A new Global Environment Facility (GEF) funded conservation initiative, aimed at protecting the remaining primary forests of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, was officially launched in Chiang Mai, Thailand, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
A landmark USD 42.4 million conservation initiative, backed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and matched with USD 185 million in co-financing, was officially unveiled this week in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The Southeast Asia and the Pacific Forests Integrated Program aims to halt forest loss across the Indo-Malaya Forest biome—one of the planet’s last stretches of untouched tropical primary forest.
RELEVANT SUSTAINABLE GOALS
A Vanishing Biome Under Siege
Spanning Bhutan to Papua New Guinea, the Indo-Malaya Forest biome once cloaked the region in verdant primary forest. Decades of unsustainable agriculture, logging and land conversion have erased 60 percent of that original cover, imperiling more than 5,000 threatened species and disrupting critical ecosystem services for over 560 million people.
Jointly led by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the initiative will be implemented at the country level by FAO and UNDP in Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea and Thailand. Together, they will deploy landscape-based and spatial planning approaches to knit protected reserves and surrounding forests into resilient, interconnected habitats.
Ambitious, Measurable Targets
- 10 Million Hectares Under Improved Management: Strengthening protection and sustainable use across key forest tracts.
- 8,500 Hectares Restored: Bringing degraded lands back to life with native species.
- 34 Million Tons of CO₂ Mitigated: Avoiding emissions through reduced deforestation and enhanced carbon sinks.
- 20,000 People Supported: Generating sustainable livelihood opportunities in conservation and forestry.
A regional coordination project—led by IUCN and FAO alongside partners such as CIFOR-ICRAF and Grow Asia—will anchor cross-border collaboration, establish a knowledge hub and convene an investment forum.
Representatives from Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam endorsed a shared vision for safeguarding primary forests during the workshop. “Conserving primary tropical forests is the best response to the urgent environmental crisis,” said Carlos Manuel Rodríguez, CEO of the GEF.
Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General, hailed the biome as a “living reservoir of biodiversity, culture and climate resilience,” while FAO’s Alue Dohong emphasized the program’s potential to “boost regional action to conserve, protect, restore and promote sustainable use of primary forest landscapes—especially where most forests remain unprotected.”
A Global Mosaic of Conservation Efforts
This Integrated Program forms part of GEF-8’s Critical Forest Biomes portfolio, linking efforts in Southeast Asia and the Pacific with parallel initiatives in the Amazon, Congo Basin, Guinean Forests and Mesoamerica. By leveraging rigorous, science-based guidelines alongside community-driven innovation, the initiative seeks not only to arrest deforestation but also to forge sustainable pathways for both nature and people.
As implementation begins, the success of this USD 42 million investment will hinge on sustained political commitment, effective governance and the shared resolve of governments, NGOs, forest-dependent communities and the private sector.
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