Environmental services and land use change in Southeast Asia: from recognition to regulation or reward?

Awareness of environmental services and land use change in Southeast Asia is high among scientists, policymakers, and society. In the case of transboundary smoke, the level of awareness and concern in the region is high, but subsides in between periods of ‘crisis’. Although there is a rising level of awareness of habitat loss and associated loss of genetic diversity, the basic cause–effect relationships underlying the ecological roles of biodiversity are still debated. Degradation of watershed functions is the most mature of our three meso-scale environmental topics; indeed it shows signs of being ‘fossilized’ by vested interests in the present consensus. Land use planning and other regulatory approaches have had little success. Policy instruments for achieving meso-level environmental policy objectives through changing incentives such as payment schemes for environmental services, have not been tested widely in Southeast Asia (or anywhere else). Further research and experimentation needs to incorporate strategic consideration of processes and spatial scales of environmental impacts and resource governance.