Summary

In this module, you have learnt about key conventional challenges that has been common in Asia. You learned about concepts of deforestation/forest degradation, desertification and illegal trade of forest products and wildlife, and analyze their main drivers, impact and some policies and practices that has been applied to address those challenges. Moreover, you also have been learned about new analytical framework such as tele-coupling and theory of changes to analyze some of those challenges in Asia. Recognizing current and future global and regional changes, new and emerging threats for biodiversity conservation in Asia were also discussed. Particularly, we focused on climate change, invasive species and urbanization and linear infrastructure development, key driver and their impact on biodiversity conservation. Of course, these are not only emerging threats in Asia, we have not touched upon pollution, fire, emerging disease and pandemic such as COVID-19/Ebola. However, those issues are related to conventional and emerging issues that you have learned. For instance, deforestation, forest degradation, illegal wildlife trade will increase the exposure of humans to agents of diseases such as COVID-19/Ebola. Similarly, climate change can exacerbate desertification, fire, invasive species and spread of agent of disease. Hence, these complex problems need interdisciplinary science to address tactfully, which is what you did learn from this module.