Despite having the largest share of the world’s tropical forest, Southeast Asia has become the world’s major deforestation hotspot that suffers from severe biodiversity loss. This is mostly due to the conversion of intact forests into plantations, such as for palm oil.
Many efforts have been implemented to prevent deforestation such as the REDD+ project. But many met dead ends because most of the projects were done by people who don’t live near the forests themselves; thus, they don’t see the importance of keeping the forests intact. On the other hand, many communities living around or in forests across Southeast Asia have been trying to do as much as they can to recover their lost forests.
This webinar will look more on the latest condition of Southeast Asian rainforest and efforts to restore the degraded ecosystem and how journalists can work to cover this issue.
DATE: Thursday 6th May, 2021
TIME: 8pm (GMT+7)
MEET OUR SPEAKERS
Gaea Katreena Cabico, Journalist Philstar.com
How journalists cover forestry issues in
Southeast Asia
Gaea is a journalist based in the Philippines. She writes stories about the environment, climate crisis, human rights, and health for Philstar.com. Gaea was part of the Climate Tracker Southeast Asia Forest Recovery Collaborative Journalism project and was a fellow of Climate Tracker’s Global Mentorship for Young Media Professionals. She wants to do more stories about communities vulnerable to the effects of climate change and the people on the periphery.
Dr. Chandra Silori – Deputy Executive Director, Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific (RECOFTC)
Forest restoration through community forestry
Dr. Silori is Deputy Executive Director of RECOFTC, based in Bangkok, Thailand. He has been working in participatory forestry management for more than 25 years, including nearly 12 years in south-east Asia. His professional experience includes policy and application research on various forms of participatory forest management, documentation of traditional knowledge systems, biodiversity conservation, rural development, gender mainstreaming in forest management and conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
We look forward to seeing you there!