ABSTRACT
Landscapes of Southeast Asia are among the most diverse on earth, and are characterized by an important and singular terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity. The endogenous processes that have shaped the landscape mosaic of Southeast Asia are rooted in a geography located at the interface of Asia and Oceania, a unique geological history and a stable tropical humid climate. While it is quite easy to locate Southeast Asia on the earth, concisely defining the Southeast Asian region in a geographically meaningful way is highly disciplinarily dependent. Despite important human pressure on its landscapes, in 2005 the Southeast Asian region was still mainly covered by primary and secondary land, a proportion that was significantly higher than the tropical areas and the whole earth. The use of landscapes by humans and their changes through history are cornerstone parameters, like past climates, for numerous ecological studies.
