Page 123 - The Ethics of ASEAN

Ethics of Sustainability and Biodiversity in ASEAN

and livelihoods. He cites one estimate valuing biodiversity in Figure 5: Map showing
Southeast Asia at up to $2.19 trillion in ecosystem services. Southeast Asian biodiverse
areas including the Heart of
Despite the immense value that biodiversity brings to the Borneo (green), Indoburma/
region, biodiversity loss has unfortunately become a pressing, Mekong River region (blue),
and Coral Triangle (brown)
perennial issue within ASEAN. Benedict provides a shocking (Source: Ian Mia Benedict)
statistic estimating that Southeast Asia has lost around 95%
of its original habitat, while ecosystem services required for
food, water, recreation and tourism have steeply declined.
ASEAN has a number of regionally biodiverse areas. An
example is the Mekong River in the Indoburma region which
is preserved through connectivity partnerships. Another
is called the Heart of Borneo, a transboundary cooperation
of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei to promote research,
sustainability and conservation of the island’s wildlife. A
third is called the Coral Triangle, an ecosystem spanning
the maritime territories of Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore,
Brunei, Indonesia, and East Timor.
These transboundary ecological regions demonstrate
the regional scale of biodiversity ethics which cannot be
considered the territory of any Member State alone. Three
Member States are classified as “megadiverse”, namely
Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines because of their
extraordinary biodiversity.
Although the region is set to become the fourth largest
economy in the world, ASEAN risks losing 35% of its gross
domestic product (GDP) by 2050 to climate change.

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