CGSEA

24/08/2026

🌿 CGSEA PhD candidate Yunrui Ren at

CGSEA PhD candidate Yunrui Ren attended the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), held in Xishuangbanna from 28 June to 2 July 2026.

As part of the “Educating the Next Conservation Generation” session on Day Two, Yunrui presented her research, “Education and Capacity Building in Forest Carbon Governance: Evidence from Lao PDR.”

The conference was a valuable opportunity for Yunrui to share her work, receive feedback, and connect with researchers working on forest carbon governance as she continues her PhD journey.

Congratulations, Yunrui, and we wish you all the best as you progress with your research! 🌏🌳

19/08/2026

Research excellence begins with supporting emerging scholars.

We’re pleased to share that CGSEA Research Fellow Dr Jay Mar D. Quevedo was invited to serve as a panel evaluator for the Bohol Island State University 2026 Student Research Congress, held in hybrid format.

Through this role, Jay contributed to the assessment of student research and supported the development of the next generation of researchers.

Thank you, Jay, for representing CGSEA and contributing to research capacity building! 👏

17/08/2026

We’re pleased to share that CGSEA Research Fellow Dr Saritha Uda conducted field research in Sabah, Malaysia, from 19–26 July 2026, as part of her research on transboundary peatland governance.

The fieldwork included interviews and focus group discussions with representatives from government agencies, village leadership and community groups, academia, the private sector, and NGOs in Kampung Luagan, Suasa, and Takuli. Dr Saritha also conducted field observations at the Klias Peat Swamp Forest Field Centre.

During her visit, she was invited to present her research at the Forestry Seminar Series , organised by the Faculty of Tropical Forestry, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

We thank all those who generously shared their time, knowledge, and perspectives, and our colleagues at UMS for the opportunity to exchange ideas on this important area of research.

13/08/2026

We are excited to welcome Yuna to the team as our new Research Assistant! Yuna will be taking over from Shehryar, whose many contributions have been greatly valued. We wish him all the best for the future.

12/05/2026

CGSEA Research Fellow Yingshan Lau co-facilitated a Learning Journey on Carbon Project Development and MRV at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, organised by the NUS Sustainability Academy as part of a Singapore Cooperation Enterprise capacity-building programme, on 21 April 2026.

12/05/2026

CGSEA Research Fellow Yingshan Lau presented a talk on "The importance of humanistic participatory MRV and carbon credit literacy" for a workshop on Carbon Credit Supply Chain, Value Added and Watershed Co-governance Strategies, organised by the Institute for Development Consultancy (CODE) in Hanoi, Vietnam, on 6 April 2026.

12/05/2026

CGSEA Research Fellow Saritha Kittie Uda conducted fieldwork in Jakarta and Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, from 20 April-3 May 2026. Her study involved 24 interviews and four focus group discussions held across three villages and in Palangka Raya city.

Uda's research focuses on transboundary peatland governance, with respondents representing national, provincial, and regency/municipal government agencies, heads of villages and community-based groups, academics, private actors, and local and international NGOs.

12/05/2026

CGSEA PhD Candidate Yustina Octifanny conducted her fieldwork on peatland carbon projects in three villages across Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, from 25 August 2025-February 26 2026, concluding with community workshops where she shared her research findings and sought feedback from local communities.

She also conducted carbon market literacy sessions addressing questions raised by community members, including questions about carbon markets, the rights and responsibilities of local communities, and how carbon markets may benefit them.

Following the carbon market literacy sessions, community members were asked to write down and share the ongoing socio-environmental issues faced by their communities, the benefits they expect to receive from carbon markets, and their aspirations for peatland conservation.

11/05/2026

CGSEA Research Fellow Yingshan Lau, Khamsing Keothoumma from the National University of Laos, CGSEA PhD Candidate Yunrui Ren and Collaborator Sithong Thongmanivong co-authored a short article for ARIScope on ‘The case of the unsold carbon credits: Lessons from an early-REDD+ project in Southern Laos.’

The authors explore the case of Xe Pian National Park in southern Laos, one of Southeast Asia’s key biodiversity hotspots, once seen as a promising model for forest-based climate finance. The Xe Pian REDD+ project aimed to fund conservation and local livelihoods through carbon credits. Launched in 2010 and registered under Verra’s Verfied Carbon Standard in 2014, the project built technical capacity, involved local communities, and verified more than 130,000 tonnes of tradeable carbon credits in 2018. But none of those credits were ever issued or sold.

The article argues this failure was not due to weak effort on the ground, but deeper structural problems: unclear responsibility for selling credits, lack of funds for issuance, weak institutional continuity, and limited understanding of the full carbon credit process. Meanwhile, underfunding, renewed forest encroachment, and the economic fallout from Covid-19 increased pressure on both the park and nearby communities. Xe Pian shows how forest carbon projects can falter without strong governance, financing, and follow-through.

The case of the unsold carbon credits: Lessons from an early-REDD+ project in Southern Laos23 April 2026By Yingshan Lau, Khamsing Keothoumma, Yunrui Ren, Sithong Thongmanivongcarbon credit value chainForest conservationinstitutional changeinter-scalar governanceLaosvertical coordination Located in C...

11/05/2026

CGSEA Collaborator Danny Marks and Ian Baird have had their article, titled 'Hidden Smoke: Air Pollution, Agrarian Change, and Governance Gaps in Luang Prabang, Laos', published in Critical Asian Studies.

Marks and Baird analyse the drivers, lived experiences, and governance of air pollution in Luang Prabang, Laos’ premier tourist destination and a UNESCO World Heritage city, challenging dominant policy narratives that attribute haze primarily to traditional swidden cultivation.

They argue, instead, that commercial agrarian change, particularly cassava expansion, grass cultivation, and cattle pasture expansion linked to regional and Chinese cattle demand and a prolonged urban landfill fire, drove air pollution in 2023. They find that these sources stem from labor shortages, economic insecurity, poor urban waste planning, and a reliance on fire as a low-cost management tool, and that, despite significant health, livelihood, and tourism impacts, haze remains underappreciated and underfunded.

The authors conclude that, in Laos, weak monitoring infrastructure, fragmented institutional responsibilities, and the absence of disaggregated health data render air pollution uncertain and socially normalized.

Air pollution has emerged as a major public health and economic threat in Southeast Asia, yet Laos has received limited attention in scholarly and policy debates despite significant mortality and e...