Publications Search

Southeast Asian countries have been important suppliers of tropical timber to Japan since the early twentieth century. This chapter begins with a comparative examination of the history of the timber trade in the Philippines, Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, for whom Japan has historically been the major market for round...

While Borneo is a global biodiversity hotspot, its species-rich natural rainforests have been degraded and deforested in the past few decades by unsustainable shifting agriculture, commercial logging and the rapid development of industrial tree and oil palm plantations. Populations of some wildlife species have decreased drastically due to...

The island of Borneo is regarded as one of the most biologically rich regions in the world, containing some of the oldest remaining tropical rainforests. However, it also suffers high levels of deforestation and degradation to meet the demands for timber extraction and agricultural activities. In Sarawak, areas designated as permanent forests...

It is important to understand carbon (C) dynamics in terrestrial and coastal ecosystems in order to develop a strategy to control carbon dioxide effluxes. However, the factors determining concentrations of riverine carbon are still largely unknown, especially in Southeast Asia. We investigated the spatial distribution of dissolved and particulate...

With rapid deforestation and forest degradation ongoing in tropical regions, the maintenance of biodiversity and high biomass/carbon stocks can bring additional benefits to the sustainable management of natural forests along with sustainable timber production. However, the measures for improving the maintenance of biodiversity and high biomass are...

The drastic transformation in land use from natural forest to acacia and oil palm plantations in tropical regions is an issue of some controversy. The influence of land-use change on nutrient cycling is not fully understood. In this case, stream water chemistry is one of the most useful indexes of the nutrient status of an ecosystem. We...

Over the last few decades, the landscape of Borneo has drastically changed from primary forests to a mosaic of secondary forests and crop plantations, and more recently to the monocultures of single crop plantations. At the same time, livelihoods have become more linked to urban economies. To evaluate the effects of these changes on hunting...

In the traditional agricultural land-use pattern of the indigenous peoples of inland Sarawak, there are small areas of primary forests, referred to as a pulau or communally reserved forests (CRFs), which are customarily reserved by local communities. Here, we investigate the current condition and geographic distribution of CRFs in the human...

Just a few decades ago, Adyar River in India’s city of Chennai was an important source of water for various uses. Due to local and global changes (e.g., population growth and climate change), its ecosystem and overall water quality, including its aesthetic value, has deteriorated, and the water has become unsuitable for commercial uses. Adverse...

Geospatial data of urban green spaces (UGS) is mostly unavailable for emerging Indian cities, which effects their provisioning, maintenance and monitoring. In absence of spatial data, the strategic vision and comprehensive urban planning to enhance urban environment of cities witnessing transition are compromised. Owing to the direct link between...