Sustainable Resource Management and Ecological Conservation of Mega-Biodiversity: The Southeast Asian Big-3 Reality

This article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches to assess the effectiveness of local and regional environmental protection laws, declarations and action plans in promoting sustainable resource use and environmental protection in the three most biologically diverse regions in Southeast Asia, namely, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, collectively called here the Southeast Asian Big-3. The argument is that despite the plethora of multi-protection initiatives and safeguards, the regional environment is in the throes of an unending episode of degradation and depletion. In addressing this paradox, this paper considers the role of environmental ethics in ecological conservation and proposes it as one of the main keys in managing environmental sustainability.