ABSTRACT
The past decade has seen a significant increase in environmental degradation and loss of ecosystem services in most parts of the world (Bradshaw et al., 2009; Butler and Laurance, 2009; Craft et al., 2009; De Jong et al., 2015; Dobson et al., 2006; FAO, 2009; Ghazali et al., 2016; Greenpeace, 2007; Goodman and Mulik, 2015; Hoeinghaus et al., 2009; Kettunen and ten Brink, 2006; Koh and Wilcove, 2008; Malcolm et al., 2006; Petrenko et al., 2016; Sodhi et al., 2004; UNEP, 2007; UNESCAPS, 2007). In Southeast Asia, the main driver of deforestation is agriculture, specifically for palm oil production (Hansen et al., 2013; Miettinen et al., 2011; Stibig et al., 2014), although pulp and logging in legal commercial concessions in Indonesia is reportedly higher (Abood et al., 2015). The rapid agricultural development resulted in habitat loss and fragmentation and, consequently, in the loss of biodiversity (Canale et al., 2012; Gibson et al., 2013). Indeed, rivers, lakes and peat forests suffered enormous siltation, pollution loading and dehydration. The draining of extensive peat forests of Sumatra and Borneo lead to the occurrence of the most damaging event when more than 45 000 km2 of forest burnt by wildfires in 1997 (Heil et al., 2001) and resulted in forest degradation and deforestation cost of US$1.62-2.7 billion (Tacconi, 2003). The associated cost of the smoke pollution was estimated at US$799 million (Tacconi, 2003), which caused an estimated 20 million people in Indonesia alone to suffer from respiratory illnesses (Brauer, 1997; Emmanuel and Lim, 1998; Heil and Goldhammer,
2001; WHO, 1998). The recent 2013-2015 wildfires have caused extreme carbon emission (Gaveau et al., 2014; Huijnen et al., 2016) and serious health hazards (Koplitz et al., 2016).
