Articles Category: Environment

The ASEAN region, endowed with extraordinary biological richness, stands at a defining moment in its sustainable development journey. Its terrestrial, coastal, and marine ecosystems rank among the most diverse and productive on Earth. These ecosystems

Deborah (Debbie) Tomasowa is a Jakarta-based visual artist known for her striking ballpoint pen portraits. Passionate about drawing people, animals, and everyday objects, she brings extraordinary detail and precision to life using one of the simplest t

The annual ASEAN Tourism Awards, presented at the ASEAN Tourism Forum, recognise top tourism performers based on standards developed by ASEAN. The recipients of the 2025 ASEAN Tourism Awards were as follows: 30 establishments for the ASEAN Homestay Awa

Viet Nam’s tourism sector has staged a remarkable post-pandemic recovery, emerging as one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing destinations. Following the reopening in 2022, international arrivals rose from 3.7 million in 2022 to approximately 17.6 mill

As Timor-Leste formally accedes to ASEAN as the organisation’s 11th member, tourism stands as a cornerstone of our nation’s economic transformation. Our vision is clear: to develop a sustainable, inclusive, and well-managed tourism sector that leverage

Tourism is recognised as one of the sectors that has been dramatically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has profoundly reshaped tourist behaviour, giving rise to several emerging trends that are likely to defi ne the future of the touris

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, first woman Prime Minister of Norway, pioneered the concept of sustainable development and shaped its early agenda. She is a founding member of The Elders, the group of independent global leaders founded by Nelson Mandela in

Suharso Monoarfa has been actively participating in numerous development projects in the country. Those experiences have shaped his career as well as equipped him with various essential soft skills.

Former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reflects on his 10-year tenure as chief diplomat and development advocate, and the role that mutlilateralism plays in addressing ongoing and emerging global challenges.

Hugh Lim, Executive Director of Centre for Liveable Cities, weighs in on what it takes to build pandemic-proof and resilient cities based on the practices that worked and deficiencies that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. He discusses the benefits

ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi talks to The ASEAN on the qualities and benefits of smart cities, as well as the ongoing initiatives to support the region’s 26 major cities in developing, updating, and implementing their smart city action pla

Josefa is a member of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN) Steering Committee, representing indigenous and local youth. GYBN is the official youth constituency to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). She was named a National Geograp

Gretel Seet Jia Xuan (25) is the Coordinator of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network Southeast Asia. Her interest in biodiversity began at the Festival of Biodiversity, organised by the Singapore National Parks Board. There, she discovered that Singap

Brikko Martillo Dumas, known as Bricx, is a 34-year-old Filipino artist, educator, and climate advocate. He was born in Leyte, in the Philippines’ Eastern Visayas region, and moved to Manila as a teenager. When Typhoon Haiyan (locally known as Yolanda)

Twenty-five-year-old Thae Eaindra Hsu was born and raised in Mawlamyine, Mon State, Myanmar. Mawlamyine is known for its golden pagodas and its proximity to the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar site, a coastal wetland area recognised for its biodiversity and the

Mark Liao’s journey into biodiversity work began in 2017 when he joined the Borneo Eco-Warriors programme under the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI). He was 22 then when he latched onto this idea and, in the same year, established an e

Thirty-four-year-old Megawati, a community worker based in Wangi-wangi Island in Wakatobi Regency, Southeast Sulawesi, joined the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity’s Effectively Managing Networks of Marine Protected Areas in Large Marine Ecosystems in the

“The agritech sector across ASEAN has seen both remarkable successes and sobering failures.” Thirty-five-year-old Aukrit Unahalekhaka shares this candid view with The ASEAN during our conversation. The co-founder and CEO of Ricult, an agricultural tech