The objective of the Effective Management of the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve Project for Malawi is to ensure effective management of the Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve through a sustainable management model focusing on its Bua watershed area. The project aims to develop and apply a new management approach with the involvement of border communities, public sector, private sector and civil society that focuses on strengthening national Protected Area (PA) management capacity.

Read more: http://go.worldbank.org/DIT36O26L0

Sulawesi is the 11th largest island in the world and an Indonesian region blessed with unique biodiversity which inhabit its pristine terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems. The region also has an incredible amount of mineral deposits underneath its 12.5 million hectares of forest, according to Forestry Ministry data from 2009.

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http://www.thejakartapost.com

The Coral Triangle is a 272-page book that showcases the people, places, and marine ecosystems that make this region truly remarkable. Published by ADB and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the book documents an 18-month expedition by award-winning photographer Jürgen Freund and Stella-Chiu Freund. 

Photo Essay

The Coral Triangle covers 5.7 million square kilometers of ocean waters in Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea (PNG), Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.  The area is considered as the global center of tropical marine diversity, supporting the highest number of species of coral reef fishes, and turtles. The mangrove forests, coral reefs, and coastal and offshore waters are the most species-rich in the tropics.

These resources are at immediate risk from a range of factors, including the impacts of climate change, over-fishing, unsustainable fishing methods, and land-based sources of pollution.

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MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Coastal communities in remote areas of the Coral Triangle in Indonesia and the Philippines will receive Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to start small, green businesses that will help preserve one of the most diverse and threatened marine environments in the world.

A $2 million grant from the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction, administered by ADB, will help poor fishing households in Berau District in East Kalimantan, Indonesia and Balabac in Palawan, the Philippines, identify, establish and operate eco-friendly businesses that could potentially include seaweed culture, fish processing, boat transport services and livestock rearing.

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Biodiversity conservation in Vietnam is facing difficulties when the number of threatened species is increasing and their living environment worsening, according to Vietnam's latest National Environment Report 2010 released by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MNRE) Wednesday.

The report said in the 2007 national Red Data Book, 418 species of animals and 464 species of plants were categorized as threatened.

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The Philippine Star

SAMBOUR, Cambodia – An extremely rare soft-shell turtle species has a new, protected home in Cambodia.
The critically endangered Cantor's giant soft-shell turtle is one of the rarest freshwater turtles in the world. Scientists last saw one in the Cambodian wild in 2003, and small numbers have been seen in neighboring Laos, while it appears to have disappeared from Vietnam and Thailand.
U.S.-based Conservation International said it opened the Mekong Turtle Conservation Center on Wednesday in Kratie province, 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Phnom Penh.

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Gorillas, the largest of the great apes, are under renewed threat across the Congo Basin from Nigeria to the Albertine Rift: poaching for bushmeat, loss of habitat due to agricultural expansion, degradation of habitat from logging, mining and charcoal production are amongst these threats, in addition to natural epidemics such as ebola and the new risk of diseases passed from humans to gorillas.

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UNEP

Eco-tourism in Palawan, the Philippines is thriving under community-managed conservation initiatives that are also increasing fishermen's catch, and incomes.

ADB

One of the world's most diverse and threatened marine ecosystems - the Coral Triangle - is getting Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to improve management of its rich resources and to provide job alternatives for people living in the coastal communities.

ADB has approved assistance of around $12 million for the Coastal and Marine Resources Management Project. It includes a $1 million grant from ADB's concessional Technical Assistance Special Fund, and $11.2 million in cofinancing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The governments of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines will provide $3 million in non-cash contributions.

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ADB