News published: 10 June 2026

On 03 June 2026, the Southeast Asia Botanic Gardens (SEABG) Network hosted a technical talk entitled “Genetics for Plant Conservation in Southeast Asia”.

The session was held as part of the BGCI project, “Building capacity and sharing knowledge for tree conservation”, funded by the Audemars Piguet Foundation for Trees. A capacity needs survey, designed for the project and circulated in the region a few months prior, had revealed ex situ conservation as one of the major themes that SEABG Network members were most interested to learn about.

Two speakers were featured during the session. The first was Dr. Lerma Maldia of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems (MCME) in the Philippines, who discussed the basics of genetic diversity, related national policies, and examples of projects exploring population genetics for various tree species. The second speaker was Dr. Kevin Kit Siong Ng of the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), who discussed applications of genetics and genomics approaches in conservation management and combating illegal timber trade, among other topics.

Around 70 participants attended the technical talk, with the open forum after both presentations reflecting possible topics and avenues for collaboration, as well as challenges in mainstreaming conservation genetics.