**1.2 The biodiversity of Southeast Asia**

Southeast Asia (SEA) contains a number of the biodiversity hotspots identified by Myers et al. (2000) and has some of the richest biodiversity and endemicity on the planet (Gaston, 1995a). The area consists of a number of biotas including the Indo-Burmese region, Wallacea, Sundaland and the Philippines. When considering the number of endemic plants and vertebrates, three Southeast Asian regions rank in the global top ten (Sundaland-2nd,

Mapping a Future for Southeast Asian Biodiversity 3

Loss of habitat and deforestation are not the only threats to the biodiversity of SEA. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) listed that at least 35 million animals in addition to 18 million pieces of coral (and 2 million kg live coral) were exported from SEA between 1998 and 2007 (Nijman, 2010). Many species are also hunted for recreation (Epstein et al., 2009) in addition to bushmeat (Brodie et al., 2009). Furthermore the Chinese medicine trade is stated to be the "single major threat" for some species (EIA, 2004; Ellis, 2005). These problems are not limited to "unprotected areas" as even National Parks fail to offer protection from either illegal logging (Sodhi et al., 2010) or high levels of hunting

The above mentioned factors affecting biodiversity loss are further complicated by the effects of climate change (Figs.1-2), which may act to amplify other threats, and which itself may be amplified by other threat factors (such as wood burning and subsequent release of greenhouse gases-Brook et al., 2006). Fires present a major threat to biodiversity in the region, and during the past decade major fires have started progressively further north in response to climate change (Taylor et al., 1999). Even without considering of many of these factors, projections of the number of extinctions have been made, which project the extinction of 43% of endemic Indo-Burmese fauna within the next century (Malcolm et al., 2006). Thus despite harbouring considerable biodiversity, few areas in SEA have sufficient levels of protection, and with many new species still to be found (as demonstrated by the rapid rate of discovery (Giam et al., 2010)) it is currently almost impossible to determine the most effective means of conservation prioritisation within SEA given the level of knowledge

Some conservation biologists have advocated the use of "indicator species" to monitor more general threats to biodiversity (Carignan & Villard, 2002). Chosen species must obviously be sensitive to the potential threats in the area, and such species must be possible to monitor in a standardised and repeatable way to generate meaningful and comparable data over large spatial and temporal scales. Indicator species can also be used to indicate trends in overall biodiversity (Mace & Baillie, 2007) and therefore provide a gauge of biodiversity change at large regional scales over time. Bats provide an ideal indicator group (G. Jones et al., 2009), and their diversity means that species can be susceptible to a wide variety of different threats. Bats form a large component of bush-meat through SEA (Mickleburgh et al., 2009), and many of these species often perform vital roles within ecosystems and their loss could have negative implications for a wide range of interacting taxa (Mohd-Azlan et al., 2001). A number of ecosystem services are provided by bat species, including pollination, seed dispersal and insect control, and therefore bats are frequently keystone species (Myers, 1987; Fujita and Tuttle, 1991; Hodgkison et al., 2004). Effective conservation of these keystone species is crucial not only for their survival, but for the ecosystems dependent upon them. Furthermore many bat species are either dependent on forests or caves for foraging and roosting, and some species have limited dispersal ability (Kingston et al., 2003), suggesting that their status may be indicative of destruction and consequent fragmentation of both

To try to reduce impacts of the Southeast Asian biodiversity crisis requires a number of steps: quantification of how species are distributed and their distribution changes, analysis of the threats each species faces and determination of the probable impact of threats they are likely to face. Only once these initial steps have been achieved is it possible to formulate

of much of the fauna, and high levels of corruption (Global Witness, 2007).

(Brodie et al., 2009).

karst and forest areas.

Indo-Burma-8th, Philippines-9th) and when the ratio of endemic species relative to area are considered these three are in the top 5 (Phillipines-2nd, Sundaland-3rd, Indo-Burma-5th) (Myers et al., 2000). SEA also contains high endemic evolutionary diversity at species, family and clade levels. On a global ranking Sundaland is in 2nd place, Wallacea 3rd and Indo-Burma 5th in terms of unique evolutionary history, with between 65 - 40 My (million years) of unique evolutionary history in each region (Sechrest, et al., 2002). Therefore SEA contains irreplaceable biodiversity and thus represents a priority area for conservation. Indeed, the forests of SEA have been deemed among the highest of all conservation priorities for biologists (Laurance, 2007).

The landscape of SEA is also diverse and varied and comprises a large number of ecoregions (Olson et al., 2001). Stibig (2007) categorised sixteen native forest types, in addition to woodland, savannah, two types of thorn scrub and forest, alpine grassland and cold desert among the native vegetation types. Such diversity in vegetation cover also creates very varied ecosystems with very different animal and plant communities. Karsts (limestone outcrops) make up around 400,000 km2 of SEA, and though they only make up one percent of the land area, around two percent of Malaysian species are endemic to karst landscapes (Clements et al., 2006). Globally karsts also harbour a great proportion of endemic species, and therefore contribute significantly to landscape diversity and heterogeneity throughout SEA.

One reason for the high levels of diversity and endemicity in SEA is the dynamic and complex geo-physical history of the region, which has been described as a biogeographic theatre (Woodruff, 2003). Some of the landmasses that form SEA only joined as little as 15 Mya (Million years ago), and the addition of new landmasses caused faults and regional instability in many regions (Hall, 2002), which in turn contributed to the formation of unique biotas. Even at only five Mya SEA had not taken its present shape and landmasses within it were still subject to small but significant movements (Hall, 2002). Since this time glacial cycles have periodically transformed SEA, both in terms of shape and vegetation cover (Woodruff, 2003). During successive glaciations mainland and insular areas of SEA have been joined, and glaciers existed as recently as 10 Kya (thousand years ago) in Borneo and Sumatra (Morley & Flenley, 1987). This dynamic geophysical history has led to a highly complex pattern of species distributions and the area contains no less than three zoo/floro– geographic boundaries: Wallace's line, the Kangar-Pattani line and the Isthmus of Kra (Whitmore, 1981; Baltzer, 2008; Cox & Moore, 2010; A.C.Hughes et al., 2011). Therefore the region has a rich and highly varied biota, and thus represents a priority region for conservation.
