Impact of Climate Change on Biodiversity

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.