The primary forests of Southeast Asia and the Pacific extend from Bhutan to Papua New Guinea, covering more than 193 million hectares. They support more than 5,000 threatened species, regulate water and climate systems, store vast amounts of carbon, and provide livelihoods for over 560 million people, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities who manage many of these landscapes.

These forests are also under sustained threat. Asia has the lowest proportion of primary forest of any global region, just 15% of its total forest area, according to FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2025. The region has already lost more than 60 percent of its original vegetation and remaining primary forests face mounting pressure from climate change, agricultural expansion, logging, and infrastructure development. Without coordinated action, these globally important ecosystems risk irreversible degradation.

The SEAP Forests Integrated Program

The Southeast Asia and the Pacific Forests Integrated Program (SEAP Forests IP) is a six-year initiative working to protect and sustainably manage the primary forests of the region.

Supported by the Global Environment Facility, SEAP Forests IP is one of five GEF-8 Critical Forest Biomes Integrated Programs, working in parallel across the Amazon, Congo Basin, Mesoamerica, and West Africa. Together, these programs aim to drive systemic change in the governance, management, and protection of the world’s most important tropical forest landscapes.

Spanning country-level investments in Lao People's Democratic Republic, Papua New Guinea, and Thailand, the SEAP Forests IP combines on-the-ground action with regional coordination and knowledge exchange across a broader network of countries- Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Viet Nam. This biome-wide approach brings together governments, Indigenous Peoples, local communities, civil society, finance actors, and development partners to maximise transformational impact for globally important primary forests across the region.