Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity. Does Nature Conservation need new Stragegies?

Indonesia is known for its richness of biodiversity and high endemism of

flora and fauna, attributed to its archipelagic geographical condition and

the vast arrays of forest area. With more than 17,000 islands, Indonesia is

the largest archipelagic country in the world. Unfortunately, because of

the high rate of deforestation, peat land degradation and forest fires, this

country is one of the highest greenhouse gas emitters in the world.

Similar problems are also seen in the other Southeast Asian countries.

Climate change has now become a common global concern and is

accounted to be one of the key developmental issues in many of the

developing countries in the tropics. Global climate change might affect

the biodiversity, but conversely preserving biodiversity may reduce the

ongoing process of climate change. This German Alumni Summer

School was aimed at addressing the issues concerning the impacts of

climate change on the biodiversity in Southeast Asia and examining the

potential strategies for its mitigation.