Synopsis

A road traverses through a forest to give communities access to the city. A transmission line carries electricity to towns and villages. A dam regulates water supply to growing townships. These infrastructures are the foundation of the modern society and are necessary to ensure economic growth and social welfare. However, they can also have adverse impacts on our wildlife and are often perceived as contributors to the decline of the natural environment. In Malaysia, there is a growing awareness on the need to integrate wildlife crossings and other mitigation measures in the planning of development projects to ensure these projects are carried out sustainably to protect sensitive habitat and enable free movement of wildlife.


SPEAKER BIODATA

Christine is a zoologist with more than 15 years of experience conducting research in wildlife ecology and forestry. She graduated in BSc. (Conservation Biology) MSc. (Zoology) Ph.D. (Zoology). She has headed both local and international-funded projects, which looked into improving biodiversity conservation and monitoring in forest management practices in Malaysia as well as participated in climate change negotiations and technical discussions as part of the Malaysian delegation. Her past journal publications mainly covered long term ecological trends as an approach to understanding the natural and anthropogenic impacts on natural forests as well as impacts of biodiversity in production forests. Among her notable published books are a field manual to rapidly monitor biodiversity in tropical production forests and an education manual on forest ecology.