Upcoming Events

Past Events

Workshops

Workshop on Natural Climate Solutions in Southeast Asia, ARI, NUS, 8-9 May 2025 (convened in a hybrid format).

…”This interdisciplinary workshop locates the toolbox of NCS policies, actions and arrangements in Southeast Asia within global climate frameworks and agendas. In so doing, it connects international discussions and frameworks about NCS with the diverse policy contexts in which natural carbon sinks in Southeast Asia are placed. Examples of NCS in Southeast Asian settings include: (a) the uptake of paludiculture (wet agriculture) in tropical peatlands, (b) REDD+ initiatives for afforestation, reforestation and community-based agroforestry; and (c) mangrove reforestation. Increasingly, NCS activities and arrangements in Southeast Asia are being tied to carbon markets as carbon sequestration projects convert forests, peatlands and other carbon sinks into currency as high-quality offsets.

Through theoretical contributions and grounded case studies, the workshop will be guided and underpinned by the following questions:

• What, if any, characteristics of NCS involving nature-based carbon sinks in Southeast Asia could be considered novel, and how might any novelty best be accommodated within environmental governance regimes at regional and global scales?
• How and to what effect have international prescriptions for NCS been understood, adapted and applied in Southeast Asian sinks?
• How are NCS challenging and/ or complementing pre-existing regimes for managing Southeast Asia’s peatlands, forests, mangroves, seagrasses and agricultural soils?
• To what extent are NCS in Southeast Asia taking into account local community needs and priorities, and how can it better do so?”

Workshop on Asia’s Carbon Territories: Infrastructure, Environment, and Society from the Age of Imperialism to the Climate Crisis, ARI, NUS & Singapore Art Museum (SAM), 23-24 February 2024 (convened in a hybrid format).

…”This workshop aims to address power configurations, inequalities, and unevenly distributed vulnerabilities and responsibilities across territories through understanding old and new forms of carbon colonization. Focused on Asia, it is concerned with the territorialization of carbon-based fuels and the governance of carbon sources and sinks (ranging, for example, from the imperial expansion of colonial coal mines and railway systems to the naturalization of the coastal environment to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide). It also examines how carbon may be de-territorialized by the state and other actors (such as through the obfuscation of polluted energy hinterlands and the prevailing failure to inventory and assign responsibility for cross-border flows of emissions outside sovereign territories). Scrutinizing the trajectory from the historical formation of energy infrastructure to contemporary carbon-neutral policies enables us to understand the social, political, and ecological consequences of the complex interactions between the rise and demise of fossil fuels and the related processes of territorialization and deterritorialization.  Encouraging interdisciplinary knowledge production between historians, anthropologists, sociologists, geographers, and architects, among many others, our workshop hopes to draw a comprehensive picture of the carbonization and decarbonization of Asia.”

Workshop on Governing Carbon for Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation: Challenges and Opportunities for Southeast Asia, ARI, NUS, 19 January 2024 (convened in a hybrid format).

“The purpose of this interdisciplinary workshop is to present the preliminary findings of research undertaken through Singapore’s Social Sciences Research Council (SSRC) Thematic Grant program entitled Climate Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia. The workshop aims to understand the optimal arrangements for governing nature-based carbon sinks across sectors, administrative scales and disciplines. Presentations will locate nature-based carbon governance within socio-spatial contexts, potential financing mechanisms, power asymmetries and institutional cultures that shape their success or failure in the Southeast Asian region. The workshop will comprise presentations by members of our international research team, based on literature reviews and preliminary field work conducted since the grant’s inauguration in October 2022. The workshop format will involve 15-minute presentations of works in progress, followed by discussion. Selected presentations from this workshop will be developed for integration into a themed collection for submission to an international journal such as Climatic Change, Environmental Policy and Governance or Environmental Politics.”  

First External Advisory Board Meeting, ARI, NUS, 18 January 2024

Roundtable on Carbon Offsetting and Carbon Markets in Southeast Asia: What Role do they play in Climate Justice?, ARI, NUS, 9 October 2023 (convened in a hybrid format).
Speakers: Ms Hum Wei Mei (AirCarbon Exchange), Dr Lahiru Wijedasa (Birdlife International), Dr Micah Ingalls (Mekong Region Land Governance); chaired by: Dr Yingshan Lau. Asia Research Institute Seminar Series.

Mini-workshop on Social Science and Remote Sensing of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia, ARI, NUS, 7 August 2023. Co-organised with Cornell University. 

Workshop on Exploring Blue Carbon and Synergistic Opportunities: Seagrass and Seaweed, ARI, NUS, 18-19 July 2023. Co-organised with Bandung Institute of Technology and Cornell University.

Introductory Workshop for the Climate Governance of Nature-based Carbon Sinks in Southeast Asia project, ARI, NUS, 18-19 May 2023 (convened in a hybrid format).

Themed panels organised at an international conference

Miller MA & Taylor D (2025) Co-organised one themed panel on Climate Governance and Carbon Modernities in Southeast Asia’s Margins. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in Asia Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2 June.
Paper presenters: Dr Michelle Miller, Associate Professor Helena Varkkey, Ms Yustina Octifanny, Assistant Professor Danny Marks, Dr Jay Quevedo; chaired by: Professor David Taylor.

Panel abstract: “This panel examines how global carbon dynamics are transforming climate governance in Southeast Asia’s gendered, rural and discursive margins. Theoretically and conceptually, the panel is concerned with the role of carbon (geo)politics in shaping spaces of inclusion and exclusion in climate governance regimes. Southeast Asia’s internationally important carbon sinks are at heightened risk of degradation and predation owing to competing demands on their finite resources. Our presenters thus treat carbon valuations of mangrove forests, peatlands and agricultural soils as an issue of power, grounded in specific tenurial and societal arrangements, and rendered mobile through complex rural-urban linkages. The panel begins by locating these regional challenges to developing nature-based solutions within international climate discourses and frameworks. Presenters then zoom in on case studies that show how carbon modernities create, or compound existing, experiences of marginality. Gendered carbon inequalities in Indonesia’s peatlands, carbon colonialism in Thailand’s maize monocropping areas, and intersections between marginality and mangrove conservation tied to blue carbon policies in the Philippines are explored. Marginal climate discourses about overcoming the rural-urban divide are also analysed in a revealed preference experiment that tests the extent to which urban residents in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Singapore value carbon sink resources on which they depend in remote and rural areas. Taken together, the presentations in this panel seek to highlight hidden voices and viewpoints in Southeast Asia’s carbon transition that may prove significant in addressing ongoing challenges to the climate crisis.”

Lau Y & Inthakoun L (2025) Co-organised one themed panel on The governance of the forest carbon frontier in Southeast Asia. Association for Asian Studies (AAS) in Asia Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal, 2 June.
Paper presenters: Dr Yingshan Lau, Ms Lamphay Inthakoun, Professor Dixon Gevaña, Ms Yunrui Ren; chaired by: Professor Dixon Gevaña.

Panel Abstract: “Agriculture, forestry, and land use is the third-largest source of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions responsible for climate change. In response, a major focus of international policy concerns GHG emissions related to tropical forests as a carbon sink, including projects of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+), afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation (ARR), and improved forest management (IFM). Southeast Asia is a key locus of such programs considering its high percentage of forest cover combined with high rates of deforestation related to the region’s rapid economic growth. Extensive research has been conducted on REDD+ projects across the region, critically demonstrating how they have had limited effects on deforestation rates, excluded local and Indigenous peoples from forest areas, and have been poorly governed. However, the landscape of forest carbon projects has significantly evolved in recent years, including approaches of REDD+ that operate at larger geographical scales, a more substantial role for the private sector actors, a growing emphasis on high-quality carbon credits, and more diverse forms of forest carbon interventions (e.g. ARR and IFM). The aim of this panel is to take stock of and analyse this moving frontier of forest carbon governance across the region as a means of offering ways for navigating this uncertain and dynamic field. Altogether, panellists demonstrate how the modern, commodified concept of forest carbon is being mobilised from environmental policy-making centres to the rural forest margins of Southeast Asia.”

Salisbury D & Miller MA (2023) Co-organised two themed panels on Transboundary Political Ecology. American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA, 27 March (panels convened in hybrid format).

Presentations and talks

Gevaña D (2025) Mangrove conservation promoting sustainable ecotourism and local livelihoods. Invited plenary speaker for the 3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and Sustainable Development 2025, Organised by Universiti Teknologi Mara, Langkawi, Malaysia, 28 November.

Varkkey H (2025) Knowledge Co-Creation with Peatland Communities for Improved Peatland Governance. Invited speaker for Peatlands Futures: Integrating Data and Community Governance for Nature-Based Climate and Haze Solutions, organised by the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, 24 November.

Miller MA (2025) Urban Valuations of Rural Ecosystem Services: A Transboundary Agenda for Fostering Pro-Environmental Action in Southeast Asia. Invited seminar, Organised by the Singapore Management University Urban Institute, Singapore, 21 October.

Bashir S (2025) Forest Carbon Governance and the Social License to Operate. AlterCOP 30, Singapore, 17 November.

Taylor D (2025) Tropical Wetlands: Solutions for or drivers of climate change. Invited seminar, Organised by the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China, 20 October.

Bashir S (2025) Beyond Carbon: Towards a Holistic Assessment of Integrity and the Role of Governance. Invited speaker for Getting Ahead of the Carbon Curve, Co-organised by the Centre for Nature-Based Climate Solutions, NUS Sustainability Academy, and The Nature Conservancy, Singapore, 15 October.

Taylor D (2025) Tropical Wetlands: Solutions for or drivers of climate change. Keynote speaker for the 2025 Maritime Silk Road International Conference, Co-organised by Yunnan University and Lanzhou University, Kunming, China, 12 October.

Miller MA (2025) A Transboundary Agenda for Nature-Based Solutions: Crossing the Urban-Rural Divide in Southeast Asia. Invited speaker for the 7th EnvironmentAsia International Conference 2025, Co-organised by the Sustainable Environment Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, and the Thai Society of Higher Education Institutes on the Environment, Bangkok, 5 September.

Lau Y (2025) Local Understandings of Climate Justice and Implications for Community-level Forest Conservation. International Conference on Climate Leadership, Co-organised by the Harbin Institute of Technology and University College London, Harbin, China, 22 July.

Friess DA (2025) Mangrove Blue Carbon in Southeast Asia. Keynote speaker for the 2025 Hainan Blue Carbon Forum, Organised by the Hainan International Blue Carbon Research Center, Hainan, China, 18 July.

Quevedo JMD (2025) Philippines on the Map: Advancing Blue Carbon Research Frontiers. Resource speaker for Mangrove Blue Carbon Roadmap to 2030 and beyond, Organised by the Forestry Development Centre, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Manila, Philippines, 18 June.

Friess D (2025) Unlocking blue carbon. Invited speaker for the World Ocean Summit, Organised by Economist Impact, Tokyo, Japan, 12 March.

Lau Y (2025) Centering Local Communities in Forest Carbon Governance. LuceSEA Spring 2025 Webinar – Environmental Innovation and Sustainability in Southeast Asia, Organised by the Centre for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEA) at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, online, 5 March.

Low M (2025) Shaping Singapore’s Climate Future: Achieving NDCS with the use of Carbon markets. Keynote speaker for the SR Nathan Young Leaders Seminar, Organised by the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore, 25 February. 

Kenney-Lazar M (2024) The Emerging Forest Carbon Economy in Laos. Conjunctures of the Global Climate Economy, Organised by the University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 2-4 December.

Taylor D (2024) Nature-based Carbon Sinks – Thinking beyond Article 6.4. AlterCOP 29, Singapore, 19 November.

Zhou Y (2024) Local calibration of GEDI L4A data with Lao National Forestry Inventory for improved Above-Ground Biomass Estimation. ForestSAT 2024, Organised by SCION, Rotorua, New Zealand, 11 September. 

Gevaña D (2024) Mainstreaming and future-proofing mangrove blue carbon governance. Midterm Symposium on Education and Outreach: Insight to Foresight via Geospatial Technologies, Co-organised by the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) and the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Technical Commission V, Manila, Philippines, 7 August.

Gevaña D (2024) Shaping the future of mangrove governance in Southeast Asia. Webinar on the International Day for Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, Co-organised by the Tropical Science Foundation (TSF) and the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), online, 26 July.

Marks D (2024) Polluting the Air to Feed the Animals: Placing Food Production Systems within a Political Ecology of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. De/Centering Southeast Asia, Organised by the Consortium of Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA), Manila, Philippines, 19 July.

Quevedo JMD (2024) Invited discussant for Designing seagrass-blue carbon marine protected areas (MPAs) resilience to climate change in Indonesia, Organised by the Research Center for Oceanography-BRIN, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries and Konservasi Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia, 28 June (online presentation).

Friess D (2024) Invited panel speaker for theatre showing of film Blue Carbon, Organised by Conservation International, Singapore, 13 June.

Friess D (2024) Incorporating novel ecosystems into blue carbon: learning from the mangrove experience. Keynote speaker at the Hainan International Blue Carbon Forum, Organised by the Hainan International Blue Carbon Research Center, Hainan, China, 30 May.

Friess D (2024) Blue carbon: the international landscape. Blue Carbon National Working Group in-person meeting, Organised by the Blue Carbon National Working Group, Washington DC, United States of America, 21 May.

Gevaña D (2024) Future-proofing mangrove blue carbon governance. Webinar on Wetlands and Blue Carbon, Co-organised by University Putra Malaysia and University of the Philippines, online, 2 May.  

Quevedo JMD (2024) Local perceptions of blue carbon ecosystem. Webinar on Wetlands and Blue Carbon, Co-organised by University Putra Malaysia and University of the Philippines, online, 2 May.   

Marks D (2024) Polluting the Air to Feed the Animals: Placing Food Production Systems within a Political Ecology of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation. LEAP Conference, Organised by Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom, 16 April.

Marks D (2023) Addressing the Drivers of Worsening Air Pollution in Laos’s Agriculture Sector. Land Information Working Group Study Session, Organised by the Land Information Working Group, Vientiane, Laos, 15 December.

Quevedo JMD (2023) Community Perceptions of Blue Carbon Ecosystems: Evaluating Ecosystem Services, Threats & Management Strategies. International Seminar on Sustaining Our Blue Planet: Blue Carbon Solution for Climate Change Mitigation, Organised by Sam Rataluangi University, Manado, Indonesia, 28 November (online presentation).

Gevaña D (2023) Carbon Sequestration in Mangroves: Future-proofing Coastal Governance. 4th INREM Conference, Manila, Philippines, November 23.

Gevaña D (2023) Burning Agricultural Waste and Climate Change Nexus: Policies, Challenges and Opportunities in Managing Agricultural Biomass Wastes. International Conference on Connecting the Dots on Circular Economy for Sustainable Development, Organised by the Department of Environment and Natural Resource of the Philippines, Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB), Manila, Philippines, 8-9 November.

Taylor D (2023) The challenge of reducing net carbon emissions through natural carbon sinks and associated carbon offsets. Race to Zero series, Organised by KPMG Business Foundry, Singapore, 24 October.

Quevedo JMD (2023) Capacity building of local communities for blue carbon projects. 15th Annual Meeting of the International Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group, Co-organised by Conservation International, IUCN, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, Singapore, 4 October.

Marks D (2023) An Embodied Political Ecology of Agricultural Burning in Thailand. RGS-IGB Conference, Organised by the Royal Geographic Society, London, United Kingdom, 28-30 August.  

Gevaña D (2023) Lead organiser for the Forest Carbon Policy Forum: Challenges and opportunities for NCS through forest carbon projects in the Philippines at the Forestry Development Center, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Los Baños, Philippines, 25 August.

Miller MA (2023) A transboundary political ecology of terrestrial-aquatic ecosystems that have strong climate governance potential for Southeast Asia. 2023 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado, USA, 27 March (online presentation).

Miller MA (2022) Displacement and Dispossession in Carbon Sink Governance: The Politics of Peatland Partnerships in Indonesia. Indonesia Social Science Seminar Series (IS4), Co-organised by Sydney Southeast Asia Centre (SSEAC), the Cornell Southeast Asia Program (SEAP), and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), 8 December.

Gevaña D (2022) Status, challenges, and opportunities for Nature-based Solutions in the ASEAN Heritage Parks. Seventh ASEAN Heritage Parks Conference (AHP 7), Bogor, Indonesia, 31 October-3 November.