Southeast Asian Islands

Reconciling agricultural development and sustainable tropical forests

In the Southeast Asian islands, more than anywhere else, the fate of tropical forests is strongly dependent on agricultural policy. Agricultural development in the region  must be analysed in terms not just of its positive contribution to food security, but of its impact on those forests.
Research is therefore aiming to reconcile food security and the preservation of natural areas. CIRAD's operations and those of its partners centre on ecological intensification and the switch to sustainable, zero-deforestation agricultural management techniques.
Agricultural teaching and training must now allow for the commitments made by governments and private operators in terms of climate change management and forest preservation.

CIRAD's Regional Office for the Southeast Asian Islands covers a vast maritime region of more than 17 000 islands with an area of 2554 million km2 and a population of 420 million. CIRAD has around ten expatriate researchers assigned to four countries in the region: Malaysia, the Philippines, East Timor, and above all Indonesia. It also conducts missions to Singapore and Brunei.

Strengthening regional cooperation with universities and research centres

CIRAD's Regional Office is in Jakarta, Indonesia. It shares its offices with the IRD representative in Indonesia.

CIRAD's researchers work within university research teams (Universiti Putra Malaisia), or are hosted by CGIAR international centres (CIFOR in Indonesia, IRRI in the Philippines) or by private research centres (PT SMART in Indonesia). The training programmes in which it is involved give its work a regional dimension, and are paving the way for future partnerships.

Main research fields

• Genomics, genetics and crop protection
• Natural resource management
• Sustainable tree crop production systems
• Support for family farming
• Public policy support

Platform in partnership

Emerging diseases in Southeast Asia

How can we manage the emerging health risks at the interface between animals, humans and their environments?

A word from our partners...

Some key projects

The Southeast Asian islands offer a unique range of agroecological situations and island systems with substantial biodiversity, providing a particularly attractive opportunity for building joint projects of international importance, capable of addressing novel, relevant scientific issues. The projects under way, in Indonesia and in Malaysia, concern fundamental issues around sustainable development raised by civil society in Europe and in Asia (urbanization, the rural exodus, preservation of fragile ecosystems).

Training in sustainability for plantation managers

The aim of the TALENT project (Training on landscape management) is to raise awareness and to provide training in sustainability for managers of plantations in Southeast Asia, thanks to a revised training system.

Limiting tropical deforestation linked to perennial crop plantations in Southeast Asia

The TRAILS project is an action research project to support the restoration of ecosystems degraded by the expansion of oil palm monoculture in Malaysia. Its goal is to limit tropical deforestation and the impacts of perennial crop plantations on land cover changes, biodiversity and climate resilience by promoting agroecological approaches.

Installing sustainable agroforestry in East Timor: the Ai'ba Futuru project
 

Teaching and training

The vast majority of CIRAD researchers in the region are involved in training students and French and local researchers.

Rejuvenating training of plantation managers

The Agence française de développement (AFD) and CIRAD have committed to promote sustainable agricultural plantation and planted forest management in four countries belonging to the Association of the South-East Asia Nations (ASEAN). TheTALENT (TrAining on LandscapE maNagemenT) programme has 1.2 million euros of funding from the Fonds pour l’expertise et les échanges d’expériences (FEXTE).
Over the coming five years, CIRAD will be supporting skill building in those four ASEAN countries  (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam). This will mean consolidating the existing training structures to train new generations of plantation managers, teaching them how to boost plantation productivity and sustainability.
After an initial nine-month feasibility study, the project will support the existing structures providing initial training for Masters students and further training for managers already working (for large plantations, smallholder cooperatives and banks providing agricultural funding). Training courses will centre on agroecology, environmental and social management, and how to take account of climate change and biodiversity. In addition to its operations for students, the project will organize regional workshops to raise awareness and allow participants to share their experiences and good practice.