China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is expected to be the largest infrastructure development scheme of the twenty-first century. There is escalating concern over BRI’s potential environmental impacts in Southeast Asia, a global biodiversity hotspot and a focus area of BRI development. Case studies of Indonesia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Malaysia show that the success of BRI in bringing about sustainable growth and opportunities depends on the Chinese government and financiers, as well as the agencies and governments involved when BRI investments take place. The adoption of best environmental practices is critical in ensuring that growth is sustainable and that bad environmental practices are not locked in for decades to come.

Peatland ecosystems in Southeast Asia are globally important as carbon sinks, rich in terrestrial and aquatic fauna and flora, and important sources of livelihood for local communities. However, agribusiness-driven land-use change and drainage cause peatland degradation and peat fires, which generate “haze” air pollution and lead to significant economic losses and health impacts. Disturbed peatlands also become substantial sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. While the problems of haze and climate change are connected through peatlands, these issues have been treated largely separately in policy and governance. In this article we provide an overview of Southeast Asian peatlands, assessing opportunities and challenges for greater integration of policy and governance in addressing haze, climate change and other sustainability dimensions. We focus on Indonesia and Malaysia, the Southeast Asian countries with the largest peatland areas. We summarize key developments, along with evidence indicating that peatlands represent a large proportion of national GHG emissions in both Indonesia and Malaysia. Further, we trace the evolution of peatland policies at the national and regional levels, from focusing on conservation to addressing fire and haze issues, reflecting their complex relationship with national development and the corporate sector. Next, we highlight important and yet unrealized opportunities to better integrate carbon emissions reduction alongside fire and haze in the implementation of peatland Nature-based Solutions (NbS), which are interventions to protect, sustainably manage, or restore nature. Emerging financial and market instruments provide one such opportunity. Additionally, the creation of an enabling governance environment through peatland community participation presents an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of NbS across multiple sustainability dimensions. We found that for these two key countries, the most recent government-reported peatland emissions appear somewhat lower than is suggested by academic studies for Indonesia and substantially lower in the case of Malaysia. Further, we emphasize the complex challenge of integrating policies across multiple scales and issues, with international, regional and national actors, and in multiple industries, all active in peatland governance.

Rapid urbanization and development in Southeast Asia have impacted its high biodiversity and unique ecosystems, directly through the use of forest lands for infrastructure building, and indirectly through increasing ecological footprints. In Greater Bandung, Indonesia and Greater Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, rapid urbanization over the last thirty years has resulted in an increase inbuilt infrastructure of approximately two and three times respectively. A Nature-Based Solutions approach can potentially underpin urban design and planning strategies in Greater Bandung and Greater Kuala Lumpur, as well as other cities in Southeast Asia, to address biodiversity conservation and also global environmental challenges such as climate change adaption and mitigation while supporting well-being. Mainstreaming Nature-Based Solutions in Southeast Asia will require knowledge gaps to be addressed, greater awareness, increasing the evidence base, metrics for measuring success, support from institutions and stakeholders, and new and innovative financing. The urgency of global socio-ecological challenges, in particular the biodiversity and climate crisis, means transformational change is needed in Southeast Asia, for urban, ecological, technical, economic, and social systems, while still supporting sustainable development.