Asia Pacific region has embraced this broad objective, and working to implement it on a number of marine-fisheries issues.

The challenge facing this region is to balance short-term economic development needs against the long-term sustainable marine and coastal habitat and resources so that the range of choice and opportunities available in the future is not diminished by the consequences of present development choices.

In this presentation I will be discussing the regional marine and fisheries cooperation using the model of Arafura and Timor Seas Expert Forum (ATSEF), which is basically a collaboration between three littoral nations (Indonesia, Australia and Timor Leste). The main objective of ATSEF is to sustainably use marine and fisheries resources in Arafura and Timor Seas for the benefit of the people living in the coastal communities.

There are five focus priorities of the Arafura and Timor Seas Expert Forum (ATSEF), namely: (1) preventing, deterring and eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated  fishing in the Arafura and Timor Seas, (2) sustaining fish stocks, sustaining marine habitats and coastal and marine biodiversity, (3) sustainable and/or alternative livelihoods for coastal and indigenous communities, (4) understanding the marine, coastal, and ocean dynamics systems, and (5) improving capacity on data information, management and sharing between the littoral nations of the seas. These foci are relevant with the current situation that ATSEF nations are facing. I will present information using Indonesian data dealing with these foci.

Speaker:

Dr Meryl Williams

Meryl J. Williams chairs the Board of Management and is President of the Policy Advisory Council of the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research. From 2004-2005, she was the inaugural Executive Officer of the Future Harvest Alliance Office, supporting the 15 centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in establishing a formal alliance for collective action.

From 1994 to 2004, Dr Williams was Director General of the WorldFish Center, one of the CGIAR Centers. She concentrated the focus of the WorldFish on eradicating poverty, improving people’s nutrition, and reducing pressure on the environment.

Dr Williams began her career in the Queensland government in 1977, responsible for biometrics in fisheries research and the analysis of catch and industry statistics. In the mid-1980s, she was the fisheries statistician focusing on tuna and billfish at the South Pacific Commission. In 1986, she joined the Australian Department of Primary Industries and Energy (DPIE). Dr Williams established the Fisheries Resources Branch in DPIE to advise the Commonwealth and State governments on how better to manage their shared fisheries stocks at a time when many difficult decisions about resources needed to be made. In 1990, she became executive director of the Bureau of Rural Resources that advised the Australian Government on the science of key agriculture, forestry, fisheries and quarantine issues. In 1993, Dr Williams left Canberra to lead the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville.

Dr Williams is currently a member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Census of Marine Life, the Steering Committee of DIVERSITAS, the High Seas Marine Protected Areas Working Group. In 2005, she was a member of the Core Group to assist the development of Australia’s White Paper on aid. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Science, Technology and Engineering in 1993 and awarded an Australian Centenary Medal in 2003.

Southeast Asia is undergoing major transformations in its food supply and demand. The transformations are driven by demographic changes, a greater market orientation in agriculture, fisheries and forestry, ongoing shifts in land use and ownership and a greater susceptibility of food production systems to adverse environmental and climate events.

Southeast Asian countries are experiencing ‘youth bulges’ in their populations, along with increased longevity and rapid growth in their urban populations. These trends are changing the patterns of demand for food. For example, demand has increased for meat, fish and animal products, wheat and potatoes relative to that for the more traditional rice.

A greater market orientation by primary producers in the region is improving the quality of food delivered to more discerning local and export markets. Supply chain management is linking farmers, the growing agricultural service sector, researchers and retailers. Retail supermarkets, including large multinational chains, are changing the way food is marketed in all but the smallest towns and villages.

Land and policy reforms over recent decades have been at the base of agricultural reforms but some of the most important changes affecting food producers have come from changes in land and water use and management – agrarian reforms, land use changes such as clearing of forests for agriculture, spread of urban and industrial development to cover once productive farmland, major industrial developments in fisheries and aquaculture and decentralisation in natural resource management in several countries, e.g. Philippines and Indonesia. Despite ongoing improvements in agricultural technologies, land and water systems are being pushed more and more to their productive limits and production is more and more subject to climate events, water availability, soil fertility and crop diseases and pathogens.

In the face of such changes, the sustainability of regional food production systems and food policy development in the region will depend increasingly on a solid base of well targeted research and development. Through partnerships in international agricultural research, Australia’s own experience and expertise has much to offer the Southeast Asian region in this regard.

Dr John Woinarski - Panel member

Bio:

John Woinarski is a Principal Scientist with the Northern Territory’s Department of Natural Resources Environment and the Arts, and a Project Leader with the Tropical Savannas Cooperative Research Centre. Over the course of the last 20 years, he has worked on a broad range of biodiversity conservation issues in northern Australia, including conservation of threatened species, biodiversity survey, monitoring, and assessment of impacts and the management of threatening processes. He has published over 120 scientific papers, and was awarded the Eureka Prize for biodiversity research.

Dr Joseph Wright

Bio:

S. Joseph Wright received his doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles and is now Senior Scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in the Republic of Panama.  Dr. Wright has published more than 130 scientific articles and three books and served as President of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation from 2002 to 2005.  Dr. Wright’s areas of expertise include the ecology of plants and plant-animal interactions in a tropical forest setting and the conservation of tropical forests. 

Title:

The future of tropical forest species in South East Asia

Abstract:

It is widely anticipated that deforestation and habitat loss will precipitate an extinction crisis among tropical forest species. The potential loss of species is perhaps greatest in South East Asia where many species are endemic to vulnerable island habitats.

Dr Wright will evaluate two trends that might help to ameliorate the South East Asian extinction crisis.

First, human population growth is slowing and urbanisation is increasing throughout the region. Projections of future forest cover based on United Nations projections of population growth and present-day relationships between population density and forest cover suggest that future forest cover will not fall to the very low levels that are frequently anticipated. An extensive network of protected areas established by some but not all South East Asian countries provides the second encouraging trend. These protected areas are effective. Protected areas significantly reduced the frequency of forest fires in a satellite-based analysis of fire detections in 1,516 protected areas located throughout South East Asia. The median reduction in fire frequency is positively correlated with per capita gross domestic product and a human development index and negatively correlated with perceived corruption in country-level analyses. This suggests that economic growth and investment in human well being will increase the effectiveness of protected areas in South East Asia.