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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...

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...

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...

The biodiversity of stream-dwelling fish and the effects of oil palm and acacia plantations on this biodiversity were evaluated by field research conducted in the Bintulu region of central Sarawak, Malaysia. A quantitative survey was conducted at 61 locations by electrofishing. These 61 locations included 16 sites in oil palm plantations, five...

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...

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...

The International Forum for Sustainable Asia and the Pacific (ISAP) is held annually to share information and facilitate diverse discussions on sustainable development in Asia and the Pacific, with the participation of front-line experts and diverse stakeholders from international organisations, governments, business and NGOs. ISAP began in 2009 as...

Myanmar, the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, has been facing considerable challenges with the management of solid waste in the recent past because of increasing income and consumption patterns, urban growth, and lack of effective waste management policies, treatment, and disposal methods. Waste management is also a crosscutting issue...