Summary

In this module, you have learned about key conservation policies and practices that have been implemented to address key conservation challenges in Asia such as deforestation, forest degradation, illegal timber and wildlife trade and climate change. We started by introducing concept of conservation governance, its key elements and existing types with particularly related to forest and protected area governance in Asia analyzing key challenges and way forward with selected cases. Governance is one of the key issue needed addressing those key challenges that you have learned in the previous module. You learned about forest restoration policies and practices, and analyze about its impact on addressing deforestation, forest degradation and desertification with examples from China’s forest restoration and sustainability policies and programs. Analyzing China’s restoration policies and actions is crucial as China introduced one of the massive forest restorations policy and programs in the world which transition China’s forest from net loss to gain within a 3 decades. Learning from these key lessons, best practices and challenges can be valuable for future restoration in Asia and globally.

Apart from these state led policies and actions, next, you learned about market based approaches such as forest certification and REDD+ to address deforestation, forest degradation, climate change and sustainable forest management. You exposed to these concept, dive deeper to how and why they evolved along with its trend as well as evaluating their effectiveness to address  deforestation, biodiversity conservation and climate change in Asia and globally. Last but not least, you were introduced and key global conservation policies and actions and analyzed their impact with various cases wherever possible: Paris Climate Agreement, New York Declaration of Forest, Bonn Challenges, relationship between biodiversity conservation and business, FLEGT along with convention on biodiversity (CBD), AICHI biodiversity targets, CITES and RED/GREEN LIST.